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Illustrations and Biographical Sketches 



OF ITS 



PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS. 



OAKLAND, CAL. 

THOMPSON & WEST. 

1882. 



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13 •'W 



Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1SS2, by 

THOMPSON k WKST, 

In the OtRce, of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, T). C 






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PACIFIC PRESS n-m,ISHING HOUSE, 

PRINTERS, 

STEKKOTYPK.RS, AND BINDERS. 

12111 AND I'ASTRO STREETS, OAKLAND, CAL. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Introduction. _ 9 — 10 

CHAPTEK 1. 

Scanty Kiiowleilge of the Pacific Coast Fifty Years Since — Story 
of "Sergas," by Esplandin — Titles to Immense Regions 
Conferred by tlie Pope — Expeditions for Discovery and 
Settlement — Sir Francis Drake's Operations — Expeditions 
Overland — Marvelous Stories of a Big Caflon — Expedition 
of Father Escalante 11—12 

Cll A PTEK 1 I. 

BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 

Lieutenant Whipple's Expedition — Lieutenant Ives' Expedi- 
tion — First Attempt to Explore the Canon — Land Party 
Organized — One Sight of the River — First Exploration — 
Unwilling Venture — Consider the Situation — Death of One 
of the Parties — Three Months in the Canon — Ai-rival at 
Fort Colville — Exploration Made Under the Direction of 
the Smithsonian Institute — Indescribable Character of the 
Stream — Loss of Boats and Provisions — Death of a Portion 
of the Party — Emergence of the Survivors — Geology and 
Climate 12 — 17 

CHAPTEIl III. 

The Exiles of Loreto — ]''ather Tierra's Methods of Conversion — 
Death of Father Tierra — Arrest of the Jesuits — Midnight 
Parting — Permanent Occupation of California — Missions in 
Charge of Francisco Friars — Character of Father Junipero 
— Exploring Expeditions — Origin of the name of the Bay 
— Mission Dolores — Death of Father Junipero 17 — 20 

CHAPTER I V. 

THE MISSIONS OF ST. FRANCIS 

Their Moral and Political Aspect — Domestic Economy — The Es- 
tablishments Described — Secular and Religious Occupations 
of the Neophytes — Wealth and Productions — Liberation 
and Dispersion of the Indians — Final Decay 20 — 23 

CHAPTER V. 

DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS. 

Results of Mexican Rule — Confiscation of the Pious Fund — 
Revolution Begun — Events of the Colonial Rebellion — The 
Americans Appear and Settle Things — Annexation at Last. 
23—24 



CHAPTER VI. 

PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE. 

Extent of the Mission Lands — Varieties of Product — Agricul- 
tural Implements and Means of Working — A Primitive 
Mill — Immense Herds and Value of Cattle — The First 
Native Shop 24—26 

CHAPTER VII. 

Sir Francis Drake's Discoveries — The Fabulous Straits of 
Auian — Arctic Weather in June — Russian Invasion — 
Native Animals— Various facts and Events 26 — 29 



CHAPTER VJll. 
THE AMERICAN CONQUEST. 

Fremont and the Bear Flag — Rise and Progress of the Kevolu- 
tion — Commodores Sloat, Stockton, and Shubrick — Castro 
and Flores Driven out — Treaty of Peace — Stockton and 
Kearney Quarrel — Fremont Arrested, etc 29 — 31 

CHAPTER IX. 

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY FROM THE TIME CAPT. C. 

M. WEBER FIRST SA"W IT IN NOVEMBER, 

1841, UNTIL THE CLOSE OF 1847. 

BY FR.VNK T. GILBERT. 

Captain C. M. Webor — Expedition to California, 1841 — Names 
of the Party — Sutter s Fort — Hoza Ha-soos — San Jose — 
French Camp or Weber Grant — Revolutionary Designs of 
the Foreigners — Treaty lietween Weber and Ha-soos — How 
it was observed by Ha-soos — Fremont's Expedition, 1844 — 
David Kelsey — Thomas Lindsay — Policy of the Foreigners 
— Weber and Micheltorena at San Jose — John A. Sutter 
aids Mieheltorena — A Revolutionary Document — The "Bear 
Flag" — Attempt to Settle the Grant, 1840 — Isbel Brothers 
and Other Early Settlers — Twins, Second ChiUlren born in 
Valley, 1847— End of Stanislaus City— First Marriage, 1847 
— Village of "Tuleburg" — William Gann, First Child born 
in 1847— Wild Horse Scheme— Resume .SI— 39 

CHAPTER X. 

BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 

His Nativity — Migration to the American West — Arrival in 
Californi.i — Foundation of Sutter's Fort — Prosperity and 
Wealth of the Colony — Decline and Ultimate Ruin — Re- 
tirement to Hock Farm — Extract from Sutter's Diary 
39—46 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE KING'S ORPHAN. 

His Observations in the Sacramento Valley in 1843 — Indications 
of Gold — Life at Sutter's Fort — Indian Gourmands — Won- 
derful Fertility of the Land 40 — 47 

CHAPTER XII. 

SUTTER'S FORT IN 1846. 

Aspect of Sacramento Valley — Sinclair's Ranch — A Lady Pio- 
neer — Captain Sutter at Home — The Fort Described — Condi- 
tion and Occupation of the Indians — Farm Products and 
Prices — Dinner with the Pioneer — New Helvetia. .47 — 49 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY. 

Scene of the Tragedy — Organization and Composition of the 
I'arty — Election of George Donner as Captain — Hastings' 
Cut-ofif — Ascent of the Mountains — Arrival at Donner Lake 
— Snow-storms — Construction of Cabins — "Forlorn Hope 
Party" — Captain Reasin P. Tucker's Relief Party — James 
F. Reed's Relief Party — " Starved Camp " — Third Relief 
Party — Heroism and Devotion of Mrs. George Donner — 
Fourth Relief Party— The Survivors 49—51 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

Early Reports and Discoveries — Marshall's Great Discovery at 
Sutter's Mill — His Account of the Event — Views o£ the 
Newspapers of that Time — Political and Social Revolu- 
tion— Great Rush to the Mines — Results — General Sutter's 
Account of the Gold Discovery — Building of Saw-mill. 51—58 



CHAPTEK XV. 

EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 

Mountains Unexplored by the Spaniards — Tlie Trappers — Fre- 
mont's Passage of the Mountains in 1844 — Battles with the 
Snow — The Indian's ^Va^ning — A (ilimpse of the Valley — 
Subsisting on Horse Flesh — Arrival at Sutter's Fort — Early 
Settlements — An Immigrant Party of 1844— Captain Truckee 
— Truckee River — Alone on the Summit — Death of Captain 
Truckee — Immigrants in 184(5 — Discovery of Gold on the 
Yuba 58 — G5 



C H A P T E li X\ 1 . 

EARLY MINING HISTORY. 

Pre- American Gold Discoveries — Spread of the Gold Discovery — 
Beale's Expedition to Washington — Great Excitement in 
New York — First Mining in Placer County — Claude Chana 
in Auburn Ravine — Rich Dry Diggings, Auburn — Progress 
of the Excitement — Exploring the Rivers — Mines in tlie 
Winter of 1849-50 — Adventures of Pioneers — Murderer's 
Bar — Buckner's Bar — Pioneer Mining Experiences — The 
"Glorious Days" of 184!) — Mining in 1850 — A Mining 
Claim — tirand Fluming Enterprise — A Model Saw-mill — 
Doctors, Lawyers, and Divines Mining— The Grand Finale — 
Marshal Prospecting in Placer — Ohio Prospectors — A 
Ghastly Discovery — In Memory — "Yankee Jim" — A 
Primal Forest Scene — Occupants of the Canons — Finding 
Yankee Jim — Journal of a Pioneer — Soldiers and Prospectors 
in 1849— Prices of 1849- Prices in Auburn in 1849... 65— 81 



CHAPTEK XVII. 

EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA. 

Preparations for Emigration — The Routes to California — The 
Pacific Mail Steamship Company — Arrivals at San Fran- 
ci CO in 1849 — The Expectant Argonaut — On the Isthmus — 
A lesson in Maritime Law — Sailing to San Francisco — 
Crossing the Plains — An Overland Journal — Population at 
the Close of 1849 — Domestic Habits of the Pioneers — The 
Miner's Cabin — Housekeeping and Cooking — Thrifty Char- 
acters — Meanness and its Reward — First Duel in Placer — A 
Homicide 81—89 



CHAPTEK X \' 1 1 1 . 

ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT. 

le Government Before the Conquest — Colonial Ciovernors of 
California — The Government A J lnte7-im—'£\\e Military 
Governors of California — Calling a Constitutional Conven- 
tion — Meeting of the Convention — Delegates from Sacra- 
mento District — First State Election — Organization of Coun- 
ties — Sutter County — Story of a Navigable Stream — Elec- 
- tion of County Officers — The First Session of Court — The 
Court House at Oro — Election for County Seat — Story by 
Judge Keyser — Permanent Homes Anfiear — The Govern- 
mental Organization ^^ 89 — 95 



CHAPTEK XIX.^ 

ORGANIZATION OF PLACER COUNTY- 

Increase of Population — The Foot-hill Towns — Placer County 
Boundaries — Placer and Sutter Dividing Line — Geography 
of the County — Election of Officers — Contesting the Elec- 
tion — Election of Legislative Officers — Attempt to Divide 
the County — Opposition Aroused — Dutcli B'lat Opposition — 
The Washington County Advocates- — Meeting at Y'ankee 
Jim's — Convention at Wisconsin Hill — The Boundary Line — 
A Bear River Growl — Revival of the Washington County 
Scheme — Granite County — Douner County 95 — 100 



CHAPTEK XX. 

POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 

Composition of Parties — How to Tax the Mines — Organization 
of Placer County — Abram Bronk — Campiign of 1852 — 
Patrick Canney — Campaign of 1853 — Political Duels — The 
Slavery Question in California — Campaign of 1854 — A 
Stormy State C'onvention — Convention.? and Nominations — 
First and only Whig Administration — Campaign of 1855 — 
Native Americans, or "Know-Nothings" — Efforts to Elect 
a Senator — Campaign of 1856 — The Republicans — Sketches 
of Candidates — W. W. Carperton — Samuel B. Wyman — A. 
P. K. Safford — James O'Neil — Charles King — Philip Stoner 
— Philip W. Thomas — J. W. Spann — Eugene A. Phelps — 
James M. (iaunt — Hudson M. House — PercivulC. Millette — 
Election of Senators — Triumph of Broderick — Acts for 
Placer 100—113 



C 11 A P T E K X X 1 . 

POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 

Campaign of 1857 — The Democracy United — Democratic Com- 
binations — Contempt for the Rejjublicans — Campaign of 1858 
Douglas Democrats — Conventions Held — Republicans and — 
Douglas Democrats Combine — Eleventh Judicial District — 
The Election — A Portentous Omen — The Legislature — Cam- 
paign of 1859 — Horace Greeley — Broderick and Terry Duel 
— M. S. Latham Elected Senator — Legislation for Placer — 
V James Anderson — Campaign of 1860 — Threatening Aspect 
of Parties — The Election — Lincoln the President — James A. 
McDougall .Senator — A Stormy Session — The Rebellion — 
Campaign of 1861 — Success of the Republicans — Campaign 
of 1862 — Three Parties in the Field — Abolition of Slavery — 
Constitutional Amendments Adopted — Campaign of 1863 — 
Democratic Song — " Ltmg Hairs" and "Short Hairs" 
United — Democrats United — Judicial Election — Placer 
County Matter.s — Campaign of 1864 — Presidential Nomina- 
tions—The Elccti.ui 113—126 



CHAPTEK X X 1 1 . 
POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 

(CONTINUED.) 

Campaign of 1865 — Death of Lincoln — Split in the Republican 
Party — Judicial Election — The Legislature — Registry Law 
— Campaign of 1867 — Political Changes — Meeting of Con- 
ventions — The Election — Judicial Election — The Legisla- 
ture — Eugene Casserly Senator — Presidential Campaign of 
1868 — Republican Victory — Campaign of 1869 — Negro Suf- 
frage — The Election — Judicial Election — The Legislature — 
Edgar M. Banvard — Campaign of 1871 — The Election — Judi- 
cial Election, 1871 — The Legislature — Sargent Senator — 
Dunnam's Election — Campaign of 1872 — Grant and Gree- 
ley — Que.stions at Issue — The Election — Campaign of 1873 
— "Dolly Vardens " — The Election — Judicial Election — The 
Legislature — Senators Elected — Campaign of 1875 — Com- 
plicated Parties — The Election — Judicial Election, 1875 — 
The Legislature — The Debris Question — William M. 
Crutcher -Campaign of 1876 — Centennial Y'ear — Presi- 
dential Election, 1876 126—135 



CHAPTER XXI 11. 
POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 

(CONTINUED.) 

Campaign of 1877— Workingmen's Party — The Election of 1877 
— Judicial Election — Constitutional Convention — .James T. 
P'arley Senator — Campaign of 1878 — Campaign of 1879 — 
Constitution Adopted — Political Campaign — The Election — 
State Officers — Frank D. Adams — Presidential Campaign of 
1880 — The Election — Population of Placer — John C. Boggs 
—John Gould Bisbee- -W. B. Lardner 135—142 



CHAPTEK XXIV. 

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 

Sutter County Debt — Financial Condition in 1852 — Treasurer's 
Report 1852 — Court House Ordered Built — Treasurer's 
Report 1853 — Taxable Property — Mining Investments — 
Assessments in 1853 — Treasurer's Report, December, 1853 — 
Common School Money — Hospital Fund — Defective Revenue 
Laws — Cirand Jury Report May, 1854 — CJrand Jury Report 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



August, 1854 — Difficulties in Collecting Taxes — 8am Astin's 
Joke — A Tax — Collecting Controversy — The Financial 
Power — Grand Jury Report November, 1S54 — Taxable 
Property — Comparative Statement — Financial Reports Feb- 
ruary, 1855 — Rate of Taxation — Supervisors' Statement — 
The Increasing Indebtedness — Supervisors' Statement iu 
September — Assessors' Report 1855 — Supervisors' Report 
1856 — Treasurers' Report 1856 — Unofficial Statement — 
Assessors' Report 1856 142 — 152 



CHAPTER XXV. 
FINANCIAL HISTORY. 

(CONTI.N'CED. ) 

Board of Supervisors February, 1857 — Itelief Measures — .\sses- 
sor's Report 1857 — Redemption of County Warrants — Finan- 
cial Report 1858 — Reducing the Debt — Assessor's Report 1858 
— Supervisors' Report February, ISSil — County Debt — Assess- 
ment Roll 1859 — Supervisors' Report 185i) — Reports and Taxes 
1860 — Finances in 1861 — Taxation in 1862 — The Finances in 
1863 — Fiuances in 1864 — Contest with the Railroad for Taxes 
— Tax Levy 1865 — Railroad Assessment — Legal Distances — 
Taxation in 1866 — Tax Levy iu 1867 — Central Pacific Contro- 
versy — Great Wealth of the Railroad Comi.iany — Assessment 
and Taxes in 1868 — Robbing the Treasurer — Taxation in 1869 — 
ICxorbitaiit Bills — Railroad Suits Compromised — Taxation in 
1870 — Sale of the Railroad Stock — Sources of Revenue — Taxes 
in 1871 —Proceedings against the Railroad Company — Propei ty 
ill 1871 — William Van Vactor 152 — 16 . 

CHAPTEK XXVI. 
FINANCIAL HISTORY, 

(CONTINUED.) 

Taxation in 1872 — Supreme Court Decision — Large Assessment 
— Railroad Assessment Contested — Property in 1873 — Joseph 
P. Hoge Engaged — Tlie Financial Problem in 1874 — Railroad 
Trouliles Contiuue — Valuations and Taxation — Financial Con- 
dition in 1875 — J. T. Ashley — Tlie Financial Condition in 1876 
— Compromise with Railroad Company — Sheriflf ex officio 
Collector — WiUard Loring Munson — Assessment and Taxation 
— Taxation in 1877 — Financial Condition iu 1878 — Property 
in 187.1 — Financial Report in 1879 — A. J. Soule — Financial 
Condition iu 1880— State Board of Equalization — Finances in 
1881 — Railroad Litigation — Receipts and Disbursements — 
Causes of Financial Embarrassment — Conclusion. Joseph 
Walkup 165—178 

CHAPTER XXV 11. 

MINING. 

Antiquity of Mining History — Ancient and Modern Mining — 
Gold — Silver — Copper — Iron — Coal — Australia — California — 
Nevada — Idria Quicksilver Mine — Character and Uses of Gold 
—Of Silver— Of Copper— Of Iron— Tin— Chromium— Tellu- 
rium 178 — 186 



CHAPTER X X V 1 11 . 

MINING. 

[continued.] 

Placer County Mines — Crude Implements in Early Mining — The 
Story of a Batea — Occurrence of the Gold — River Mining — 
Temporary Structures — Dry Diggings — Improvements in 
Mining — Long Tom — Mining Ditches — The Sluice— The 
Sluice Fork — Riffles — Grizzly and Under Currents — Sluice 
Pavements — Drift Mining — Hydraulic Mining — Hydraulic 
Mining at Gold Run — Cement Mills — Quartz Mining — Pio- 
neer Quartz Mining — Empire Mil! — Pioneer Mill — Union 
Mill— Placer Mill— Heath & Henderson Mill— May & Go's. 
Mill— Bay State Mill— Preston & Worrell's Jlill— Hensou 
& Go's. Mill — Tom Seymour's Mill — Silver Excitement. 
: 186—197 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

MINING LAWS. 

Quartz Miiier.-i' Conveution and Laws — Auburn Quartz Mining 
District — Laws of Auburn District — Recomniendatioa — 
Placer Mining Laws — Laws of Concert Hill District — State 
Convention of Miners — Proceedings i]f Miners' Convention 
— United States Mining Laws — Act of July 26, 1866 — Act 



of July 9, 1870— Act of May 11, 1872— Subsequent Amend- 
ments — Forms — Proof of Labor — Notice of Location — Rules 
and Decisions — Obtaining Patents for Mines — Adverse 
Cbiims^Agricultural or Mineral Land — Aliens — Cross 
Lodes— Tunnels 197—205 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MINING. 
[continued.] 

Mineralogical Education — Copper Discoveries and Excite- 
ment - Lone Star District — Auburn District — Cox's Dis- 
tiict — (xarden Bar District — On the "Rampage" for 
Copper — High Prices for Copper — New Copper Mining 
Towns — Singular Rock — Co))per Production — The Excite- 
ment Abating — Iron Mines — Iron Ore on Lovell's Ranch — 
Report of the Geological Survey— The Iron Mountain Com- 
pany — Iron Mining in Oregon — Practical Mining Com- 
me iced — The Blast Furnace — The Hot Blast — The Process 
of Smelting — Feeding the Furnace — The Scene at a Casting 
— The Ore and Ore Supply — The Fuel Supply — Executive 
Officers — The Force Employed — The Town of Hotaling — 
What of the Future?— The Holland Mine— Iron Product- 
Coal Mining — Potters' Clay — California Clay Manufactur- 
ing Company — Importance of Clay Deposits — Chromium 
Mining 205—214 



(J H A P T E R X XXI. 

MINING. 

[continued.] 

The Iowa Hill Divide — The Gravel Formation — Altitudes on the 
Divide — Mines on the Divide — Iowa Hill Mines — Independ- 
ence Hill Mines — Roach Hill Mines — Morning Star Hill 
Mines — Bird's Flat Mines — Strawberry Flat Mines — Succor 
Flat Mines — Wisconsin Hill Mines — Grizzly Flat Mines — 
Elizabeth Hill Mines — Stevens' Hill Mines — Main P.idge 
Mines — Canada Hill Mines — Quartz Mines — Near Succor 
Flat — Humbug Canon QuRrtz Mines — Canada Hill Quartz 
Mines— Mines Having Stamp Mills — Water Ditches — Shirt- 
tail Caiion Quartz Mines — Humbug Canon Mines Described 
— Canada Hill Quartz Mines Described — Report on Mines — 
Mountain Gate Mine — Hidden Treasure Mine — Michael 
Harold Power — V'arious Formations and Theories — A Hy- 
draulic Mine 214—225 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
MINING. 
[continued.] 

(Quartz Discoveries near Auburn — Rich Strikes — Pluck Rewarded 
by Luck— The Big Crevice -Dredging the River— The St. 
Patrick Mine — The Greene Mine — Rising Sun Mine — The 
Banker Mine — The Forest Hill Divide — Mining at Dutch 
Flat — Cedar Creek Mining Company — Mining Phrases — 
The "Glorious Days'' of 49— The Miner's Lament— The 
Miner's Progress 225 — 237 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

AGRICULTURE. 

Early Etforts at Cultivation— The Dry Valley Thought a 
Desert — A Change in the Scene — The Pioneer Fruit Planter 
— Claude Ghana — Pioneer Cultivators and Orchardists — 
Early Ranches in the Valley — Assessor's Report in 1855 — 
Assessor's Report in 1856 —Fruit Trees — Vines— Grain — Live 
Stock — Flouring-mills Required — Progress in 1857 — Ranch 
of J. R. Nickerson— Spring Valley Ranch— Assessor's Report 
in 1870— Successful Horticulturists— J. W. Hulbert — An 
Unusual Frost "'37 — 248 

CHAPTER XXXI Y. 

AGRICULTURE. 

[continued.] 

Orange Culture— M. Andrews— Foot-hill Fruits— Silk Culture- 
Works and Life of B. Bernhard — Productions of the Granite 
Hills— Cotton Culture— Alfalfa, or Chili Clover— Angora 
Goats — Agriculture in the Mountains— William N. Lee — 
Statistical Report for 1869— Statistics for 1875 248—257 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

l'l:,cer County Schools in 1S57 — Schools of Placer County — 
Office of County Superintendent — Salary of County Super- 
intendent — Miscellaneous Statistics — Teachers' Institute — 
Alta District — Auburn District — Bath District— Blue Canon 
District — Butcher Ranch District — Central District — Chris- 
tian Valley District — Clipper Cap District — Colfax District 
--Consolidated District — Coon Creek District — Damascus 
District— Danevillo District— Dry Creek District — Dutch 
Flat District — Emigrant Gap District — Excelsior District — 
Fair View District — Forest Hill District— Franklin Dis- 
trict—Gold Hill District— Gold Run District— Iowa Hill 
District— Lincoln District — Lone Star District — Michigan 
Bluff District — Mount Pleasant District — Mount Vernon 
District— Xew England Mills District — Newcastle District 
— Ophir District— Penryn District — Rock Creek District — 
Rocklin District— Rosevilk- District — Sheridan District— 
Sprinjr Garden District — Sunny South District — Todd's 
Valley District — Union District — Valley View District — 
Van Trees District — Lapsed Districts— Statistical Tables 
—0. F. Seavey -257—267 

CEAPTE R XXXVI. 

RAILROADS. 

Traveling in "Old Times" — Xew York to P.oston in Four Days 
— Anecdote of Stephenson — Early Traveling in California — 
Strange Terminus to a Railroad — First Locomotive in America 
— A Historical Railroad Excursion — First California Rail- 
roads — Railroad Extension — California Central Railroad — 
Auburn Branch Railroad — Sacramento, Placer and Nevada 
Railroad — Transcontinental Railroad Projected — Efforts of 
Theodore D. Judah — Central Pacific Railroad Company — Rail- 
road Bill Passed Congress — The Work Commenced — Placer 
County a Stockholder — Address to the People— The Election 
Contest — Progress of the Road — The First Surprise— Great 
Energy in the Work — Triumph of Engineering and Finance — 
Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railway — .lohu B. Whitcomb. 
-267—282 

C H A P T E K X X X \' 1 1 . 

■WAGON ROADS OF PLACER COUNTY. 

Roads in 1849 — First Wagon in Yankee Jim's — Emigrant Roads 
— Emigrant Road of 1852 — Surveys in 1855— Placer County 
Emigrant Road — Biographical Sketch of Captain Thomas 
A. Young — Road Convention at Y'ankee .Jim's — List of 
Delegates — Speeches Delivered — Resolutions Offered — Last 
of the Emigrant Road Scheme — Placer County and Washoe 
Turnpike — Toll-roads, Ferries, and Bridges — Bear River 
Bridge — Auburn Ravine Turnpike — Mineral Bar Bridge and 
Road — Other Toll- roads Before 1860 — Auburn and Yankee 
Jim's Turnpike — Lyon's Bridge and Road — Lake Pass 
(Dutch Flat) Wagon Road — Dutch Flat and Donner Lake 
Wagon Road — Pacific Turnpike — Colfax and Forest Hill 
Toll-road — Auburn and Forest Hill Turnpike — John 
Calsou •282--291 

CHAPTEi: XX XV II I. 

JOURNALISM. 

Reading for the Pioneers — Eastern Newspapers for California — 
The Placer Herald— Tahh Mitchell, J. A. Filcher— Placer 
Democrat — Death of John Shannon — The Auburn W/iig - 
The Placer Press— Biram R. Hawkins— The Iowa Hill .Veuv 
— Mountain Courier — Placer Courier — Philip Lynch — Iowa 
Hill Patriot — Dutch Flat iJui/ulrer — Democratic Signal — A 
Deplorable Tragedy — The Union Advocate — The Stars ana 
Stripes — Placer Weekly A ryu.'' — James B. McQuillan — T. Glan- 
cey — Dutch Flat Forutn — Placer Times — Colfax Enterprise 
— Mountain Edio — Roseville Farmer — The Advance — The 
CiiucdsmH— Tahoe Tattler— Placer Times -291—301 

CHAPTEE XXXIX. 

SOCIETIES. 

The Order of Freemasonry — Speculative Freemasonry — Masonry 
on Pacific Coast — Remarkable Masonic Display —Grand Lodge 
of California — Masonry in Placer County — Em-eka Lodge, 
No. 16— Gold Hill Lodge, No. 72— Michigan City Lodge, No. 
47 — lllinoistowu Lodge, No. 51 — Rising Star Lodge, No. 83 
— Wisconsin Hill Lodge, No. 74 — Clay Lodge, No. 101 — 
Ionic Lodge, No. 121 — Granite Lodge, No. -22-2 — Tyre Lodge, 
No. 238— Penryn Lodge, No. 258—0. W. Hollenbeck— Royal 
Ai'ch Masons — Libanue Chapter, No. 17 — Olive Chapter, No. 



23— Delta Chapter, No. 27— Siloam Chapter, No. 37— Capt. 
Melvin S. Gardner — Order of the Eastern Star — Odd Fellow- 
ship in California — Odd Fellowship in Placer County — 
Auburn Lodge, No. 7 — Mountain Lodge, No. 14 — Placer 
Lodge, No. 38 — Washington Lodge, No. 40 — Minerva Lodge, 
No. 55 — Covenant Lodge, No. 73 — Olive Lodge, No. 81 — 
Valley Lodge, No. 107— Colfax Lodge, No. 13-2— Gold Run 
Lodge, No. 139— Roseville Lodge, No. 20.3— Order of Knights 
of Pythias — Washington Lodge, No. 1 — Sons of Temperance 
— Independent Order of Good Templars — Improved Order of 
Red Men — Patrons of Husbandry — Ancient Order of United 
Workmen — War Veterans. 301 — 315 

CHAPTEK XL. 

CHURCH, BENCH, AND BAR. 

An Eloquent Sermon — A Financial Sermon — Church Organiza- 
tion — Mormonism in Auburn — James E. Hale — The Bench 
and Bar — The Judiciary — District .Judges — Superior Judge 
— County Judges — District Attorneys — Attorneys Regis- 
tered in Plactr County— W. H. Bullock— C. A. Tuttle. 
315—323 

CHAPTEK XL I. 

THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 

The Rarity of Crime — The first Highway Robbery — Execution 
of Robert Scott — Scott's Last Words — Execution of John- 
son at Iowa Hill — A Law-maker Law-breaking — .James 
Freelaud Hanged — Execution of .Joseph Bradley — Murder 
and Lynching at Auburn — Robbery and Battle — "Rattle- 
snake Dick" — Dick Changes liis Location — The Robber 
Gang — Robbery of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express — Record 
of (4eorge Skinner — Dick and a New Gang —Dick's Hatred 
of John C. Boggs — Escape from Jail — Robberies by the 
Gang— Phillips, \if the Mountaineer House — Mysterious 
Death of a Prisoner — Death of " Rattlesnake Dick " — An 
Affecting Letter — The Last of the Tragedy — Chinamen 
Slaughter a Family — The Chinese Expelled from Rockliii — 
Expedition After Ah Sam — Discovery and Death of the 
Murderer — Murder by Indians — Wrecking a Railroad 
Train — Singular Reve ation of Murder — A Tragic End — 
Homicides and Robberies 323 — 345 

CHAPTEK X L I I . 

MILITARY. 

First Military Organization — The Miners' Guard — State Militia 
—Placer Rifles— The War of the Rebellion— "I Wish I 
Was in Dixie's Land " — First Company for the War — Camp 
Siget — Defending Colonel Forman — Movements of the Vol- 
unteers — Murders by Secessionists — End of the War — 
Grand Army of the Republic 345 — 350 

CHAPTEK XLUl. 

DESTROYED BY" FIRE. 

Ophir Burned — Sundry Fires — tireat Fire in Auburn — Iowa Hill 
Burned — Michigan Bluff Destroyed — Fires again in Auburn 
— Iowa Hill again Burned — Dwelling Burned — Fire at 
Rattlesnake — Destructive Conflagrations in Auburn — Flour- 
ing-mill Burned — Buiklings Burned — Hotels Burned at 
Rocklin— Fire at Auburn Depot— More Fires — Empire Mill 
Burned — Incendiary Fire in Aulmrn — Dwellings Burned — 
Hoisting Works Burned — Saw-mill and Lumber Destroyed 
— Fire at Forest Hill — Destructive Fire at Dutch Flat — 
Round House and Locomotives Burned — Colfax in Ashes — 
Residence of J. C. Bo^gs Burned — Hotel Burned — Incendi- 
arism —Burning at Lincoln— Barn and Horses Burned — 
Serious Lnss at Lincoln — Residence Destroyed — The Aggre- 
gate Losses — Later fires in Auburn 350—355 

C HAP TEE XLl V. 

REMINISCENCES OF ILLINOISTO'WN. 

Site of lllinoistowu — Alder Grove — Mining on the River— The 
Pioneer Settlers — Landing at Sacramento — First Prospect- 
ing Experience — -The Mining Lesson Learned — Generosity 
and Gratitude — Seeking Shelter — Indians — Dastardly R ib- 
bery and Bloodless Battle — Pursuit of the Indians — First 
Military Company Organized — Campaign against the Sav- 
ages — A Frontier Picture — The Camp Receives its Name — 
The Pioneer Family — First Fruit Culture — Chivalrous Pio- 
neers — Houses of Entertainment — Rescued from the Snow 
—An Exhausted Traveler— In the Spring of 18.50- Wing 
Dams in the River —Result of Mining — Early Physical Fea- 
tures — Pike County Represented 355 — 364 



TABLE OF CONTENTS—ILLUSTRATIONS. 



CHAPTEE XLV. 

TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 

Alta — Antelope — Applegate — Auburn — Great Fires — List of 
Losses — lucorpuratiou of Auburn — A Kailroad Town — Fare 
Reduced — A Business View — Old Settlers — Water Supply- 
Great Freshet — William Ambrose — A. F. Boardman — James 
Borland — Dr. J. R. Crandall — C. C. Crosby — Alexander 
Lipsett— D. W. Lubeck— T. M. Todd, M. D.— Antoinc 
Caiion — Barnes Bar — A Glimmer of the Great Rebellion — 
Barrett's Store— A Death Struggle— Bath 364—370 



CHAPTER XLVL 
TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 

[CONTINnED.] 

Bogus Thunder — Brushy Canon — Butcher Ranch — Cisco — Colfax 
— Darius V. Norton— Clipper Gap — Damascus— Deadwood — 
— Dutch Flat — Henry A. Frost — Herman R. Hudepohl — 
Frytown — Duncan Caiion — Fort Trojan — James W. Chinn 
— Gray Horse Caiion — Humbug Canon — Johnson's Ranch 
— Manzanita Grove — Newtown — Grizzly Flat — Lincoln — 
Peter Ahart — Isaac Stonecipher — Sheridan — Rogers' Shed — 
Shirt-tail Canon — Sunny South — Emigrant Gap — Forest 
V. Hill— J. G. Garrison— William Rea— Geld Hill— Gold Run 



—Iowa Hill— Dr. Oliver H. Petterson— Michigan Bluff- 
Newcastle— Ophir—Penryn— Griffith Griffith— Placer County 
Granite — Elisha Grant— Rocklin — W. Dana Perkins— Rose- 
ville— Todd's Valley— First Shaft in Todd's Valley— Alfred 
A. Pond — Nicolas Quirolo — Wisconsin Hill — Yankee Jim's. 
376—400 



CHAPTER XL VII. 

RIVER BARS, VALLEYS, LAKES, ANIMALS, ETC. 

The Old River Bars— Old Time Improvements— The Rivers in 
their Purity — Along the Southern Boundary — The Hunter's 
Home — Tahoe City — Lake Tahoe — Lake Tahoe's Name — The 
Georgetown Snag — Mountain Lakes — Mountain Peaks — 
Mountain Valleys — Squaw Valley — French Meadows — 
Picayune Valley — Soda Springs Valley — American Valley — 
Animals — An Amphibious Mouse — Unclassified Big Trees 
— Mining on Bear River in 1849 400—408 

CHAPTER XL VII L 
OBITUARIES OF PIONEERS. 

Obituaries of Pioneers 408 — 412 

Patrons Directory. . . 412 — 416 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Ahart, Peter, Residence Facing Page 40 

Ambrose, Wm, •• . _ • •336 

Ashley, J. T. " _ ■• •■ 168 

Auburii Hotel, Auburn •' " 280 

Baker Divide Min'g Co., Mich. Bluff '• " 184 

Banvard's Hotel. Alta.- " " 364 

Bear Valley Mill, Dutch Flat. ^ . " "369 

Bernhard, B, Residence .. " " 248 

Boardman, A. F. •■ . « "344 

Borland's Hotel, Auburn.. . " " 272 

Breece, A, Residence " " 372 

California Iron Company, Hotaling. ■" " 208 

Carlson, John. Residence " " 288 

Central Hotel, Forest Hill . " " 56 

Chinn, J. W., Residence " " 164 

Crosby, C. C, Empire Stable, " " 312 

Crutcher, W. M, Residence ... " " 136 

Culver, E. W., •• . " "244 

Empire Livery Stable, Auburn " " 312 

Frost. H. A, Residence « " 380 

Gardner. Mrs. A. E. A., Residence. " " 232 

Garrison, J. G. ■• . '• " 188 

Gates, A. H. ■■ . " " 336 

Gould, J. G. ■ . "- '• 200 

Grant, E., Hotel, Penryn " " 248 

Griffith, G., Store and Residence. . . " " 400 

Griffith Granite Works, Penryn " " 400 

Hidden Treasure Mine. Sunnj' South " " 224 

Hillhouse, W. H., Residence " " 200 



Hoosier Con. Min. Claim, Todd's Val. Facing Page 48 

Hosmer, T. N., Residence. . •■ ■■ 104 

Hudepohl, H. R., •■ •- •■ 380 

Hulbert. J. W., ■• .. •' •• 24 

Jacobs. J. M., ■■ .... " ■• 104 

Kearsarge Mill, Dutch Flat.. ■ ■■ 368 

Lee, W. N., Residence. - '■ •• 256 

Lewis, G. C, Residence. ■• '= 180 

Lubeck, D. W., Store and Residence ■• 312 

Muir Tunnel.. ■ • 184 

Norton, D. V,, Toll-house and Res. ■■ 360 

Orleans Hotel, Auburn 152 

Placer County Court House, Auburn ■■ Title page 

Pond, A, A., Residence . '• Page 384 

Pond A. A., <!i». Co., Store ■• ■• 384 

Putnam House, Auburn . ■ •■ 9 

Quirolo, Nicolas, Store, Todd's Val. ■' 408 

Rea. Wm., Cen. Hotel, Forest Hill. • .56 

Reamer, G. W., Residence ■ 120 

Reeves, Joshua, " •• •• 240 

Spear, D. W., " . •■ 88 

Stevens, S. M., Drug Store ■• 328 

Stevens, S. M., Residence ■ ■■ 328 

Stephens, T. E., •• . •■ 352 

Van Vactor, Wm., " •■ 376 

Weske Con. Mining Cos Tunnel . ■• 185 

Whitcomb, J. B., Residence.. •■ 240 

White, J. H., " ■ •• 72 

Woodward, John, •' . ' •■ 244 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES— PORTRAITS. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 



Adams, Frank D^ 

Ahart, Peter. . 

Ambrose, William. 
Andrews, Moses. 

Ashley J. F 

Banvard, E. M 

Bernhard, B 

Bisbee, J. G.. . . 

Boardman, A. F 

Boggs, J. C . . . 

Borland, Jamo? . . 

Bullock. W.H 

Carlson, John 

Chinn, Jas. W 

Crandall, Dr. J. R. 
Crosby, C. C. ... 
Crntcher, VN^m.M.. 

Filcher, J.A . 

Frost, H. A.:\. .- 
Garrison, J. G. . . . 

Grant, Elisha 

Griffith, G 

Hale, James E 

Hollenbeck, O. W. 
Hosmer, Thos N . . 



Page. 

.138 

386 

.369 

.249 

168 

_157 

.252 

.140 

.369 

.139 

.370 

.321 

.291 

.382 

.370 

.371 

.134 

.295 

.381 

.389 

..396 

..395 

..317 

..307 

..375 



Hudepobl. H.R . 

Hulbert, J. W 

Lardner, W. B. 

Lee, W. N 

Lipsett, Alex 

Lubeck, D. W ... 

Mitchell, Tabb 

Munson, W. L 

Norton, D.V 

Perkins, W. Dana. 

Patterson, Dr. Oliver H. 

Pond, A. A- 

Qiiirolo. Nicolas 

Eea, Wm 

Reamer, Geo. W 

Seavey, O. F 

Smith, John Julius. . . . _ 

Soule, A. J 

Starbuck, J. B. 

Stephens, T. E .. 

Stonecipher. Isaac. . . 

Todd, T. M., M. D 

Tuttle, Chas. A. 

Van Vactor, Wm . . . . 
Walkup, Joseph 



Page 
.381 

.248 
.141 
.256 
.371 
-372 

294 
.169 

377 
.397 
.392 
.399 

399 
.390 
.196 
.267 
.372 

170 
.373 

372 
.386 
.373 
.322 
.165 
.174 



PORTRAITS. 



Adams, F. D 

Andrews, Moses. 

Ashley, J. T 

Banvard, E. M.. 

Bisbee, J. G 

Breece, A.. . . 
Breece. Mrs. A 
Crandall, J. R. . . 

Filcher, J. A 

Gardner, M.S. . 
Garrison, J. G. . . . 
Garrison, Mi"s. J. G 
Griffith, G 



Facing Page 128 

'^ 32 

» •■ 320 

'• 160 

" 192 

" 372 

:i " 372 
16 

" 296 

" 216 

- 188 

" 188 

^^ 396 



Hale,J. E._ Facing Page 96 

Hollenbeck, O.W.. ... " " 304 

Lardner, W. B " ■' 144 

Lee, W.N " " 256 

Lee, Mrs. W.N " '■ 256 

Munson, W. L.._. " " 112 

Petterson, O. H. " " 392 

Seavey, O. F .. " " 264 

Soule, A. J .. " " 80 

Stephens, T. E " " 352 

Stephens, Mrs. T. E " " 352 

Todd, T. M " ■• 64 

Walkup, Joseph " " 176 



II 



HISTORY 

—OF— 

PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



MYRON ANGEL 




INTRODUCTION. 

herewith inti'oduce to our patrons 
and the public the Jllustrated His- 
tory of Placer County. Since the 
occupation of the country by Amer- 
icans, following the discovery of 
gold. Placer has borne such an im- 
portant part in the aft'airs, develop- 
ment and progress of the State that 
she may be classed as the most dis- 
tinctive representative county. By 
her position, midway in the tier of 
counties, rising like a grand wall 
into the snowy regions of the sky 
along our eastern border, she presents the con- 
figuration of the keystone to an arch reared by 
the Almighty, binding the mountain to the plain, 
the lowlands of the Sacramento Valley to the 
plateau of Nevada, the only county of the series 
having such connection and embracing so many 
features. Placer County is a representative from the 
extended section of territory occupied, including 
many soils, climates and productions ; from the 
wealth and difterent character of her mines; from 
being the home of many pioneers, who, in lofty 
spirit, enterprise, statesmanship, and progress, have 
moulded the policy, advanced the prosperity, and 
made the most indellible impress upon all matters of 
the State; from her fruits of every zone; from her 
geology, mineralogy, and topography; from her 
broad semi-tropic plains and her snow-crowned 
peaks; from her forest- covered ridges and deep 
cafions; from her lovely lakes and gold -bedded 



rivers; from her hundreds of miles of mining canals 
her deep explorations of the ancient glacial channels; 
her bold system of wagon roads, and from her long 
lines of railroads, she stands as the most observed of 
the counties of California; the one presenting the 
most salient features for delineation ; the one whose 
history is the most comprehensive and important. 

Her history could not be written without including 
many acts, incidents and descriptions belonging to 
other sections of or pertaining to the State, either 
having a distant or close connection, or constituting 
a basis upon which to build. In the following pages 
such divergence from the direct history of Placer 
will be observed, but adding to its completeness. 
Preceding page sixty-five is reference to the pre- 
American history of California, to the gold discov- 
ery, to immigration, routes of travel, and physical 
features of a genei-al character, applicable to the 
State; and in the political history, the affairs and 
politicians of the State and Nation are introduced, 
all forming so close a connection as with difiiculty to 
segregate. The aim and design of the publishers and 
writers have been to make a concise, comprehensive, 
exact, and complete history of Placer County, with 
her connection with the State, setting forth the 
varied and unparalled resources; the progress and 
prosperity; and such sketches of the people and of 
individual property as will record for future thought 
and observation the occupation, social condition, 
manners, and life of the past and present. We have 
studied to present the dry facts of history in an 
attractive manner, with biographical sketches and 
portraits of many prominent men, views of many of 
the pretty homes throughout the county, illustrating 



10 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



the refinement of the people, the scenery and 
resources. We hope we have been successful in 
accomplishing these designs. 

The literary work has been under the charge of 
Myron Angel, assisted by M. D. Fairchild; both 
pioneers of 1849; both early residents of Placer 
County; both connected with the press through many 
years of editorial life, and familiar with the region 
and the subjects of which they have written. Mr. 
Fairchild was one of the settlers of lllinoistown in 
1849, and there passed that eventful and stormy 
winter, fighting the predatory savages and seeking 
out and rescuing people caught in the unexpected 
snows, instances of which he has impersonally 
related. For several years he was a resident of the 
county; the discoverer of Eich Bar on the North 
Fork of the American, where he washed out tens of 
thousands of dollars of the beautiful golden flakes, 
and with the exception of a very few years spent in 
other parts of the country. Placer, Nevada and El 
Dorado Counties have been his home. He is at 
present editor of the Oroville Mercury, in Butte 
County. 

The writings of others are credited in their places 
in the book. Many references to the Placer Herald 
will be observed. We have been fortunate in obtain- 
ing complete files of that paper, the oldest in the 
county and one of the oldest on the Pacific Coast, 
always an able journal and comprising in its thirty 
volumes through thirty years of publication, a con- 
temporaneous history of the State in general and of 
Placer County in particular. For these files we are 
indebted to the courtesy of W. Dana Perkins, Esq., 
of Eocklin; Isaac Stonecipher, Esq., of Lincoln, and 
J. A. Filcher, Esq., the publisher. To Mr. Stonecipher 
the public are under obligations for the care he has 
taken in the preservation of the first three volumes 
of the Herald, being, we believe, the only complete 
ones in existence; and to Mr. Perkins for his fore- 
sight and care in preserving the twenty-seven later 
volumes in full, and parts of the first three. The 
value of such a continuous series of papers can 
scarcely be estimated, and their value increases as 
the years pass by. A newspaper gives the facts of the 
day and the history of the time, an indisputable 
diary is very interesting while fresh, is regarded as 
useless rubbish in a week or a month, but a sacred 
relic when years have dimmed its color and mark its 
date in the faint memories of the past. Men's 
recollections differ, and few agree on the most 
important questions, but with the files of the old 
papers for reference, an umpire is found which fairly 
and correctly settles all disputes. 

To Mr. H. W. Hulbert, of Georgetown, El Dorado 
County, we are indebted for files of the Advance 
and other papers of Placer County; to Henry W. 
Fenton, Esq., editor and publisher of the Argus, 
for papers and courtesies; to O. F. Seavey, Esq., 
for a comprehensive article on the schools of the 
county; to Claude Chana. of Wheatland, Yuba 



County, for his account of the gold discovery in 
Auburn Ravine, and his first efforts in horticulture; 
to Charles A. Tuttle, Esq., of Oakland, for informa- 
tion on the bench and bar and other subjects; to John 
B. Hobson, M. E., of Iowa Hill, for his notes and 
the use of his map of the Iowa Hill Divide; and 
to all who have rendered assistance we return our 
thanks. 

To our patrons we express our sense of obligation 
for their liberal support of the work and the interest 
they have taken in having prepared a history and 
exposition of the beauties and resources of their 
county. Without their generous aid, no such book 
could have been published. In compliance with 
their desire we have made a book that will be both 
useful and ornamentiil. Every effort has been made 
to gather from every S9urce of information ebtaina- 
ble all the facts of history and statistics of produc- 
tion and progress. These are now collated and 
preserved, and will stand forever the basis of any 
future history that may be written. In this volume 
are preserved the records of events, of pioneers, of 
elections, of candidates and office-holders, of road 
and railroad building, and of all the material sub- 
jects that have agitated the public mind during the 
eventful period of the discovery of gold, the forma- 
tion of the Government, and to the present time. 
In this we have endeavored to do absolute justice, 
unbiassed by politics, self-interest or pre- conceived 
opinions. That we have extolled the wealth and 
resources of the county is because we have investi- 
gated them, and while some opinions and selections 
appear exaggerated to the pessimist and the casual 
observer, we believe in all we have said. In our 
remarks on the Central Pacific Railroad Company 
and its controversy with the people we express no 
opinion but that founded on facts and a clear sense 
of right. The facts are given and are incontro- 
vertible. 

Undoubtedly there are many imperfections in the 
work. Much more could be written of Placer, more 
events narrated, comments extended, men and local- 
ities noted which have been omitted, some thi-ough 
lack of space and time, some through accident, neg- 
lect or want of information, and perhaps something 
is published that were better left out. But we 
believe our book to be valuable as a history, attract- 
ive as an ornament, and fulfilling the purpose of our 
promise. 

In conclusion, we wish to refer with gratitude to 
the excellent work displayed in the publication, to 
the Pacific Press Publishing Company, of Oakland; 
to Louis H. Evarts, of Philadelphia, for wood 
engravings, and to J. L. Laplace, lithographer, of 
San Francisco. 

Among the publications of value which have 
rendered aid are the Directories of Placer County; 
one published in 1861 by Messrs. Steele, Bull, and 
Houston, and the other by the Argus Publishing 
Company, in 1875. 



EARLY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



11 



CHAPTER L 

Scanty Knowledge of the Pacific Coast Fifty Years Since — Story 
of "Sergas," by Esplandin —Titles to Immense Regions 
Conferred by the Pope — Expeditions for Discovery and 
Settlement — Sir Francis Drake's Operations — Expeditions 
Overland — Marvelous Stories of a Big Canon — Expedition 
of Father Esc-ilante. 

Those who studied geography forty or fifty j-ears 
since, recollect 'low little was known of the "Great 
West," "Le^is and Clarke's Expedition to the 
Rocky Mountains and Oregon," contained about all 
that was known of the Pacific coast; and hundreds 
of persons now living, remember that that portion 
of the map now marked California and Arizona, 
was occupied with a table of distances from Wash- 
ington to our larger cities. The Rocky Mountains 
were represented as a single range, running from 
the Isthmus of Darien to the North Pole. More 
I'acts concerning the Pacific slope were learned in 
the first fifty years after the discovery of the New 
World, than in the follovcing two hundred. The 
deserts of Arizona and the " Great Canon," shut 
off exploration and settlement from this direction, 
though rumors of a country rich in gold, had circu- 
lation among the hordes that overrun Mexico soon 
after its conquest by Cortez and his followers. On 
such rumors, was founded the story of " Sergas" by 
Esplandin, the son of Amadis of Gaul, which con- 
tained "the story of a country called California,- 
very near to the terrestrial paradise, which was 
peopled b}' black women without any men among 
them, because they were accustomed to live after 
the manner of the Amazons. They were of strong 
and hardened bodies, of ardent courage, and great 
force. The island was the strongest in the world, 
from its steep and rocky cliffs. Their arms were all 
of gold, and so were the caparisons of the wild 
horses they rode." 

At that time, the world was filled vvith rumors of 
wonderful discoveries, by land and by sea. Some, 
like De Soto, set off in quest of the "spring of eter- 
nal youth," which it was confidently asserted was 
just on the other side of a certain range of mount- 
ains. It was easier to believe in a land of gold, 
than in a spring of eternal youth. This exciting 
book, written to satisfy the literary market of that 
age, was universally read in Spain; and, it is highly 
probable, was partly the cause for the expedition 
which afterwards, under the charge of Hernando 
Grijalva, actually discovered " California very near 
to the Terrestrial Paradise;" so that it is probable 
that a dreamy old romancer in Seville, Spain, sug- 
gested the name of the country that was to upheave 
new continents in the commercial world. 

IMMENSE REGIONS GRANTED BY THE POPE. 

Cortez had achieved the conquest of Mexico with 
but a handful of men, in 1519; and nine years after 
returned to Spain, laden with the spoils of an empire 
larger and richer, and, perhaps, more civilized than 



Spain herself; also with accounts of countries still 
richer and larger, to the north-west of Mexico. He 
was received with distinguished honors by Charles 
v., and rewarded by many royal concessions, among 
which were the right to one-twelfth of all the 
precious metals ho could find, and a perpetual vice- 
royalty for himself and heirs, over all the countries 
he should discover. It must bo remembered that 
the Pope, in consideration of the dissemination of 
the "True Faith," had granted to the Emperor of 
Spain all lands that his subjects might discover; so 
the title seemed to ha fee simple in Cortez, who, from 
being a piratical, roving vagabond, bounded into 
royal honors. 

EXPEDITIONS OP DISCOVERT AND SETTLEMENT. 

Returning to Mexico, he immediately set about 
the expedition; but, delayed by the difliculty of 
building and fitting out ships on the western coast, 
he did not get oft' until 1535. Having landed on the 
lower peninsula of California, he found the country 
so barren and uninviting, that he abandoned the 
expedition, and returned to Mexico in 1537. On his 
return, he heard of the De Soto expedition, which, 
like all the other expeditions, had nearly, but not 
quite, reached the land whore arms, as well as trap- 
pings for horses, were made of pure gold. This led 
to the fitting out of another expedition in \'b\'l 
under Jose R. Cabrillo, who sailed northward as far 
as Cape Mendocino, which he named Cape Mendoza, 
in honor of his friend, the Viceroy of Mexico. Keep- 
ing within sight of the coast the greater part of the 
way, he discovered the Farallone Islands, also some 
of the more southern groups; but, like his predeces- 
sor, failed to see the future Golden Gate. In an 
English work printed in 1839, Mr. James Alexander 
Forbes states that two out of the three vessels, com- 
posing this expedition, with some twenty men, were 
lost in the Gulf of California, in consequence of a 
mutiny and a diflSculty with the natives, near La 
Paz. 

These expeditions were so unsatisfactory, that 
Cortez resolved upon exploring the coast himself. 
Three vessels were fitted out at Tehuantepec, he 
marching overland with a large body of soldiers, 
slaves, settlers, and priests. Cortez explored the 
Gulf of California, proved that California was not 
an island, but part of the main land. For some 
time the Gulf of California was known as the Sea ot 
Cortez. It was also called The Red Sea (El Mar 
Rojo), from having a reddish color from the wash 
of the Colorado river, which empties into the gulf 
at the head. Cortez returned to Acapuico, but con- 
tinued to employ others in the explorations, which 
were confined mostly to lands in the vicinity of the 
gulf. Several attempts were made to settle the 
land, but, as it was very barren and poor, the col- 
onies made little progress. The natives were desti- 
tute of moans and character, both sexes going nearly 
or quite naked. 



12 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



SIR KliANClS DRAKES OPERATIONS. 

Sir Francis Drake reached the Pacific ocean in 
1578, through the Straits of Magellan, thirty-six 
years after Cabrillo named the Cape of Mendocino, 
and, not having heard of the former expeditions, 
took possession of the whole country in the name of 
Queen Elizabeth. It has been claimed for him that 
he entered the Bay of San Francisco; but the lati- 
tude in which he located it (37° 59 5"), proves it to 
have been some miles north, at a place now called 
Drake's bay, though most of the old geographies 
give the pi-esent seaport as " The Bay of Sir Francis 
Drake." It is strange that, having much inter- 
course with the natives, he should have failed to 
discover the great harbor which was in sight from 
some of the surrounding hills. The real discovery 
of the Bay of San Francisco, was made by Portala, 
in an overland expedition. What a vision, when he 
stood on the top of some of the low ranges of mount- 
ains surrounding, and saw the rich valleys reposing 
in a perpetual Indian Summer, stretching to the 
northward sixty miles. Little did the Spaniard, or 
those who came after him, suppose that the rivers 
flowing into the bay ran over golden sands, or that 
the hills near the outlet would be covered by a city 
larger than any of the cities of magnificent Spain. 

It is now time to turn to the attempts to explore 
the country in other ways. 

EXPEDITION OVERLAND — MARVELOUS STORIES. 

The ill success attending the expeditions up the 
coast, induced explorations by land, especially as 
marvelous reports of rich walled cities in the far 
north, occasionally reached the capital of Mexico. 
In less than fifty years from the discovery of Amer- 
ica, soldiers and priests had explored the Colorado 
river for a considerable distance above its mouth. 
The stories of a gigantic people, walled towns, and 
impassable canons a mile or more in depth, were con- 
signed to the same fate as the stories of mermaids 
and other sea monsters. Cervantes in Spain, and 
Dean Swift in England, had poured unsparing ridi- 
cule on the fabulous stories and achievements of the 
age succeeding the discovery of America. Since the 
exploring expedition sent out by the United States, 
the accounts of the great Colorado river have been 
overhauled and read with avidity, and what was 
then deemed a pleasant after-dinner fiction of some 
bibulous priest, has proved to be substantially cor- 
rect, though the Mojaves, who, doubtless, are the 
persons described as giants, do not quite come up to 
their ai cestors of three hundred and fifty j'ears ago. 

As early as 1540 the Viceroy of New Spain, inter- 
ested in the stories of a San Franciscan monk who 
had seen some of the teriMtory, sent out an expedi- 
tion under the command of Vasquez de Coronado. 
When they struck the river, a party of twenty-five 
was detached and sent to the westward. They 
explored the river to the mouth, and from this point 
was sent the expedition which eventually succeeded 



in discovering the bay. Another of Coronado's 
captains, named Cardinas, reached the pueblos ol 
the Moquis, and from these towns made a visit, 
under Indian guides, to a portion of the river some 
hundreds of miles above the explorations of pre- 
vious parties. The history states that after a march 
over a desert of twenty daj's, they came to a river, 
the banks of which were so high that they seemed 
to be three or four leagues in the air. The most 
aetive of the party attempted to descend, but came 
back in the evening, saying they had met with dif- 
ficulties which prevented them from reaching the 
bottom; that they had accomplished one-third of the 
descent, and from that point the river looked very 
large. They averred that some rocks, which ap- 
peared from above to be the height of a man, were 
higher than the tower of the cathedral of Seville. 
This is the earliest notice in any work of the cele- 
brated canon of the Colorado, the most astonishing 
of all mountain gorges, and which may, without 
doubt, be reckoned the greatest wonder of the world. 

EXPEDITION OF FATHER ESCALANTE. 

About one hundred years ago. Father Escalante 
visited the region north of New Mexico, keeping 
along the head-waters of the Colorado to Salt Lake, 
thence south-west to the Colorado river at a point 
nearly opposite that reached by one of Coronado's 
captains over two hundred years before. This mea- 
ger account of the great canon is about all that is 
on record previous to the acquisition of Arizona by 
the United States, though trappers and hunters 
sometimes related incredible stories of a country 
where great rivers ran in canons so deep that day- 
light never reached the bottom. As this river forms 
a part of the boundary of California, and was, to a 
great extent, from its unapproachable character, a 
barrier to the early settlement of this coast, thus 
perhaps preserving it for its present occupants, and 
as it has recently become a center of interest on 
account of the mines in its vicinity, a somewhat 
extended account of this remarkable, and, even now, 
little known wonder may be justifiable, and will be 
incorporated into the work in a separate chapter. 



CUAPTER II. 
BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 

Lieutenant Whipple's Expedition — Lieutenant Ives' Expedi- 
tion — First Attempt to Explore the C'afion — Land Party 
Organized — One Sight of the Kiver — First Exploration — 
Unwilling Venture — Consider the Situation — Death of One 
of the Parties — Three Months in the Canon — Arrival at 
Fort Colville — Exploration Made Under the Direction of 
the Smithsonian Institute — Indescribable Character of the 
Stream — Loss of Boats and Provisions — Death of a Portion 
of the Party — Emergence of the Survivors — Geology and 
Climate. 

LIEUTENANT WHIPPLE'S EXPEDITION. 

In the Spring of 1854 Lieutenant Whipple in com- 
mand of an expedition for the exploi-ation and sur- 
vey of a railroad route near the 35th parallel, reached 
the Colorado at the mouth of Bill Williams' Fork, and 



BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 



13 



ascended the river from that point about fifty miles and 
reported the country as mostly impassable. From 
an elevated point a view of an apparent valley or 
course of a river could be seen, which seemed to be a 
net- work of impassable canons. This partial explo- 
ration still further intensified the interest in this 
region. That any portion of the United States was 
unapproachable was too absurd to credit. 

LIEUTENANT IVES' EXPEDITION. 

It was not until 1857 that an appropriation became 
available for further exploration. A small steamer 
was constructed for the purpose of ascendinofthe river 
and shipped to San Francisco in parts, and thence re- 
shipped to Fort Yuma, where it was put together. 
When loaded it drew somewhat less than two feet of 
water, and the river was ascended four hundred and 
filty miles above Fort Yuma. Sometimes the little 
craft was nearly overwhelmed in the treacherous cur- 
rents and sometimes the men were obliged to tow the 
steamer over shoals where it would touch bottom 
continually. Bands of natives would follow the 
boat, hugely amused with the puffing, snorting canoe 
that was, apparently, so helpless and good for noth- 
ing. At length the party came in sight of the 
much talked of canon, of which so little was known 
and so much conjectured. The enormous, perpendicu- 
lar walls of rocks, hundreds of feet high, which had 
formed the banks of the rivers in many places, had 
prepared them for wonders, but they did not ex- 
pect to see a largo river come out of a gate-way two 
thousand feet high and only a few feet across. If 
the ancients had known of this place thoy would have 
added new hon-ors to their infei'nal regions. 

FIR.ST ATTE.MPT TO EXPLORE THE CANON. 

The attempt to navigate the caiion with the steamer 
without a previous recopnoissance was thought too 
hazardous, and a boat expedition was organized. 
Lieutenant Ives with three or four men entered the 
dark gateway. With much labor they worked their 
way, sometimes rowing and sometimes dragging the 
boat over rapids. Night coming on, the party took 
advantage of a small shingle beach for a campingplace. 
Some drift-wood lodged in a cleft of rocks furnished 
material for a camp fire. There was no need of 
sentinels. Eternal silence reigned ; not even the 
chirping of an insect broke the low murmer oi the 
waters as they wound their toi'tuous way thi-ough 
the dark depths. We quote freely from his report 
to the Secretary of War : — 

" jSIarch 10, 1858. * * * Darkness supervened 
with surprising suddenness. Pall alter pall of shade 
fell, as it were in clouds, upon the deep recesses 
about us. The line of light through the opening 
above at laf?t became blurred and indistinct, and. 
save the dull red glare of the camp fire, all was 
enveloped in a murky gloom. Soon the narrow 
belt again brightened as the rays of the moon 
reached the summits of the mountains. Gazing far 
upwards upon the edges of the overhanging walls 
we witnessed the gradual illumination. A few iso- 
lated turrets and pinnacles first appeared in strong 



relief upon the blue band of the heavens. As the 
silvery light descended and fell upon the opposite 
crest of the abyss, strange and uncouth shapes seem 
to start out, all sparkling and blinking in the light, 
and to be peering over at us as we lay watching 
them from the bottom of the profound chasm. The 
contrast between the vivid glow above and the black 
obscuritj^ beneath, formed one of the most striking 
points in the singular picture. This morning as soon 
as the light permitted, we were again on the way. 
* * * * The canon continued to in- 

crease in size and magnificence. No description can 
convey an idea of the peerless and majestic grandeur 
of this water-waj'. Wherever the river makes a turn 
the entire panorama changes, and one startling nov- 
elty after another appears and disappears with be- 
wildering rapidity. Statel3'/fl!f«rfes,august cathedrals, 
amphitheatres, rotundas, castellated walls and rows 
of time-stained ruins surmounted by every form of 
tower, minaret, dome and spire have been moulded 
from the cyclopean masses of rock that form the 
mighty defile. The solitude, the stillness, the sub- 
dued light and the vastness of every surrounding 
object, produced an impression of awe that ultimately 
became almost painful. As hour after hour passed, 
we began to look anxiously for some kind of an out- 
let from the range, but the declining day only 
brought fresh piles of mountains, higher apparentlj- 
than any before seen. We had made up our minds 
to pass another night in the canon and were search- 
ing for a spot large enough for a resting place, when 
we came into a narrow passage between two mam- 
moth peaks that seemed to be nodding across the 
stream, and unexpectedly found at the upper end the 
termination of the ' Black Canon,' and we came 
into rather of an extensive valley, without a trace of 
vegetation however; but the hills and mountains 
around were in parti-colors and prevented the scene 
from being monotonous. The length of the Black 
Canon is about twenty-five miles. It was evident 
that the river could be navigated no farther. Climb- 
ing a mountain nothing but a confused mass of vol- 
canic rocks piled in confusion upon each other came 
to view. * * * Farther to the east could be 
seen the course of the river where it formed the 
Big Cafion." 

LAND PARTY ORGANIZED. 

The exploring party returned to the steamboat 
and organized an expedition to explore the river on 
the south side towards the Eocky Mountains, and the 
boat was sent back to Fort Yuma. In a few days 
they struck the loftj^ plateau, through which the 
Colorado river with its numerous ti'ibutaries, or com- 
panion rivers, carry the waters formed from the 
melting snows of the Rocky Mountains. Scarcely 
any rain falls on this elevated plain, and the banks of 
the rivers remain as sharp as they were millions of 
years ago when the channels were first eroded. Cen- 
tury after centuiy the work of deepening the channel 
goes on. Before the children of Israel went down in- 
to Egypt; before the building of the Pyramids; before 
the I'ude ancestors of the Egj'ptians found the Nile 
valley ; even before the Nile valley itself was formed 
the Colorado rivers had done the most of their work. 
It was out of the question to explore the river. 
They could only approach it atone point. Only the 
bird that could wing its way for hundreds of miles. 



14 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



could make its way over these cavernous depths that 
marked the course of the river and all its branches. 
From elevated points they could see table-land, 
rising, base on base, height on height, with impassa- 
ble cafions between. As the limits of this work will 
permit only an abbreviated description of the inter- 
esting exploration, an account of one attempt to reach 
the river, giving nearly the author's own words, 
which cannot be condensed without doing injustice 
to the subject, will close the story of this expedition. 

ONE SIGHT OF THE RIVER. 

" Our altitude is very great. During the last 
march the ascent was continuous, and the barome- 
ter shows an elevation of nearly seven thousand 
feet. The Colorado is not far distant, and we must 
be opposite to the most stupendous part of the 
'Big Canon.' The bluffs are in view, but the inter- 
vening country is cut up by side cafions and cross 
ravines, and no place has j'et been found that pre- 
sents a favorable approach to the gigantic chasm. * 
* * The snow-storm (this was in the Winter) had 
extended over but little area, and the road, at first 
heavy, in a mile or two became Arj and good. The 
pines disappeared and the cedars gradually dimin- 
ished. * * * Each slope surmounted disclosed a 
new summit similar to that just passed, till the end 
of ten miles, when the highest part of the plateau 
was attained, and a sublime spectacle lay spread 
before us. 

" Toward the north was the field of plateaus and 
cafions already mentioned, and shooting out from 
these a line of magnificent bluffs, extending eastward 
an enormous distance, marked the course of the 
canon of the Little Colorado. Farther south, eighty 
miles distant, towered the vast pile of the San Fran- 
cisco mountain, its conical summit covered with 
snow and sharply defined against the sky. Several 
other peaks were visible a little to the right, and 
halfway between us and this cluster of mighty and 
venerable volcanos was the ' Red Butte,' described 
by Lieutenant Whipple (1853), standing in isolated 
prominence upon the love! plain. * * * 

" The sun was oppressively warm, and every place 
whose appearance gave promise of water was 
searched, but without success. Ten miles conducted 
us to the head of a ravine, down which there was a 
well-beaten Indian trail. There was every prospect 
therefore that we were approaching a settlement, 
similar to that of the Hualpais, on Diamond river. 
The descent was more rapid than the former had 
been, and in the course of a few miles we had gone 
down into the plateau one or two thousand feet, 
and the bluffs on either side had assumed stupendous 
proportions. Still no signs of habitations were vis- 
ible. The worn-out and thirsty beasts had begun 
to flag when we were brought to a stand-still by a 
fall one hundred feet deep in the bottom of the cafion. 
At the brink of the precipice was an overhanging 
ledge of rock, from which we could look down, as if 
into a well, upon the continuation of the gorge fiir 
below. The break reached completely across the 
ravine, and the side walls were nearly perpendicular. 
There was no egress in that direction, and it seemed 
a marvel that a trail should lead to a place where 
there was nothing to do but return. A closer inspec- 
tion showed that the trail still continued along the 
canon, travet-sing horizontally the face of the right- 
hand bluff. A short distance of it seemed as though 
a mountain goat could scarcely keep its footing upon 



the slight indentation that appeared like a thread 
attached to the rocky wall, but a trial pi'os-ed thai 
the path, though narrow and dizzy, had been cui 
with some care into the surface of the clift'. and afforded 
a foot-hold, level and broad enough both for men and 
animals. 1 rode upon it first, and the rest of the 
party and the train followed — one by one — looking 
very much like a row of insects crawling upon the 
side of a building. We proceeded for nearly a mile 
along this singular pathway, which preserved its 
horizontal direction. The bottom of the canon 
meanwhile had been rapidly descending, and there 
were two or three falls where it dropped a hundred 
feet at a time, thus greatly increasing the depth of 
the chasm. The change had taken place so gradu- 
ally that I was not sensible of it, till, glancing down 
the side of my mule, I found that he was walking 
within three inches of the edge of the brink of a 
sheer gulf a thousand feet deep; on the other side, 
nearly touching my knee, was an almost vertical 
wall rising to an enormous altitude. The sight made 
my head swim, and I dismounted and got ahead of 
the mule, a difficult and delicate operation, which I 
was thankful to have saielj- performed. A part of 
the men became so giddy that they were obliged to 
creep upon their hands and knees, being unable to 
walk or stand. In some places there was barely 
room to walk, and a slight deviation in a step would 
have precipitated one into the frightful abyss. I was 
a good deal alarmed lest some obstacle should be 
encountered that would make it impossible to go 
ahead, tor it was certainly impracticable to return. 
After an interval of uncomfortable suspense, the face 
of the rock made an angle, and just beyond the 
angle was a projection from the main wall with a 
surface fifteen or twenty yards square that would 
afford afoot-hold. The continuation of the wall was 
perfectly vertical, so that the trail could no longer 
follow it, and we found that the path descended the 
steep face of the clift' to the bottom of the cafion. It 
was a desperate road to traverse, but located with a 
good deal of skill, zigzaging down the precipice, and 
taking advantage of everj' crevice and fissure that 
could aft'ord a foot-hold. It did not take long to 
discover that no mule could accomplish this descent, 
and nothing remained but to turn back. We were 
glad to have even this privilege in our power. The 
jaded brutes were collected upon the little summit, 
where thej- could be turned around, and then com- 
menced to return from the hazardous journey. The 
sun shone direetlj* into the canon, and the glare 
reflected from the walls made the heat intolerable. 
The disappointed beasts, now two days without 
water, with glassy eyes and protruding tongues, plod- 
ded slowly along, uttering the most melancholy 
cries. The nearest water, of which we had any 
knowledge, was almost thirty miles distant. There 
was but one chance of saving the train, and after 
reaching an open portion of the ravine the packs 
and saddles were removed, and two or three Mexi- 
cans started for the lagoons, mounted upon the least 
exhausted animals and driving the others loose be- 
fore them. It was somewhat dangerous to detach 
them thus from the main party but there was no help 
for it. Some of the mules will give out before the 
night march is over, but the knowedge that they 
are on the road to water will enable the most of 
them to reach it in spite of their weariness and the 
length of the way. 

"It was estimated that, at this point which was 
within a few miles of the main canon, about one-half 
of the original plain had been cutaway by the action 
of the river and its branches. 



BIG CANON OF THE COLORADO. 



15 



" A party was made up to explore the cafion. The 
distance to the precipice where the mules were turned 
back was about five miles. The precipice was de- 
scended without difficult}', though in one or two places 
the path traversed smooth, inclined plains that 
made the footing insecure and the crossing danger- 
ous. The bottom of the canon which from the sum- 
mit looked smooth, was found to be covered with 
small hills thirty or forty feet high. Along the mid- 
dle of the cafion started another one with low walls 
at the starting point, which became lofty precipices 
as the base of the new ravine sunk deeper and deeper 
into the earth. Along the bottom of this gorge we 
followed the trail, distinctly seen when the surface 
was not composed of rocks. Every few minutes low 
falls and ledges were mot with, which we had to 
jump or slide down, till a formidable number 
of obstacles were to be met in returning. Like 
other canons this was circuitous, and at each turn we 
expected to find something new and startling. We 
were deeper in the bowels of the earth than we had 
over been before, and surrounded by walls and tow- 
ers of such imposing dimensions that it would be 
useless to attempt describing them; but the effects of 
magnitude had begun to pall, and the walk from the 
foot of the precipice was monotonously dull; no sign 
of life could be discerned above or below. At the end 
of thirteen miles from the precipice an obstacle pre- 
sented itself that there seemed to be no possibility of 
overcoming. A stone slab, reaching from one side 
of the cafion to the other, terminated the plain 
which we were descending. Looking over the 
edge it appeared that the next level was forty 
feet below. This time there was no trail along 
the side of the bluffs, for these were smooth and 
perpendicular. A spring of water rose from the 
cafion above and trickled over the precipice, 
forming a beautiful cascade. It was supposed 
that the Indians must have come to this point merely 
to procure water; but this theory was not satisfac- 
tory and we sat down to consider the situation. 

"Mr. Egloffstein lay down by the side of the creek, 
and projecting his head over the ledge to watch the 
cascade discovered a solution to the mysteiy. Below 
the shelving rock, and hidden by it and the fall, stood 
a crazy -looking ladder, made of rough sticks bound 
together with thongs of bark. It was almost per- 
pendicular and rested upon a bed of angular stones. 
The rounds had become rotten from the incessant flow 
of the water. Mr. Egloffstein, anxious to have the 
first view of what was below, scrambled over the 
rock and got his feet upon the first round. Being a 
solid weight, he was too much for the insecure fabric, 
which commenced giving away. One side fortunately 
stood firm, and holding onto this with a light grip 
he made a precipitate descent. The other side and 
all the rounds broke loose and accompanied him to 
the bottom in a general crash, effectually cutting oft' 
the communication. Leaving us to devise means of 
getting him back he ran to the bend to explore. The 
bottom of the canon had been reached. He found 
that he was at the edge of a stream ten or fitteen 
yards wide fringed with cottonwoods and willows. 
The vvalls of the canon spread out for a short distance 
leaving room for a narrow belt of bottom-land on 
which were fields of corn and a few scattered huts. 
It was impossible to follow the stream to its union 
with the main river, which was not far oft\ Nor could 
a situation be found where a complete view of the 
great cafion might be obtained; at one spot the top 
could be seen, at another the bottom. Measurements 
were taken which showed the walls of the cafion to 
be over six thousand feet in height." 



Notwithstanding all the efforts backed by money 
and government the great canon was not entered, 
at least from the side. The parties safely made their 
way out of the chasm, and resumed their journey 
towards Fort Defiance, finding on their way the 
towns of stone houses which the early Spanish ex- 
plorers saw and which had since remained unknown 
and mostly forgotten. 

FIRST EXPLORATION — UNWILLING VE.XTURE. 

Some of my readei-s may inquire whether this 
cafion has never been explored? Twice only of 
which any record has been found. Some time in the 
sixties, three men, prospecting on the head-waters of 
the river in the Colorado Territory, fell into a diffi 
culty with the Indians. Two succeeded in reaching 
their boats, and escaped by rowing swiftly down the 
stream, the swift current and bold banks facilitating 
their flight. When they had gone so far as to feel 
secure from pursuit, and took time to consider the 
situation, they found themselves floating in a 
stream, so swift as to prevent their return, even if 
they desired it, and with banks so precipitous as to 
make escape in that direction impossible. The stream 
became swifter and the banks or walls of the canon 
higher everj- hour. 

TOEY CONSIDER THE SITU.\T[UN. 

A council of war was held, and all evidence at- 
tainable was considered. The questions put forth in 
one of Addison's essays a hundred and fifty years 
ago, " Where am I ? What sort of place do I in- 
habit?" seemed particularly applicable to the situa- 
tion. As to the first question, they could only say, 
we are in '-Uncle Sam's" dominion, and as to the 
last, it is a " boll of a place." One of thom remem- 
bered of hearing some old trappers, while sitting 
around a camp fire near Salt Lake, tell a story of a 
great river that was lost in a range of mountains 
and flowed hundreds of niiles under ground. An- 
other said that it did not flow under ground, but in a 
narrow channel thousands of feet in depth, so deep 
that daylight never reached the bottom. None of 
them, however, had ever seen the river under these 
circumstances. The Indians believed, some of them 
at least, that the deep gorge led to Heaven, and 
others thought it led to Hell ! It was certain that 
the route to the blessed regions would not go through 
any such country as thej' were passing ; and as to 
the latter place, had not Beecher knocked the bottom 
out of it? So they concluded to go on ; in fact, there 
was no other alternative. About the third day they 
heard a great roaring of falling water, and before 
they had time to consider were plunged over a cat- 
aract, that proved not a very high one, for though 
the boat was smashed, thcj- saved their lives bj- 
swimming to an island at the foot of the falls, 
and were able to save most of their provisions. 
They now constructed a raft of dry. cotton-wood 
logs, which they found lodged high up on the island, 
and continued their voyage. 



16 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



DEATH OF ONE OF THE PARTIES. 

Falls and rapids bcinic now trequeut, and the 
plunges often throwing them off their craft, they 
im])rudently lashed themselves to it. Passing the 
next cataract the i-aft was upset, and one of the two 
was lost. The survivor found himself on the raft, 
now bottom side up, though entirely ignorant as to 
how he succeeded in disengaging himself while under 
the water. 

Da}- after day, week after week, until the weeks 
became months, ho floated down the river, encouTi- 
tering many obstacles but escaping with his life. 
The river was destitute of fish or animals, but in 
places he found the mesquite bean which would sus- 
tain life. Months afterward a soldier at Fort Col- 
ville saw a log floating in the river appearing to have 
come out of the canon. The unusual circumstance 
caused him to turn a telescope upon it. " My (rod I" 
said he. '■ there is a man on that log ! !" A boat 
was dispatched, and the man was brought ashore, 
nearly famished, speechless, naked, and his body cov- 
ered with sores. After some nourish ment had been 
taken, he was able to say that he had come through 
the great canon. The man recovered, and for manj- 
years afterward drove a stage in Arizona. 

EXPLORATION UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SMITHSO- 
NIAN INSTITtTE. 

The Government of the United States during these 
years had enough business on hand without attending 
to expeditions in the cause of science, for, so far, the 
river had no value. But the Smithsonian Institute 
undertook the exploration of the river. Lieutenant 
Powell, an eminent scientist and explorer, was sent 
out to gather all the information about it that was 
possible. The transcontinental railroad now made 
the matter easier. He interviewed the trappers and 
hunters at Salt Lake and Fort Bridger ; visited 
.Vrizona, and heard all that the stage-driver could re- 
member, and went East to make preparations for the 
ilescent of the river. The scientific public were now 
aroused, and many were anxious to accompany the 
expedition. Several boats were made in water-tight 
compartments, so contrived as to float though they 
might be stove. Provisions, instruments and all nec- 
essary articles were inclosed in water-tight, rubber 
bags. On the 24th of May, 1869, he left the line of 
the Union Pacific Railroad at the Green River Sta- 
tion. Those who love to read of the grand, the pictur- 
esque, the terrible, will find their satisfaction in reading 
•'■ Powell's Explorations of the Colorado Canon." The 
limits of this book will only permit a short account 
of the trip which was full of dangers as well as 
pleasure. They passed safely down the upper waters. 
Some hundred miles below the starting-point, the 
labor commenced. Sometimes the river would zig- 
zag between metamorphic slates and granite S]nirs, 
making a channel like a line of saw teeth ; then it 
would leave the granite and cut a vast amphitheatre 
in the sandstone, miles across and thousands of feet 



high. Towers, domes, castles, minarets, and all the 
forms of ancient and modern architecture seemed 
anticipated. Even sculpture was not forgotten, for 
in manj' places gigantic figures seemed to be guard- 
ing the great canon, and threatening to overwhelm 
all who should dare to invade the ancient solitude. 
For months the party continued their voyage. Not- 
withstanding their ample preparations, it was nearly 
a failure. They lost their boats and most of their 
provisions, as well as their scientific instruments. 
They were uncertain whether the canon was three, 
four, or five hundred miles long. When nearly 
through it was proposed to leave the river and try 
to ascend its banks. It was urged that more rapids 
on the junction of the granite and slate would end 
the expedition. Part of the men determined to tr^- 
to scale the walls. They were given a part of the 
scant provisions, and also a copy of the records of 
the trip. Both parties bid each other " good- 
bye," with the firm belief that the other was 
destined to certain destruction. Powell remained 
with the party to continue down the river, hoping 
that if he perished some record of their trip would 
be picked up on the lower river or the Gulf of Cal- 
ifornia. His judgment proved the best. August 30tb 
he emerged from the canon, in somewhat better 
plight than the stage-driver did, having witnessed 
undoubtedly the greatest wonder of the world. 
Nothing was heard of the othei-'party for years. A 
prospector brought the news that they scaled the 
walls of the canon, but were soon afterwards killed b}' 
the Indians, being mistaken for a party of white men 
who had committed an outrage on an Indian woman 

GEOLOGY AND CI.l-MATE. 

The Colorado river drains a territory of three 
hundred thousand square miles. A portion of this 
eight hundred miles in extent, resting on the Rocky 
Mountains, is fed by snows, and has numerous rivers 
which, with all their branches, form canons — one 
leading into another and all finally merging into the 
grand gorge, six thousand feet deep and three hund- 
red miles long. The lower part of the Colorado for 
one thousand miles runs through an almost rainless 
country. There is no wearing away of the banks into 
the rounded, graceful forms so usual in the vicinities of 
I'ivers. The channels of the rivers being so deep 
the country is thoroughlj- drained of water, and 
very few springs emerge from the surface. The soil 
is consequently destitute of vegetation. There ai-e 
evidences, however, of an extensive alluvial deposit, 
of a time when the river meandered through fertile 
plains like the Mississippi. The elephant, the mas- 
todon, and their contemporaries wandered in herds 
over suitable pastures where now desolation reigns. 

It is difficult to estimate the influence which this 
strange system of rivers has exerted over California. 
Had not the early explorers when in search of gold 
met this obstruction, our mines would have been 
discovered and worked, and California would have 




/ R. Crandall. 



PERMANENT OCCUPATION OF CALIFORNIA. 



17 



been cursed with the blight that has covered all the 
Spanish possessions. It was I'eserved for a more 
vigorous race to develop. 

The climatic influence is-also great. It is now be- 
lieved that our dry, dcsicating north winds find 
their way from the Arizona deserts, and that the 
particles of red dust with which our s-ummer atmos- 
phere is loaded, is finely-pulvorized Arizona soil. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Kxilps of L"reto — Father Ticrra's Methods of Conversion — 
De;.th of Fatlier Tierra — Arrest of the .Jesuits — Midnight 
Parting — Permanent Occupation of California — Missions in 
Charge of Francisco Friars — Character of Father Junipero — 
Exploring Expeditions — Origin of the name of the Bay — 
Mission Dolores — Death of Father Junipero. 

It was the custom of the Spanish Government to 
send out a certain number of Christian missionaries 
with each expedition, whether for discovery or eon- 
quest. When the conquerors took possession of a 
new territory, in the name of the King of Spain, the 
accompanying Fathers also claimed it for the spirit- 
ual empire of the Holy Church, and in this manner 
California became, at once, the possession of both 
Church and State, by right of discovery and con- 
quest. 

As befoi'e stated, California was discovered in 
1534, by an expedition which Cortez had caused to 
be fitted out in the inland seas of Tehuantepec. 
From that time, during a period of one hundred and 
tilt}' years, some twenty maritime expeditions sailed 
huccessively from the shores of New Spain to the 
coast of California, with the object of perfecting 
its conquest; but none of them obtained any satis- 
faetory result, bej^ond an imperfect knowledge of the 
geographical situation of the country. The barren 
aspect of the coast, and the nakedness and poverty 
of the savages, who lived in grottoes, caves, and holes 
in the ground, clearly indicated that they had scarcely 
advanced beyond the primitive condition of man, 
and discouraged the adventurers, who were in search 
of another country like Mexico, abounding in natural 
wealth, and the appliances of a rude civilization. 
After the expenditure of immense sums of both pub- 
lic and private wealth, the permanent settlement of 
California was despaired of. The Spanish Govern- 
ment would advance no more money, private enter- 
prise was turned in another direction, and it was 
decided to give over the, so far, fruitless experiment 
to the Fathers of the church. Many attempts had 
been made to Christianize the natives of the Pacific 
coast. Cortez is said to have had several ecclesias- 
tics in his train, though there is no account of their 
liaving attempted to convert the natives, or even of 
landing among them. The first recorded attempt 
was made about the beginning of the year 1596 by 
four San F'rancisco friars, who came with Vis- 
caino's expedition. During their stay of two months 
at La Paz, they visited many of the Indians, who 
thought them children of the sun, and treated them 
3 



very kindly. Three Carmelite friars also came with 
Viseaino's third expedition in 1602, two Jesuit mis- 
sionaries in 1648, two Franciscans in 16S8, and three 
Jesuits in 1683, the latter with the expedition of 
Admiral Otondo. The celebrated Father Kiihno 
was one who came with the latter expedition. Once, 
when attempting to explain the doctrine of the res- 
urrection to the savages, he was at loss for a word to 
express his meaning. He put some flies undej- the 
water until they appeared to be dead, and then 
exposed them to the rays of the sun, when 
they revived. The Indians cried out in astonish- 
ment, "I bimuhueite ! I bimuhueite !" which the 
Fathers understood as "they have come to life," the 
expression he wanted, and applied it to the resurrec- 
tion of the Redeemer. 

No sulxstantial success was, however, achieved 
until about 1675. Then appeared the heroic apostle 
of California civilization, Father John Salva Tierra, 
of the Society of Jesus, commonly called Jesuits. 

Father Tierra, the founder, and afterwards visita- 
dore of the missions of Calilbrnia, was a native of 
Milan, born of noble parentage and Spanish ances- 
try, in 1644. Having completed his education at 
Parma, he joined the order of Jesuits, and went as a 
missionary to Mexico in 1675. He was robust in 
health, exceedingly hand.some in jjerson, resolute of 
will, highly talented, and full of religious zeal. For 
several years he conducted the missions ofSonora 
successfully, when he was recalled to Mexico in con- 
sequence of his great ability and singular virtues, 
and was employed in the chief oflices of the provin- 
ces. After ten years of ineffectual solicitation, he 
obtained permission of the Viceroy to go to Cali- 
fornia, for the purpose of converting the inhabitants, 
on condition that the possession of land should be 
taken in the name of the King of Spain, without his 
being called on to contribute anything towards the 
expenses of the expedition. Tierra associated with 
himself the Jesuit Fathei-, Juan Ugarte, a native of 
Honduras. On the 10th of October, 1697, they 
sailed from the port of Yaqui, in Sonora, for Lower 
California, and, after encounteinng a disastrous 
storm, and suffering partial shipwreck on the gulf, 
landed, on the 19th of that month, at San Bruno, 
at Saint Dennis bay. Not finding that place suitable 
for their purpose, the Fathers removed to St. Dyon- 
issius, afterwards named Loreto, and there set up the 
sign of civilization and Christianity on its lonely 
shore. Thus Loreto, on the east side of the penin- 
sula, in latitude 25° 35' north of the equator, may be 
considered the Plymouth Rock of the Pacific coast. 
This historic and memorable expedition consisted of 
only two ships and nine men, being a corporal, five 
private soldiers, three Indians, the captain of the 
vessel, and the two Fathers. 

On the 19th of October; 1697, the little party of 
adventurers went ashore at Loreto, and were kindly 
received by about fifty native.'-., who were induced to 
kneel down and kiss the crucifix. 



IS 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



METHODS OF CONVERSION. 

It is said of Father Ugarte that he was a man of 
powerful frame. When he first celebrated the cere- 
monials of the church before the natives they were 
inclined to jeer and laugh over solemnities. On one 
occasion a huge Indian was causing considerable dis- 
turbance, and was demoralizing the other Indians 
with bis mimicry and childish fun. Father Ugarte 
caught him by his long hair, swung him around a 
few times, threw him in a heap on the floor, and 
proceeded with the rites. This argument had a 
converting eflect, as he never rebelled again. As 
the conversion of the natives was the main object of 
the settlement, and a matter of the greatest impor- 
tance, to the natives at least, no means were S]3ared to 
effect it. When the natives around the mission had 
been Christianized, expeditions inland were under- 
taken to capture more material I'or converts. Some- 
times many lives were taken, but they generally suc- 
ceeded in gathering in from fifty to a hundred women 
and children, the men afterwards following. Two 
or three days' exhortation (confinement and starva- 
tion) was generally sufficient to effect a change of 
heart, after wliich the convert was clothed, fed, and 
put to work. Father Ugai'te worked with them, 
teaching them to plant, sow, reap, and thresh, and 
they were soon good Christians. 

The imposing ceremonies and visible symbols of 
the Catholic church are well calculated to strike the 
ignorant savage with awe. Striking results were 
often attained with pictures. When moving from 
one mission to another, and especially when meeting 
strange Indians, the priests exhibited a picture of 
the Virgin Mary on one side of a canvas, and Satan 
roasting in flames on the other side. They were 
offered a choice, to become subjects of the Holy 
Mother, or roast in the flames with Satan, and gen- 
erally accepted the former, esi^ecially as it was accom- 
panied with food. 

DEATH OF TIERHA. 

After twenty years of earnest labor, privation, 
danger, and spiritual success. Father Tierra was 
recalled to Mexico by the new Viceroy, for consul- 
tation. He was then seventy years old; and, not- 
withstanding his age and infirmities, he set out on 
horseback from San Bias for Tepic; but, having 
fainted by the way, he was carried on a litter by the 
Indians to Guadalajara, where he died July 17, 1717, 
and was buried with appropriate ceremonies behind 
the altar in the chapel of our Lady of Loreto. 

The historic village of Loreto, the ancient capital 
of California, is situated on the margin of the gulf, 
in the center of St. Dyonissius' Cove. The church, 
built in 1742, is still in tolerable preservation, and, 
among the vestiges of its former richness, has eighty- 
sis oil paintings; some of them by Murillo, and other 
celebrated masters, which, though more than a hun- 
dred years old, are still in a good condition; also 



some fine silver work, valued at six thousand dol- 
lars. A great storm in 1827 destroyed many of the 
buildings of the mission. Those remaining, are in 
a state of decay. It was the former custom of the 
pearl-divers to dedicate the products of certain days 
to Our Lady of Loreto; and, on one occasion, there 
fell to the lot of the Virgin a magnificent pearl, as 
large as a pigeon's egg, of wonderful purity and 
brilliancy. The Fathers thought proper to change 
its destination, and presented it to the Queen of 
Spain, who gratefully and piously sent Our Lady of 
Loreto a magnificent new gown. Some people were 
unkind enough to think the queen hail the better of 
the transaction. 

ARREST OF THE JESUITS. 

The Jesuits continued their missionary work in 
Lower California for seventj^ years. On the second 
day of April, 1797, all of the Order throughout the 
Spanish dominions, at home and abroad, were ar- 
rested by order of Charles III., and thrown into 
prison, on the charge of conspiring against the State 
and the life of the king. Nearly six thousand were 
subjected to that decree, which also directed their 
expulsion from California, as well as all other colo- 
nial dependencies of Spain. The execution of the 
despotic order was intrusted to Don Gasj)ar Portala, 
the Governor of the province. Having assembled 
the Fathers of Loreto on the eve of the nativity, 
DL-eember 24th, he acquainted them with the heart- 
breaking news. Whatever may have been the 
faults of the Jesuits in Europe, they certainly had 
been models of devoted Christians in the new world. 
They braved the dangers of hostile savages, ex- 
posed themselves to the malarious fevers incident 
to new countries, and had taken up their residence.-^ 
far from the centers of civilization and thought, so 
dear to men of cultivated minds, to devote them- 
selves, soul and body, to the salvation of the natives, 
that all civilized nations seemed bent on extermin- 
ating. It is probable that the simple-minded son 
of the forest understood little of the mysteries of 
theology; and his change of heart was more a 
change of habit, than the adoption of any saving 
religious dogma. They abandoned many of their 
filthy habits, and learned to respect the family ties. 
They were taught to cultivate the soil, to build com- 
fortable houses, and to cover their nakedness with 
garments. They had learned to love and revere 
the Fathers, who were ever kind to them. 

MIDNIGHT PARTING. 

After seventy years of devoted attention to the 
savages; after building pleasant homes in the wilder- 
ness, and surrounding themselves with loving and 
devoted friends, they received the order to depart. 
They took their leave on the night of February 3, 
176S, amidst the outcries and lamentations of the 
people, who, in spite of the soldiers, who could not 
keep them back, rushed upon the departing Fathers, 



PERMANENT OCCUPATION OF CALIFORNIA, 



19 



kia ijg ilieir hands, and clinging convulsively to 
them. The leave-taking was brief, but affecting: 
"Adieu, my dear children! Adieu, land of our adop- 
tion! Adieu, Ualifornia! It is the will of God!-' 
And then, amid the sobs and lamentations, heard all 
along the shore, they turned away, reciting the 
litany of the Blessed Mother of God, and were seen 
no more. 

For one hundred and sixty years after the dis- 
covery of Ualifornia, it remained comparatively un- 
known, li is true that maoy expeditions were 
fitted out 10 explore it for gold and precious stones. 
The tirsl was fast locked in mountains of the Sierras, 
which were occupied by bands of hostile and war- 
like Indians; and the last have not yet been found. 
The circumstances attending the discovery of the 
great bay, will always be of interest, and deserve a 
place in every record; for up to 1769, no navigator 
ever turned the yjrow of his vessel into the narrow 
entrance of the Golden Gate. 

On the expulsion of the Jesuits from Lower Cali- 
fornia, the jji'operty of the missions, consisting of 
extensive houses, flocks, pasture lands, cultivated 
fields, orchards, and vinejards, was intrusted to the 
College of San Fi'ancisco iu Mexico, for the benefit 
of the Order of St. Francis. The zealous scholar. 
Father Junipero Serra, was appointed to the charge 
of all the missions of Lower California. 

Father Junipero, as he was called, was boru of 
humble parents in the island of Majorca, on the 24th 
of JMoveniber, 1713. Like the prophet Samuel, he 
was dedicated to the priesthood from his inl'ancy, 
and having completed his studies in the Convent of 
San Ecrnardino, he conceived the idea of devoting 
himself to the immediate service of God; and went 
from thence to i'ulma, tht) capital of the province, 
to acquire the higher learning necessary tor the 
priesthood. At his earnest request, he was received 
into the Order of St. Francis, at the ago of sixteen; 
and, at the end of one year's probation, made his 
religious profession, September 15, 1731. Having 
finisbed his studies in philosophy and theology, he 
soon acquired a high reputation as a writer and 
orator, and his services were sought for in every 
direction; but, while eujoj'ing these distinctions at 
home, his heart was set on his long projected mission 
to the heathen of the New World. He sailed from 
Cadiz for America, August 28, 1749, and landed at 
Vera Cruz, whence he went to the City of Mexico, 
joined the College of San Fernando, and was made 
President of the missions of SieiTa Gorda and San 
Saba. On his appointment to the missions of Cali- 
fornia, he immediately entered upon active duties, 
and proceeded to carry out his grand design of the 
civilization of the Pacific coast. Acting under the 
instructions of the Viceroy of Mexico, two expedi- 
tions were fitted out to explore and colonize Upper 
or Northern California, of which little or nothing 
was known, one of which was to proceed by sea, 
and the other by land; one to can-y the heavy sup- 



plies, the otber to drive the flocks and herds. The 
first ship, the San Curios, left Cai)e St. Lucas, in 
liower California, January 9, 1769, and was followi;d 
by the San Au/unio on the 15th of the same month. 
A third vessel, the San Jose, was dispatched liom 
Loreto on the IGth of June. After much suft'ering, 
these real pioneers of California civilization, reached 
San Diego; the Sun Carlos, on the 1st of May; the 
Sun Antonio, on the 11th of April, 17G9, the crews 
having been well nigh exhausted by scurvy, thir.st, 
and starvation. After leaving Loreto, the San Jose 
was never heard of more. 

EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS. 

The overland exj)edition was divided into two 
divisions; one under command of Don Gaspar de 
Portala, the appointed Military Governor of the New 
Territory; the other, under Capt. Eivera Y. Moncado. 
Rivera and his company, consisting of Father Crespi, 
twenty-five soldiers, six muleteers, and a party of 
Lower Calitornia Indians, started from Villaceta on 
the 24th of March, and reached San Diego on the 
14th of May, 1769. Up to that time, no white man 
bad ever lived in Upper California; and then began 
10 rise the morning star of our civilization. 

The second division, accompanied by Father 
.J unipero, organized the first mission in Upper 
Califoi-nia on the 16th of July, 1769; and there the 
first native Californian was baptized on the 26th of 
December, of that year. These are memorable 
points in the ecclesiastical history of this coast. 

On the 14th of July, 1769, Governor Portala 
started out in search of Montei-ey, as described 
by previous navigators. He was accompanied by 
Fathers Juan Crespi and Francisco Gomez ; the 
party consisting of fifty-six white persons, including 
a sergeant, an engineer, and thirty-thi'ee soldiers, 
and a comj)any ot emigrants from Sonora, together 
with a company of Indians from Lower California. 
They missed their coui'se, and could not find the 
Bay of Monterey, but continued on northward, and, 
on the 25th day of October, 1769, came upon the 
great Bay of San Francisco, which they named in 
honor of the titular saint of the friar missionaries. 

ORIGIN OP THE NAME OP THE BAT. 

It is said that, while on this expedition, a regi-et 
was expressed that no mission was as yet named 
after the patron of the Order. Says Portala, " Let 
the saint guide us to a good harbor, and we will 
name a mission for him." When they came in sight 
of the bay. Father Gomez cried, •• There is the har- 
bor of San Fi-ancisco," and thus it received its name. 

Father Junipero Serra was not of this illustrious 
company of explorers, and did not visit the Bay ot 
San Francisco for nearly six years after its dis- 
covery. The honor belongs to Fathers Crespi and 
Gomez, Governor Portala, and their humbler com- 
panions. The party then returned to San Diego, 
which they reached on the 24th of January, 1770, 



20 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



after an absence of six months and ten days. Sis 
years thereafter, on the 9th of October, 1776, the 
Mission of San Francisco de los Dolores, was founded 
on the western shore of the great bay, the old chm-ch 
remaining in tolerable presei'vation to the present 
time, the most interesting landmark of our present 
civilization. 

MISSION DOLORES. 

One may retire from the noise and bustle of the 
city, and spend a pleasant hour among the quaint 
surroundings of the old church. The adobe walls, 
the columns of doubtful order of architecture, the 
bells hung with rawhide which called the dusky 
converts to woi-shij), all were doubtless objects of 
wonder and mystery to the sim])le-minded natives. 
From 1776 to ISSl, what changes on either side of 
the continent. A hundred years is much in the life 
of men, little, except in effect, in the life of a nation. 

Father Junipero, who lounded these missions, and 
under whose I'oS'lering care they reached such unex- 
ampled prosperity, reposes in the old church-yard at 
Monterey. His life reads like a romance. 

Chl"rch History. — It is related of him as illustrat- 
ing his fiery zeal, that, while on his way to found 
the mission of San Antonio de Padua, he caused the 
mules to be unpacked at a suitable place, and the 
bells hung on a tree. Seizing the rope he began to 
ring with all his might, regardless of the remonstra- 
tions of the other priests, shouting at the top of his 
voice, '• Hear! hear, O ye Gentiles ! Come to the 
Holy Church! Come to the faith of Christ!" Such 
enthusiasm will win its waj' even among savages. 

FATUER JCNIPERO'S DEATH. 

At length having founded and successfully estab- 
lished si.K missions, and gathered into his fold over 
seven thousand wild people of the mountains and 
plains, the heroic Junipero began to feel that his 
end was drawing near. lie was then seventy years 
old; fifty-three of these years he had spent in the 
active service oi his master in the New World. Hav- 
ing fought the good fight and finished his illustrious 
course, the broken old man retired to the Mission 
of San Carlos at Monterey, gave the few remain- 
ing days of his life to a closer communion with 
God, received the last rites of the religion which he 
had advocated and illustrated so well, and on the 
"inth of AuiTu^t. 17S4. gentiv passed away. Tradi- 
tions of the "boy priest" still linger among the rem- 
nants of the tribes which were gathered under his 
care. 



CHAPTER IV. * 
THE MISSIONS OF ST. FRANCIS. 

Their Moral aud Political Aspect — Domestic Economy — The Es- 
tablishments Descrilieii — Secular anil Religious Occupations 
of the Neophytes — Wealth and Productions — Lilwratiou and 
Dispersion of the Indians — Final Dec;>y. 

Certain writers upon the early history of Califor- 
nia, have taken an unfavorable view of the system 
under which the missionary friars achieved their 
wondei'ful success in reducing the wild tribes to a 
condition of semi-civilization. The venerable Fathers 
are accused of selfishness, avarice and tyranny, in 
compelling the Indians to submission, and forcibly 
resti-aining them from their natural liberty, and 
keeping them in a condition of servitude. Nothinir 
could be more unjust and absurd. It were as well to 
say that it is ci'uel, despotic, and inhuman to tame 
and domesticate the wild cattle that roam the great 
plains of the continent. The sj-stem of the Father- 
was only our modei-n reservation policy humanized 
and Christianized ; inasmuch as Ihej- notonl\- fed and 
clothed the bodies of the improvident natives, but 
likewise cared for their imperishable souls. The cure 
of Indian souls was the primary object of the friar 
enthusiasts ; the work required of the Indians was 
of but few hours' duration, with long intervals of 
rest, and was only incidental to the one great and 
holy purpose of spiritual conversion and salvation. 
Surely, " No greater love hath any man than that 
he lay down his life for his friend;" and it is a cruel 
stretch of sectarian uncharitj* to charge selfishness 
and avarice to the account of self-devoting men who 
voluntarily went forth from the refinements, pleas- 
ures, and honors ofEuropean civilization, to traverse 
the American wilderness in sandals, and with only 
one poor garment a year, in order to uplift the de- 
graded and savage tribes of Paganism from the 
regions of spiritual darkness, and lead them to the 
heights of salvation; nay, even to starve and die on 
the "coral sti'and" of California in helpless and 
deserted age. In 1S3S, the Rev. Father Sarria act- 
ually starved to death at the Mission of Soledad, 
after having labored there for thirtj' years. After 
the mission had been plundered through the pei'fidy 
of the Mexican Government, the old man, broken by 
age and fiiint with hunger, lingered in his little 
church with the few converts that remained, and one 
Sunday morning fell down and died of starvation 
before the altar of his life-long devotion. O, let not 
the Christian' historian of California, who is yet to 
write for all time to come, stain and distort his 
pages by such cruel and un worth}- charges against 
the barefooted paladins of the Cross. No one who 
has not felt the divine influence that pervaded and . 
strengthened the devoted missionaries in their labors 
and privations in the wilderness can appreciate the 
sincerity of their actions and the hopefulnes of their 
lives. To entirely comprehend the sj^stom and pro- 
ceedings of the friars, it will be essential to know the 



THE MISSION OF ST. FRANCIS. 



21 



meaning of certain descriptive terras of their insti- 
tutions of settlement. These were — 

1st. Presidios. 

2d. Castillos. 

3d. Pueblos. 

4th. Missions. 
The presidios were the military garrisons, estab- 
lished along the coast for the defense of the country 
and the protection of the missionaries. Being the 
head-quarters of the military, they became the seats 
of local government for the different presidencies 
into which the country was divided. There were 
four of these presidios in Upper California — at San 
Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. 
They were uniform in structure, consisting of adobe 
walls twelve or fourteen feet high, inclosing a square 
of three hundred feet on each side, defended at the 
angles by small bastions mounting eight twelve- 
pounder, bronze cannon. Within were the barracks, 
store-house, a church for the soldiers, and the com- 
mandant's residence. On the outside they were 
defended by a trench, twelve feet wide and six feet 
deep, and were entered by two gates, open during 
the day, and closed at night. The number of sol- 
diers assigned to each presidio was limited to two 
hundred and fifty ; but rai'ely were there so many 
at any one station. In addition to the duty of 
guarding the coast, small details of four and five 
men, under a sergeant, accompanied the Fathers 
when thej' went abroad to establish missions, or on 
other business. A certain number of troops were 
also assigned to each mission, to keep order and 
defend the place against the attacks of hostile na- 
tives. They dressed in buckskin uniform, which 
was supposed to be impervious to ai'rows, and the 
horses, too, were encased in leather armor, like those 
of the knights of old. 

The Castillo was a covered battery, near the pre- 
sidio, which it was intended to guard. It was manned 
and mounted with a few guns, and though but a 
slight defense against a powei-ful enemy, it served to 
intimidate and keep off the feeble and timoi'ous 
Gentiles. 

The pueblo was a town, inhabited originally by 
discharged soldiers who had served out their time at 
the presidios. It was separate from the presidio and 
mission, the lands having been granted bj' the Fa- 
thers. After a while other persons settled there, and 
sometimes the inhabitants of the pueblo, or independ- 
ent town, outnumbered those of the neighboring 
mission. There were only three of those pueblos in 
Upper Calffornia — Los Angeles, San Jose, and Bran- 
eiforte, the latter near Santa Cruz. San Francisco 
was not a pueblo. There were three classes of these 
settlements in later times — the ptieb/o proper, the 
presidiol, and the mission pueblo. The ranc/terias were 
King's lands, set apart for the use of the troops, to 
pasture their cattle and horses. 

The mission was the parent institution of the 
whole. There the natives resided, under religious 



treatment, and others were not allowed to inhabit 
the place except for a very brief time. This was to 
prevent the mingling of whites and natives, for it 
was thought that the former would contaminate and 
create discontent and disorder among the natives. 
The missions were all constructed on the same gen- 
eral plan. They were quadrangular, adobe struct- 
ures, two stories high, inclosing a court-yard orna- 
mented with fountains and trees ; the whole consist- 
ing of a church. Father's apartihents, store-houses, 
barracks, etc. The four sides of the building were 
each about six hundred feet in length, one of which 
was partly occupied by the church. Within the 
quadrangle or court, a gallery or porch ran round 
the second story, opening upon the workshops, store- 
rooms, and other apartments. 

The entire management of each mission was under 
the care of the friars ; the elder attended to the 
interior, and the other the out-doors administration. 
One large apartment, called the monastery, was oc- 
cupied exclusively b}^ Indian girls, under the watch- 
ful care of the matron, where they were instructed 
in such branches as were deemed necessary' for their 
future condition in life. They were not permitted to 
leave the monastery till old enough to be married. 
In the schools, such children as manifested adequate 
capacitj', were taught vocal and instrumental music, 
the latter consisting of the flute, horn, and violin. In 
the various mechanical departments, the most in- 
genious and skillful were promoted to the foreman- 
ship. 

The daily routine of the establishment was usually 
as follows : At sunrise thej' all arose and repaired 
to the church, where after morning praj-ers, they 
assisted at the mass. The morning religious exer- 
cises occupied about an hour. Thence they went 
to breakfast, and afterwards to their i'es])ective em- 
ployments. At noon they returned to the mission, 
and spent two hours at dinner and in rest ; thence to 
work again, continuing until the evening angelus, 
about an hour before sundown. Then, all betook 
themselves to church, for evening devotions, which 
consisted usually in ordinary fumilj^-praj-ers and 
rosarj', but on special occasions other devotional ex- 
ercises were added. After su]iper, the}' amused 
themselves in various games, sports, and dances till 
bedtime, when the unmarried sexes were locked up 
in separate apartments till morning. Their diet con- 
sisted of good beef and mutton, with vegetables, 
wheaten cakes, puddings, and porridges, which they 
called atole and pinole. The men dressed in linen 
shirts, pants, and a blanket, the last serving for an 
overcoat ; the women had each two undergarments, 
a new gown, and a blanket every year. When the 
missions had grown rich, and in times of plenty, 
the Fathers distributed money and trinkets among 
the more exemplary, as rewards for good conduct. 

The Indians lived in small huts grouped around, 
a couple of hundred yards away from the main 
building ; some of these dwellings were made of 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



adobes, and others were of rougli poles, conical in 
shape, and thatched with grass, such as the people 
had been accustomed to in their wild state. Here 
the married Indians resided with their families. A 
tract of land, about fifteen miles square, was appor- 
tioned to each mission, for cultivation and pasturage. 
There is a wide distinction between the signification 
of the terms " Mis ion " and " Mission lands ;" the 
former referred to the houses, vineyards, and or- 
chards, in the immediate vicinity of the churches, 
and also included the cattle belonging to the es- 
tablishment; whiie mission lands, assigned for graz- 
ing and agriculture, were held onh- in fief, and were 
afterwards claimed by the Government — against the 
loud remonstrance of the Fathers, however. The 
missions were originally intended to be only tempo- 
rary in duration. It was contemplated that in ten 
years from the time of their foundation they should 
cease, as it was then supposed that within that 
period the Indians would be sufficiently prepared to 
assume the position and character of citizens, and 
that the mission settlements would become pueblos, 
and the mission churches parish institutions, as in 
older civilizations; but having been neglected and 
undisturbed by the Spanish Government, they kept 
on in the old way for sixty years, the comlortable 
Fathers being in no hurry to insist on a change. 

Form the foregoing, derived chiefly from G^eeson's 
valuable work, '• History of the Catholic Church in 
California," it will be inferred that the good Fathers 
trained up their young neophytes in the way in 
which they should go. Alexander Forbes, and other 
historians, say that during church-time a sort of 
beadle went around with a long stick, and when he 
perceived a native inattentive to the devotions or 
inclined to misbehave, gave him or her an admonitory 
prod, or a rap over the cahesa 1 But all authorities, 
both Catholic and Protestant agree concerning the 
gentleness and humanity of the Fathers, who were 
absolute in authority and unlimited in the monarchy 
of their little kingdoms. iSTot that there was never 
any application of severe and necessary discipline; 
there were among the Indians, as well as in civilized 
society, certain vicious and turbulent ones, incapable 
of affection and without reveience for authority, 
and these were soundly whipped, as they no doubt 
deserved, as such crooked disciples now are at 
San Quentin. Occasionally some discontented ones 
ran away to the hills, and these were pursued and 
brought back by the mission cavalry. They gen- 
erally returned without much trouble, as they had 
an idea that, having been baptized, something dread- 
ful would happen to them if they stayed away. 

While modern sentimentalists may lament that 
these ])Oor people wei-e thus deprived of their nat- 
ural libertj' and kept in a condition of servitude, it 
must be admitted that their moral and physical 
situation was even better than the average poor in 
the European States at that time. Their yoke was 
easy, and their bui'dens were light; and if, in the 



Christian view of things, their spiritual welfare be 
taken into account, the Fathers, instead of being 
regarded as despots and task-masters, must be 
viewed as the substantial benefactors of the swarthy 
race. 

The wealth created by some of the missions was 
enormous. At its era of greatest prosperity, the 
Mission of San Gabriel, founded in 1771, numbered 
three thousand Indians, one hundred and five thou- 
sand cattle, twenty thousand horses, forty thousand 
sheep; produced, annually, twenty thousand bushels 
of grain, and five hundred barrels of wine and 
brandy. Attached to this mission were seventeen 
extensive ranches, farmed by the Indians, and pos- 
sessing two hundi'ed yoke of oxen. Some of the old 
fig and olive trees are still bearing fruit, and one old 
Indian woman still sui'vives, who is said to have 
reached the incredible age of one hundred and forty 
)'ears. In 1836, the number of Indians at the 
Mission of Upper California was upwards of thirty 
thousand. The number of live-stock was nearly a 
million, including four hundi-ed thousand cattle, 
sixty thousand horses, and three hundi-ed thousand 
sheep, goats, and swine. One hundred thousand 
cattle were slaughtei'ed annually, their hides and 
tallow producing a revenue of nearly a million of 
dollars, a revenue of equal magnitude being derived 
from other articles of export. There were rich 
and extensive gardens and orchards attached 
to the missions, ornamented and enriched with a 
variety of European and tropical fruit trees, includ- 
ing bananas, oranges, olives, and figs, to which were 
added productive and highly cultivated vineyards, 
rivaling the richest grape-fields of Europe. When 
the missions were secularized and ruined by the 
Mexican Government, there were above a hundred 
thousand piasters in the treasury of San Gabriel. 

But, evil times were coming. In 1826, the Mexi- 
can Congress passed an Act for the liberation of the 
mission Indians, and the demoralization and dis- 
persion of the people soon ensued. Eight years 
thereafter, the number of Christian Indians had 
diminished from thirty thousand six hundred and 
fifty, to four thousand four hundred. Of the eight 
hundred thousand head of live-stock, only sixty- 
thi'ce thousand remained. Everything went to rack 
and ruin, and what had been a land of abounding 
life and generous plentj', reverted to silence and 
desolation. At the Mission of St. John Capistrano, 
of the two thousand Christian po^^ulation, only one 
hundred remained; of the seventy thousand cattle, 
but five hundred were left; of the two thousand 
horses, only one hundred survived, and of the ten 
thousand sheep, not one remained. 

And then, after sixty yeai's of cheerful and suc- 
cessful labor, and from hap])y abundance in which 
they had hoped to die at last, went forth the down- 
east Fathers, one after another; some in sorrow to 
the grave, some to other and rougher fields of mis- 
sionary labor, and others to be dispersed among the 



DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MLSSIONS. 



23 



widespread retreats of the Brothers of St. Francis. 
And the swarthy neophytes — the dark-eyed maidens 
of San Gabriel, whither went they? Back to the 
savage defiles of the mountains, down to the depths 
of barbarism, to wander in the lonely desert, to 
shiver in the pitiless storm, and to perish at last 
under the ponderous mai'ch of a careless and unfeel- 
ing civilization. 



CHAPTEE V. 
DOWNFALL OF THE OLD MISSIONS. 

Results of Mexican Rule — Confiscation of the Pious Fund — 
llevolution Begun — Events of the Colonial Rebellion — The 
-'Vmericans Appear and Settle Things — Annexation at Last. 

In 1822, Mexico declared independence of Spain, 
and immediately the old missions began to decline. 
Four years afterwards the Christian Indians were 
removed from under the control of the Fathers, 
their manumission having been ordered by the 
Mexican Government. They were to receive cer- 
tain portions of land, and to be entirely independent 
of the friars. The annual salaries of the Fathers, 
which had been derived from interest on the Pious 
Fund, were withheld and appropriated by the Gov- 
ernment, and soon after the fund itself was confis- 
cated by the Mexican Congress, and used for the 
purposes of state. The Pious Fund was the aggre- 
gated donations of the Catholic world for the main- 
tenance of missions in Lower and Upper California, 
the interest being about fifty thousand dollars annu- 
ally, which went for the support of the Fathers. 
This large sum, principal and interest, amounting in 
1817 to one million two hundred and soventj'-three 
thousand dollars, the beggarly Mexican Government 
meant to steal. Professor Gleeson, writing in 
defense of the Fathers, makes out a fearful bill of 
damages against the perfidious Government, amount- 
ing to no less than twelve millions two hundred 
thousand dollars, which will probably never be paid 
by that rather shakj^ republic. The missions were 
thus practically ruined. Following the rapacious 
example set by Government, the white settlers laid 
violent hands on the stock and lands belonging to 
the missions, and, having returned to their mountain 
fastnesses, the Indians instituted a predatorj^ war- 
fare against the settlei-s, carrying off their goods, 
cattle, and sometimes their wives and children. 
The whites retaliating in kind, tillages wei-e de- 
stroyed, and the whole country, highlands and low- 
lands, was kept in a state of apprehension, rapine, 
and spoliation, resembling the condition of Scotland 
in the times of the Jacobites. 

In the meantime in 1830, a revolt against the Mex- 
ican Government was projected by the white settlers 
who seized upon Monterey, the capital, and declared 
the country independent. Thirty American rifle- 
men, under Isaac Graham from Tennessee, and sixty 
mounted Californians, under General Castro, com- 
posed the entire insurgent army, Alvarado being the 



generalissimo. They advanced on and took the 
territorial capital in November, Governor Gutierrez 
and his seventy men having valiantly shut them- 
selves up in the fort, whei"c they ignominiously sur- 
rendered at the verj- first gun. Gutierrez with his 
officials was deported to Lower California, and Alva- 
rado had himself appointed Governor in his stead. 
Don M. G. Vallejo was appointed military Command- 
ant-General, and Don Jose Castro was created Pre- 
fect of Police. The countiy was then formally de- 
clared a free and independent State, providing that 
in the case the then existing Central Government of 
Mexico should be overthrown and a fcdci-al constitu- 
tion adopted in its stead, California should enter the 
federation with the other States. The people of Los 
Angeles and Santa Bai'bara refused to acknowledge 
the iiew territorial administration, but Alvarado 
marched upon Los Angeles, where he was met by 
Castello, and instead of a bloody battle, it was agreed 
that Alvarado should recognize the existing Central 
Government of Mexico, and be proclaimed j)olitical 
chief of California, pro tern., while Castello was to 
proceed to Mexico as deputy to Congress, with a sal- 
arj- of three thousand piasters a year. The Govern- 
ment of Mexico declined to confirm the arrangement, 
and appointed Don Carlos Carillo Governor of the 
Territor'y. Alvarado again went to war, and with a 
small company of Americans, and Californians, 
mai-ched against Carillo, the new Governor at Santa 
Barbara. The valiant Carillo, having a wholesome 
dread of the American sharp-shooters, retired from 
the field without a battle, leaving Alvarado master 
of the situation. The pusillanimous character of the 
then existing Mexican Government is illustrated by 
the fact that Alvarado was confirmed as Constitu- 
tional Governor of California, notwithstanding he 
had been the leader of the rebellion. 

Then ensued a succession of spoliations which 
destroyed the laborious enterprise of sixty years, and 
left the old missions in melancholy ruins. 

Alvarado bestowed upon his English and Amei-i- 
can followers large grants of land, monej' and stock 
confiscated from the missions. Graham, the captain 
of the band, obtained a great landed estate and two 
hundred mules. To the commandant, General Val- 
lejo, fell the goods and chattels of the missions of 
SanEafael and SolaTio; Castro, the Prefect of Mont- 
erey, received the property of the San Juan Bau- 
tista, while Governor Alvarado himself appropriated 
the rich spoil of the missions of Carmclo and Soledad.* 

In the meantime a conspiracy against Alvarado 

* Authorities diflfer on this matter. Some well-informed per- 
sons say that Alvarado had promised Bates, and others, large 
tracts of land, if they would assist him in establishing himself as 
ruler ; that after succeeding in his ambitious desires, he turned 
traitor to his friends, and undertook to destroy them on the_ pre- 
tence of a contemplated insurrection. There was no fair fight. 
Alvarado captured the men, over a hundred in number, by send 
iniJ armed parties to their homes in the night, or by luring 
them to Monterey on pretence of important business, and put- 
ting chains on them as fast as they came into his pressQCe, 
otherwise they would have made short work of deposing him.— 
[Edttor. 



24 



HTRTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



was set on foot by certain of his English and Amer- 
ican compatriots, the object being the admission of 
California to the American Union. The conspirators 
were forty-six in number, twenty-five English and 
twenty-one Americans, under command of Graham. 
Alvarado soon heard of the design, and sent a party 
of soldiers, under Castro, to Monterey, surprised the 
revolutionists in their hut, and poured in a volley of 
musketry disabling many of them; the balance were 
taken prisoners, and afterwards deported to San Bias 
and thence to Tepic, where they were treated as con- 
victs. The Americans and English in California ap- 
pealed to the Mexican Government, and President 
Bustamente became alarmed at the danger of war 
with England and the United States, and ordered 
the exiled prisoners to be sent back to California, 
and that they should be indemnified for their loss of 
time at the rate of three piasters a day. The re- 
turned prisoners, immediately on their arrival, re- 
sumed their design with greater energy than befoi'e, 
having determined to be revenged on Castro and 
Alvarado for the outrages they had inflicted. 

In 1841 other Americans arrived, and the revolu- 
tionary party was considerably increased. Alvarado 
demanded reinforcements from Mexico, but the only 
assistance be received was that of three hundred 
convicts from the Mexican prisons. At this juncture, 
Santa Ana, the new President, removed Governor 
Alvarado from office, appointing Micheltorena in his 
stead, and when the latter arrived, Monterey, the 
capital, had previously fallen into the hands of the 
American Coinmodore Jones, although then in the 
possession of the Mexicans. Commodoi-e Catesby 
Jones, having heard that war had been declared be- 
tween the United States and Mexico, hastened to 
Monterey, took possession of the city, and hoisted 
the American colors; but learning his serious mistake 
on the ibllowing day, he lowered his flag and made 
a becoming apology. This extraordinary incident 
occurred on the 20th of October, 1842, and it was 
then obvious that the distracted countrj' must soon 
fall into the hands of the LTnited States, or some 
other foreign nation. 

One of the first acts of the new Governor, Mich- 
eltorena, was the restoration of the missions to the 
friars, after a turbulent interregnum of six years. 
But this act of policy and justice came too late; the 
missions wei-e ruined beyond the possibility of resus- 
citation. The Indians had been dispersed, many of 
them living by brigandage, and others had become 
wandering vagabonds. After two years' exertion bj- 
the Fathers things began to improve; some of the 
Indians had returned, and the lands were being re- 
cultivated, when the Government again interfered, 
and ordered Governor Pio Pico, in 1845, to dispose 
of the missions either by sale or rental, to the white 
settlers. Thus, at length, the last of the property 
which the Fathers had created by sixty years of 
patient labor, passed into the possession of private 
individuals; many of the Fatliers were reduced to 



extreme poverty, humiliation, and distress, and tht- 
missions went down, never to rise again. The de 
struction of the missions was almost immediatel\ 
succeeded by the war between the United State^ 
and Mexico, and the long vexed ten-itory passed to 
the Amei'ican Union. 



CHAPTER VL 

PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE. 

Extent of the Mission Lands — Varieties of Product — Agricul- 
tural Implements and means of Working — A Primitive Mill 
— Immense Herds and Value of Cattle — The First Native 
Shop. 

Up to the time of the American conquest the pro- 
ductive lands of California were chieflj- in the hands 
of the missionaries. Each of the missions included 
about fifteen miles square, and the boundaries were 
generally equi-distant. As the science of agriculture 
was then in a very primitive condition in Spain, the 
monks of California could not be expected to know 
much about scientific farming. They knew nothing 
about the utility of fallows, or the alternation of 
crops, and their only mode of renovating exhausted 
soil, was to let it lie idle and under the dominion of 
native weeds, until it was thought capable of bear- 
ing crops again. Land being so abundant, there 
was no occasion for laborious or expensive processes 
of recuperation. 

The grains mostly cultivated were Indian corn, 
wheat, barley, and a small bean called frijol^ which 
was in general use throughout Spanish America. 
The beans, when ripe, wore fried in lard, and much 
esteemed by all ranks of people. Indian corn was 
the bread-staple, and was cultivated in rows or 
drills. The plow used was a very primitive affair. 
It was composed of two pieces of wood; the main 
piece, formed from a crooked limb of a tree of thi' 
proper shape, constituting both sole and handle. It 
had no mould-board, or other moans for turning a 
furrow, and was only capable of scratching the sur 
face of the ground. A small share, fitted to the 
point of the sole, was the only iron about the im- 
plement. The other piece was a long beam, like 
the tongue of a wagon, reaching to the yoke of the 
cattle by which the plow was drawn. It consisted 
of a rough sapling, with the bark taken off, fixed 
into the main piece, and connected by a small up 
right on which it was to slide up or down, and was 
fixed in position by two wedges. When the plow 
man desired to plow deep, the forward end of the 
tongue was lowered, and in this manner the depth 
of the furrow was regulated. This beam passed 
between the two oxen, & pin was put through th( 
end projecting from the j'oke, and then the agri 
cultural machine was ready to run. The plowmai 
walked on one side, holding the one handle, or stilt 
with his right hand, and managing the oxen witl 
the othei". The yoke was placed on the top of thi 
cattle's heads close behind the hoi'us, tied firmly tc 






'M 






7^\^^?^ 






:'-% 



J^TW 



'■m\. 1^1 







yt-i 












Q ,^ 






^1 



li 



PRIMITIVE AGRICULTURE. 



25 



the roots and to the forehead by thongs, so that, 
instead of drawing bj' the shoulders and neck, the 
oxen dragged the plow by their horns and fore- 
heads. When so harnessed the poor beasts were in 
a very deplorable condition; they could not move 
their heads up, down, or sidcwiso, went with their 
noses turned up, and every jolt of the plow knocked 
them about, and scorned to give them great pain. 
Only an ancient Spaniard could devise such a 
contrivance for animal torture. When Alexander 
Forbes suggested to an old Spaniard that perhaps 
it might be better to yoke the oxen by the neck and 
shoulders, " What!" said the old man, "can you sup- 
pose that Spain, which has always been known as 
the mother of the sciences, can be mista^cen on 
that point?" 

Tho oxen were yoked to the earts in the same 
manner, having to bear the weight of the load 
on the top of their heads, the most disadvantageous 
mechanical point of the whole body. The ox-cart 
was eomposed of a bottom frame of clumsy con- 
struction, with a few upright bars connected by 
smaller ones at the top. When used for carry- 
ing grain, it was lined with canes or bulrushes. The 
pole was large, and tied to the yoke in the same 
manner as with the plow, so that every jerk of the 
cart was torture to the oxen. The wtieols had no 
spokes, and were composed of three pieces of timber, 
the middle piece hewn out of a log, of sufficient size 
to form the nave and middle of the wheel, all in 
one; the middle piece was of a length equal to the 
diameter of the wheel, and rounded at the ends to 
arcs of the circumference. The other two pieces 
were of timber naturally bent, and joined to the 
sides of the middle piece by keys of wood grooved 
into the ends of the pieces which f.icmed the wheel. 
The whole was then made circular, and did not 
contain a particle of iron, not even so mnch as a nail. 
From the rude construction of the plow, which 
was incapable of turning a furrow, the ground was 
imperfectlj' broken by scratching over, crossing, and 
re-crossing several times; and altli«ugh four or five 
crossings were sometimes given to a field, it was 
found impossible to eradicate the weeds. "It was 
no uncommon thing," says Forbes in 1835, "to see, 
on some of the large maize estates in Mexico, as 
many as two hundred plows at work together. As 
the plows are equal on both sides, the plowmen 
have only to begin at one side of the field and follow 
one another up and down, as many as can be em- 
ployed together without interfering in turning round 
at the end, which they do in succession, like ships 
tacking in a line of battle, and so proceed down the 
same side as they come up." 

Harrows were unknown, the wheat and barley 
being brushed in by a branch of a tree. Sometime.^ 
a heavy log was drawn over the field, on the plan 
of a roller, save that it did not roll, but was dragged 
so as to carry a part of the soil over the seeds. 
Indian coi'n was planted in furrows or ruts drawn 
4 



about five feet apart, the seed being deposited by 
hand, from three to five grains in a place, which 
were slightly covered by the foot, no hoes being 
used. The sowing of maize, as well as all other 
grains in Upper California, commenced in Novem- 
ber, as near as possible to the beginning of the rainj- 
season. The harvest was in July and August. 
Wheat was sown broadcast, and in 1885 it was 
considered equal in quality to that produced at the 
Cape of Good Hope, and had begun to attract at- 
tention in Europe. All kinds of grain wore threshed 
at harvest time, without stacking. In 1831, the 
whole amount of grain raised in Upper California, 
according to the mission records, was 4ti,2fl2 fanegan 
— the fanega being equal to 2J English bushels. 
Wheat and barley were then worth two dollars the 
fanega; maize, a dollar and a half; the ci'op of thai 
year at the several missions being worth some eighty- 
six thousand dollars. 

The mills for grindi-ng grain consisted of an up- 
right axle, to the lower end of which was fixed '8 
horizontal water-wheel under the building, and tc 
the upper end a millstone. As there was no inter 
mediate machinery to increase the velocity of the 
stone it could make only the same number of revo 
lutions as the water-wheel, so that the work o 
grinding a grist was necessarily a process of time 
The water-wheel was fearfully and wonderfully 
made, Forbes described it as a set of cucharas, oi 
■gigantic spoons, set around its periphery in place ot 
floats. They were made of strong pieces of timber 
in the shape of spoons, with the handles inserted in 
mortises in the outer surface of the wheel, the bowl 
of the spoons toward the water, which impinged 
upon them with nearly its whole velocity. Rude a? 
the contrivance was, it was exceedingly powerful— 
a sort of primitive turbine. There were only thref 
of these improved mills in the country in 1835, and 
the possession of such a rare piece of machinery wa? 
no small boast for the simple-hearted Fathers, sc 
far away from the progressive mechanical world 
It was not a primitive California invention, how 
ever, as Sir Walter Scott, in his romance of "The 
Pirate," describes a similar apparatus formei-ly in 
use in the Shetland Islands.* 

Before the advent of foreigners, neither potatoes 
nor o-reen vegetables were cultivated as articles o( 
food. Hemp was raised to some extent, and flax 
grew well, but its culture was discontinued for want 
of machinery for manufacture. Pasturage was the 
principal pursuit in all Spanish colonies in America 
The immense tracts of witd land afforded unlimited 
ranges, but few men and little labor were required, 
and the pastoral state was the most congenial to 
the people. The herds were very large; in the 
four jurisdictions of San Francisco, Monterey, Santa 



*Ttiis form of water-wheel was common in tlie Pl.-istern .Statof 
during the earlier part of this century, and w as kiiown as th* 
tub or spur wheel. Even the mounting of the niill-Stones wa> 
in the manner descrilied. — [EurroK. 



26 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Barbara, and San Diego, there were in 183G three 
hundred thousand black cattle, thirty-two thousand 
horses, twenty-eight thousand mules, and one hun- 
dred and fifty-three thousand sheep. Great iium- 
hers of horses ran wild, and these were hunted and 
killed to prevent their eating the grass. There was 
hardly such a thing as butter or cheese in use, but- 
ter being, in general, an abomination to a Spaniard. 

In the earlier times immense droves of J'oung bulls 
were sent to Mexico for beef The cattle being half- 
wild, it was necessary to catch them with the lasso, 
a process which need not be here described. The 
process of milking the cows was peculiar. They first 
let the calf suck for a while, when the dairyman 
Btole up on the other side, and. while the calf 
was still sucking, procured a little of the milk. 
They had an idea that the cow would not " give 
down " milk if the calf was taken away from her. 
The sheep were of a had breed, with coarse wool; and 
swine received little attention. The amount of the 
annual exports in the first few j-ears after the open- 
ing of the ports to foreign vessels, was estimated at 
thirty thousand hides and seven thousand quintals 
of tallow; with small cargoes of wheat, wine, raisins, 
olives, etc., sent to the Russian settlements and San 
Bias. Hides were worth two dollars each, and tallow 
eight dollars per quintal. Afterwards the exporta- 
tion of hides and tallow was greatly increased, and 
it is said that after the Fathers had become con-, 
vinced that (hey would have to give up the mission 
lands to the Government, they caused the slaughter 
of one hundred thousand cattle in a single year, for 
their hides and tallow alone. And who could blame 
them? The cattle were theirs. Notwithstanding 
all this immense revenue these enthusiasts gave it 
all to the church, and themselves went away in 
penury, and, as has been related heretofore, one of 
them actually starved to death. 

In 183G the value of a fat ox or bull in Upper Cali- 
fornia was five dollars; a cow, five; a saddle-horse, 
ten; a mare, five; a sheep, two; and a mule ten 
dollars. 

Thefirst ship ever constructed on the eastern shores 
of the Pacific was built by the Jesuit Father, Ugarte, 
at Loreto, in 1719. Being in want of a vessel to sur- 
vey the coast of the peninsula, and there being none 
available nearer than New Spain or the Philippine 
Islands, the enterprising friar determined to build 
one. After traveling two hundred miles through the 
mountains suitable timber was at last found, in a 
marshy country; but how to get it to the coast was 
the great question; this was considered impossible by 
all but the stubborn old friar. When the party 
returned to Loreto, Father Ugarte's ship in the 
mountains became a ghostly joke among his brother 
friars. But, not to be beaten and laughed down, 
Ugarte made the necessary preparations, returned 
to the mountains, felled the timber, dragged it two 
hundred miles to the coast, and built a handsome 
ship, which ho appropriately named The Triumph of 



the Gross. The first voyage of this historic ves- 
sel was to La Paz, two hundred miles south of Loreto, 
where a mission was to be founded. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Sir Francis Drake's Discoveries—The Fabulous Straits of 
Auian— Arctic Weather in June — Russian Invasion — 
Native Animals — Various facts and Events. 

For many years it was supposed and maintained 
in England that Sir Francis Drake was the original 
discoverer of San Francisco bay; but it is now con- 
sidered certain that he never found the entrance to 
that inland sea. Drake was a buccaneer, and, in 
1579, was in the South Seas looking for Spanish 
ships to plunder, under the pretext of existing war 
between England and Spain. He had two other pur- 
poses to subserve in behalf of the English Govern- 
ment; to discover a new route from Europe to the ■ 
Indies, and to find a new territory northward 
that would rival the Spanish-American possessions 
in natural wealth. A rich trade had sprung up 
between the Philippine Islands and Spain; every 
year a Spanish galleon from the Malayan Archipel- 
ago crossed the Pacific to Acapulco, freighted with 
the richest merchandise, and this. Captain Drake 
was on the watch for, and did eventuaJly capture. 

At that time navigators universally believed that 
the American and Asiatic continents were separated 
only by the Sti'aits of Anian, which were sup- 
posed to lead eastward to the Atlantic, somewhere 
about Newfoundland. This long-sought northwest- 
ern passage Drake was in search of. In the autumn 
of 1578 Drake brought his little fleet of three ves- 
sels through the Straits of Magellan, and found the 
Pacific ocean in a stormy rage, and, having been 
drifted about Cape Horn a couple of months, ho con- 
cluded that the continent was there at an end; that 
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans there united th^ir 
waters; and he very naturally came to the conclu- 
sion that a similar juncture of seas would be found 
at the north. Having captured the great Spanish 
galleon, and finding himself overburdened with rich 
treasure, Drake wanted to return to England. He 
did not care to encounter the stormy waters of 
Cape Horn, and expecting to find a hostile Spanish 
fleet awaiting him at the Straits of Magellan, he 
determined to make his way home by a new and 
hitherto unknown route, the north-eastern passage. 
On the 17th of June, 1579, he entered what the his- 
torian of the expedition called a " faire, good bay 
within thirty-eight degrees of latitude of the line.'' 
That exactly corresponds with what is now known 
as Drake's Bay, behind Point Reyes. There, 
although it was in the month of June, his men " com- 
plained grievously of the nipping cold." Drake 
havino- given up the perilous north-eastern passage 
by way of the fabulous Straits of Anian, sailed away 
for England by way of the Philippine Islands and 



MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND EVENTS. 



Lhe Cape of Good Hope. It is probable that while 
off the north west coast, Drake saw the snowj- 
crest of Mount Shasta and some of the Oregon 
peaks, and concluded that he had got near enough 
10 the North Pole. At any rate, it is clear enough 
that he never passed through the Golden Gate, or 
rested on the magnificent waters of San Francisco 
bay. 

TLe Eeverend Fletcher, chaplain of Drake's expe- 
dition, must have been a terrible old story-teller. He 
says that when off the coast of Oregon, in the 
month of June, " The rigging of the ship was frozen 
stiff", and the meat froze as it was taken off the 
tire." Moreover, saith the same veracious parson, 
'There is no part of earth here to be taken up, 
wherein there is not a reasonable quantity of gold 
and silver." These arctic regions and golden treas- 
ures were found along the ocean shore between San- 
Franciseo and Portland. 

Another English buccaneer, Thomas Cavendish, 
appeared on the Pacific coast in 158G, and plundered 
the Philippine galleon of 122,000 pesos in gold, 
besides a valuable cargo of merchandise. The pirate 
ran the vessel into the nearest port, set her on fire, 
liberated the crew and made his escape to England. 

It is supposed that one of ihe extensive Smith 
family was the first white man who crossed the 
Sierra Nevada from the States, but this fact is not 
altogether certain. In the Summer of 1825 Jedediah 
S. Smith, the head of the Americiiu Fur Company, 
led a party of trappers and Indians from their camp, 
on Green river, across the Sierra Nevada and into 
the Tulare valley, which they reached in July. The 
party trapped for beaver from the Tulare to the 
American river, and had their camp near the pres- 
ent site of Folsom. On a second trip Smith led his 
company further south, into the Mojave country, on 
the Colorado, where all except himself and two com- 
panions were killed by the Indians. These three 
made their way to the Mission of San Gabriel, near 
Los Angeles, which they reached in December, 1826. 
in the following year Smith and his party left the 
Sacramento valley for the settlements on the Colum- 
bia river, but at the mouth of the Umpijua they 
were attacked by Indians, and all killed except 
Smith and two Irishmen, who, after much suffering, 
reached Fort Vancouver. Smith returned to St 
Louis in 1840, and the following year was killed by 
Indians, while leading an expedition to Santa Pe. 
His history is no less adventurous and romantic 
than that of the famous Captain John Smith, of 
Virginia. 

In 1807 the Russians first appeared on the coast of 
California. The Czar's ambassador to Japan oame 
down from Sitka, ostensibly for sujiplies, and 
attempted to establish communication between the 
Russian and Spanish settlements. The better to 
effect his purpose he became engaged in marriage 
with the Commandante's daughter, at San Francisco, 
but on his way back to obtain the sanction of his 



Government he was thrown from his horse and 
killed. The lady assumed the habit of a nun, and 
mourned for her lover until death. In 1812 a hun- 
dred Russians and as many Kodiac Indians came 
down from their northern settlements and squatted 
at Bodega, where they built a fort and maintained 
themselves by force of arms until 1841, when they 
sold the establishment to Captain Sutter and disap- 
peared. 

In 1822 Mexico declared her independence ol 
Spain, and established a separate empire. When the- 
Indians at San Diego heard of it they held a great 
feast, and commenced the ceremonies by burning 
their chief alive. When the missionaries remon- 
strated, the logical savages said: "Have you not 
done the same in Mexico? You say your King 
was not good, and you killed him; well, our cap- 
tain was not good, and we burned him. It the new 
one is bad we will burn him too." 

The State of California was originallj- divided 
into twenty-seven counties. The derivation of the 
several terms adopted is given by General Vallejo: 
San Diego (Saint James) takes its name from the 
old town, three miles from the harbor, discovered by 
Viscaino, in 1602. 

Los Angeles county was named from the city 
(Ciudad de Los Angeles) founded by order of the 
Viceroy of New Spain, in 1780. 

Santa Barbara was named after the town estab- 
lished in 1780 to protect the five adjacent missions. 

San Luis Obispo, after its principal town, the site 
of a misson founded in 1772 by Juniper© Serra and 
Jose Cavalier. 

Montfirejr, after the chief town, which was so 
named by Viscaino in honor of his friend and patron, 
the Viceroy, Count of Monterey. 

Santa Cruz (^ihe Holy Cross) was named from thx^ 
mission on the north side of the bay. 

San Francisco, named in honor of the friars 
patron saint. 

Santa Clara, named from the mission established 
there in 1777. 

Contra Costa (the opposite coast) is the natural 
designation of the country across the bay from San 
Francisco. 

Marin county, named after a troublesome chief 
whom an exploring expedition encountered in Isj.') 
Marin died at the San Rafael Mission in 1S34. 

Sonoma, named after a noted Indian, who also 
gave name to his tribe. The word means " Valley 
of the Moon." 

Solano, the name of a chief, who borrowed it from 
his missionary li-iend. Father Solano. 

Yolo, a corruption of an Indian word yoloy, sig 
nifying a place thick with rushes; also, the name ol 
a tribe of Indians on Cache creek. 

Napa, named after a numerous tribe in that re- 
gion, which was nearly exterminated by small-jio-x 
in 1838. 



28 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Mendocino, named by the discoverer after Men- 
doza, Viceroy of New Spain. 

Sacramento (the Sacrament). Moraga gave the 
main river the name of Jesus Maria, and the prin 
cipal branch he called Sacramento. Afterwards, 
the great river came to be known as the Sacra- 
mento, and the branch, Feather river. 

El Dorado, the appropriate name of the district 
where gold was discovered in 1848. 

Sutter county, named in honor of the world- 
renowned pioneer, John A. Sutter. 

Yuba, a corruption of Uca, a name given a branch 
of Feather river in 1824 by an ex]jloring party, on 
account of the great quantities of wild grape vines 
growing on its banks. 

Butte, the common French term for a mound, in 
allusion to three symmetrical hills in that county; 
so named by a party of the Hudson Bay Company 
liunter.-i. 

Uolusa, from Coluses, the name of a numerous 
tribe on the west side of the Sacramento. Meaning 
of the word is unknown. 

Shasta, the name of a tribe who lived at the base 
of the lofty peak of same name. 

Calaveras, so named by Captain .Moraga, on ac- 
count of an immense number of skulls in the vicinity' 
of a stream, which he called "Calaveras, or the 
River of Skulls." This is the reputed site of a terri- 
ble battle between the mountaiti and valley Indians, 
over the fishing question. 

San Joaquin, after the river, so named by Captain 
Moraga, in honor of the legendary' lather of the 
Virgin. 

Tuolumne, a corruption of an Indian word, signi- 
fying a cluster of stone wigwams. 

Mariposa signifies butterfly. So called by a party 
of hunters, who camped on the river in 1807, and 
observed the trees gorgeous with butterflies. 

Trinity, called after the bay of that name, which 
was discovered on the anniversary of Trinity Fes- 
tival. 

When first visited by the Spaniards, California 
abounded in wild animals, some of which are now 
extinct. One of these was called Berendo by the 
Spaniards, and by the natives, Taye. " It is," says 
Father Venegas, " about the bigness of a calf a 
year and a half old, resembling it in figure, except 
the head, which is like that of a deer, and the 
horns very thick, like those of a ram. Its hoof 
is large, round, and cloven, and its tail short." 
This was the Argall, a species intermediate between 
the goat and the sheep, living in large herds along 
the bases of the mountains; supposed to be a variety 
of the Asiatic argali, so plentiful in Northern and 
Central Asia. In his journey from Monterey to San 
Francisco, Father Serra met with herds of immense 
deer, which the men mistook for European cattle, 
and wondered how they got there. Several deer 
were shot, whose horns measured eleven feet from 
tip to tip. Another large animal, which the natives 



called cibolo, the bison, inhabited the great plains, 
but was eventually driven off by the vast herds of 
domestic cattle. When Langsdorft's ship was lying 
in the Bay of San Francisco in 1804. sea-otter were 
swimming about so plentifully as to be nearly un- 
heeded. The Indians caught them in snares, or 
killed them with sticks. Perouse estimated that 
the Presidency of Monterey alone could supply 
ten thousand otter skins annually. Thej' were worth 
twenty dollars and upwards apiece. Beechey found 
birds in astonishing numbers and variety, but theii 
plumage was dingy looking, and very few of them 
could sing respectably. 

The name California was first given to the Lower 
Peninsula in 1536, and was afterwards applied to 
the coast territory as far north as Cape Mendocino. 
There has been much learned speculation concerning 
the probable derivation of the word, but no satis- 
factory conclusion has been reached. The word is 
arbitrary, derived from some expression of the In- 
dians. 

The province, as it formerly existed under the 
Viceroys, was divided into two parts; Peninsular, 
or Lower and Old California, and Continental, or 
Upper and New, the line of separation running near 
the 32d parallel of latitude, from the northern ex- 
tremity of the Gulf of California, to the Pacific ocean. 

The Gulf of California — called also the Sea of Cor- 
tez, and the Vermilion Sea — is a great arm of the 
Pacific, which joins that ocean under the 23d par- 
allel of latitude, and thence extends north-westward 
inland about seven hundred miles, where it receives 
the waters of the Colorado and Gila rivers. It is 
a hundred miles wide at the mouth, widens further 
north, and still further on contracts in width, till its 
shores become the banks of the Colorado. The 
Peninsular, or California side of the Gulf, was for- 
merly celebrated for the size and beauty of its 
pearls, which were found in oysters. They were 
obtained with great difficulty, from the crevices at 
the bottom, by Indian divers, who had to go down 
twenty or thirty feet, and frequently were drowned, 
or devoured by sharks. In 1825, eight vessels en- 
gaged in the fishing, obtained, altogether, five 
pounds of pearls, which were worth about ten thou- 
sand dollars. Sometimes, however, a single mag- 
nificent pearl was found, which compensated for 
years of labor and disappointment. Some of the 
richest in the royal regalia of Spain, were found on 
the California gulf. 

Peninsular, or Lower California, lying between 
the gulf and the ocean, is about 130 miles in breadth 
where it joins the continent at the north, under the 
32d parallel, and nearly in the same latitude as 
Savannah in Georgia. Thence it runs south-east- 
ward, diminishing in breadth and terminating in 
two points, the one at Cape San Lucas, in nearly the 
same latitude as Havana, the other at Cape Palmo, 
60 miles north-east, at the entrance of the gulf. 

Continental California extends along the Pacific 



THE AMERICAN CONQUEST. 



20 



from the 32d parallel, where it joins the peninsula, 
about seven hundred miles, to the Oregon line, 
nearly in the latitude of Boston. The Mexican 
Government considered the 42d parallel of latitude 
as the northern line of California, aecoi-ding to a 
treaty with the United States in 1828. 

Greenhow, writing in 1844, says: "The only mine 
as yet discovered in Upper California is one of 
gold, situated at the foot of the great westernmost 
range of mountains, on the west, at the distance 
of twenty-five miles from Angeles, the largest 
town in the country, it is said to be of extra- 
ordinary richness." 

The animals originally found in California were 
buffalo, deer, elk, bear, wild hogs, wild sheep, 
ocelots, pumas, beavers, foxes, and many others, 
generally of a species different from those on the 
Atlantic side. Cattle and horses were introduced 
from Mexico, and soon overrun the country, and 
drove out the buffalo and other of the large animals. 
One of the worst scourges of the country was the 
chapul, a kind of grasshopper, which appeared in 
clouds after a mild winter, and ate up every green 
thing.- 

Little or no rain fell during the years 1840 and 
1841, in which time the inhabitants were reduced to 
the verge of starvation. 

It is a remarkable fact, that the Golden Gate is 
nearly in the same latitude as the entrance of Chesa- 
peake bay and the Straits of Gibraltar. 

In 1844, the town of Monterey, the capital oi' 
Upper California, was a wretched collection of mud, 
or adobe houses, containing about two hundred in- 
habitants. The castle and fort consisted of mud 
walls, behind which were a few worthless guns, good 
for nothing but to scare the Indians. 

In 18H8, the Bussian settlements at Ross and 
Bodega contained eight or nine hundred inhab- 
itants, stockaded forts, mills, shops, and stable.-s, and 
the farms produced great abundance of grain, vege- 
tables, butter, and cheese, which were shipped to 
Sitka. The lazy Spaniards were bitterly hostile to 
the industrious Muscovites, but durst not meddle 
with them. At last, having maintained their in- 
dependent colony thirty-one years, they sold out to 
Captain Sutter, and quietly moved away. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE AMERICAN CONQUEST. 

Fremont ami the Bear Flag — Kise and Progress of the Revolu- 
tion — Commodores Sloat, Stockton, and .Shubrick — Castro 
anil Flores Driven out — Treaty of Peace — Stockton and 
Kearney Quarrel- — Fremont Arrested, etc. 

In the Spring of 1845, John C. Fremont, then a 
brevet-captain in the corps ot United States Topo- 
graphical Engineers, was dispatched on a third 
lour of exploration across the continent, and was 
charged to find a better route from the Rocky 
.Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia river. 



This was his ostensible business, but there is reason 
to believe that he had other and private instructions 
from the Government concerning the acquisition 
of California, in view of the pending war with 
Mexico. Fremont reached the frontiers of Cali- 
fornia in March, 1846, halted his company a hun- 
dred miles from Monterey, and proceeded alone to 
have an interview with General Castro, the Mexican 
Commandante. He wanted permission to take his 
company of sixty-two men to San Joaquin valley, 
to recruit fheir energies before setting out for 
Oregon. To this Castro assented, and told him to go 
where he pleased. Immediately thereafter the per- 
fidious Castro, pretending to have received fresh 
instructions from his Government, raised a com- 
pany of three hundred native Californians, and sent 
word to Fremont to quit the country forthwith, else 
he would fall upon and annihilate him and his little, 
band of adventurers. Fremont sent word back that 
he should go when he got reat'y, and then took posi- 
tion on Hawk's Peak, overlooking Monterey, and 
raised the American flag. At this time neither party 
had heard of any declaration of war between the 
United States and Mexico. 

Fremont's party consisted of sixty-two rough 
American borderers, including Kit Carson and six 
Delaware Indians, each armed with a rifle, two pis- 
tols, a bowie-knife, and tomahawk. Castro maneu- 
vered round for three days with his cavalry, infantry 
and field pieces, but, with true Mexican discretion, 
kept well out of rifle shot; and, on the fourth day 
Fremont, perceiving that there was no fight in the 
gascon, struck his camp and moved at his leisure 
toward Oregon. 

At Klamath lake. Lieutenant Gillespie, of the 
United States army, overtook Fremont's party, with 
verbal dispatches, and a letter from the American 
Secretary of State, commending the bearer to Fre- 
mont's good offices. That was all; what the verbal 
dispatches were is still unknown. Fremont returned 
to the Sacramento valley, and encamped near the 
Marysville Buttes. He found the American settlers 
o-reatly alarmed by Castro's war-like proclamations, 
and had no difiiculty in raising a considerable com- 
pany of volunteers, a party of whom marched on 
the post of Sonoma, captured nine brass cannon, two 
hundred and fifty stand of small arms, and made 
prisoners of General Vallejo and two other persons 
of importance. Eighteen man were left to garri«on 
the place, under William B. Ide. Castro fulminated 
another proclamation from his head-quarters at Santa 
Clara, calling on the native Californians to " rise for 
their religion, liberty, and independence," and Ide 
issued another at Sonoma, appealing to the Ameri 
cans and other loreigners to rise and defend theii 
rights of settlement, as they were about to be mas- 
sacred or driven out of the countrj'. The settierc 
responded numerou-sly and with alacrity; and, aftei 
one or two skirmishes, repaired to Sonoma, declared 
an independent State, and raised the now celebrated 



30 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Bear Flag. That historic standard consisted of a 
piece of cotton cloth, with a tolerable likeness of a 
grizzly bear, done with a blacking-brush and berry- 
juice, and now belongs to the California Society of 
Pioneers. 

In the meantime Fremont was organizing a bat- 
talion at Sutter's Fort, and having heard that Castro 
was moving in force on Sonoma, he made a forced 
march to that point with ninety riflemen. Thence 
Fremont, Kit Carson, Lieutenant Gillespie, and a 
few others, crossed to the old fort at San Francisco, 
made prisoner the Commandante, spiked all the 
guns, and returned to Sonoma. There, on the 5th of 
July, 1846. he called his whole force of revolution- 
ists together, and recommended an immediate 
declaration of independence. This was unanimousJy 
assented to, and the bear party was merged into the 
battalion, which now numbered one hundred and 
sixty mounted riflemen. Next day it was deter- 
mined to go in pursuit of the proc'airaing Castro, 
who was said to be entrenched at Santa Clara with 
four hundred men; but when the battalion had 
crossed the Sacramento at Sutter's Fort, they 
learned that Castro had evacuated the Santa Clara 
country and fled to Los Angeles, whither they 
resolved to follow him, five hundred miles away. At 
this point news was received that the American Aug 
had been raised at Monterej^ and that the American 
naval forces would co-operate with the mounted 
riflemen in the eff'ort to capture Castro. Then the 
Bear Flag was hauled down, giving place to the 
stars and stripes, and Fremont and his men set out 
overland for Los Angeles, after the declamatory but 
fugacious Castro, who will live in history as the •' Cap- 
tain Bobadil " of that brief but stirring revolution. 
Up to this time nothing had been heard of a declara- 
tion of war between Mexico and the United States. 

On the 2d of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat had 
arrived at Monterey in the United States frigate. 
Savannah, his whole fleet consisting of one frigate 
and five smaller vessels. He had no intelligence 
of a declaration of war between the United States 
and Mexico, but was aware that hostilities were 
impending, and was in doubt what to do. The 
British Rear- Admiral, Sir George Seymour's flag- 
ship, was Ij'ing in the harbor of San Bias while Sloat 
was at Mazatlan, and eight other British ships were 
on the coast watching the American movements, and 
ready to take possession of California. When Sloat 
sailed i'rom Mazatlan Se^-mour put out from San Bias, 
each ship spreading every sail in a race for Monterej-, 
but the American Commodore out-sailed the British 
Admiral, and, when the latter rounded the Point of 
Pines at Monterey, he found the Americans in full pos- 
session. On the 7th of July Commodore Sloat sent 
Captain Mervine, with two hundred and fifty ma- 
rines and seamen, on shore, hoisted the American flag 
over Monterey, the capital of Upper California, and 
issued a proclamation declaring the province hence- 
forth a portion of the United States. He had pre- 



viously dispatched a messenger to San Francisco to 
Commander Montgomery, and on the 8th of that 
month the stars and stripes waved over Yerba 
Buena. On the 10th Montgomery sent an American 
flag to Sonoma, which the revolutionists received 
with great joy, pulled down their Bear Flag, and 
hoisted the Union standard in its stead, and thus 
ended the dominion of the revolutionary Bear Flag 
in California, having plaj-ed a conspicuous and 
important part in the conquest. 

Sloat then organized a company of volunteer dra- 
goons to take possession of certain arms and stores 
at San Juan; but, when they arrived, Fremont and 
his battalion had been there from Sutter's Fort, and 
captured nine pieces of cannon, two hundred mus- 
kets, twenty kegs of powder, and sirty thousand 
pounds of cannon shot. 

When Fremont reported himseh upon Sloat's 
order, at Monterey, a inisuadersta'ding occuri-ed 
between the Commodore and the Pathfinder, and 
the former refused to co-operate with the latter In 
the further prosecution of the war, and while the 
dispute was pending Commodore Stockton arrived to 
supersede Sloat, who had been too slow and hesitating 
to suit the authorities at Washington. 

Sloat having retired, Stockton and Fremont woi'k<?d 
harmoniously. The former assumed command of t-he 
land forces, and invited Fremont and Gillespie to 
take service under him with their battalion. On the 
23d, Stockton dispatched Commodore Dupont with 
the Cyaiie, to convey Fremont and his battalion to 
San Diego, and soon afterwards himself sailed for 
San Pedro, the sea-port of Los Angeles. At Santa 
Barbara he went ashore and took possession unre- 
sisted. There he learned that Castro and Pico were 
at Los Angeles with fifteen hundred men, and also 
that Fremont had reached San Diego. After drilling 
his seamen in the land service, Stockton, with his 
three hundred men, took up his march for Los 
Angeles, but, on his arrival, Castro had decamped 
and fl-id to Sonora. Stockton at once took posses- 
sion of the place, and was soon after joined by Fre- 
mont, and, having received oflicial notice of existing 
war between the LTnited States and Mexico, he pro- 
claimed California a territory of the United States, 
organized a temporary government, and invited the 
people to meet on the 15th of September and elect 
oflScers of their own. He then returned to Yerba 
Buena, or San Francisco, where the people of the 
neighboring country gave him a public reception. 

After Stockton had left Los Angeles, General Plores 
re-organized the scattered forces of the Mexicans, 
retook the place, and proclaimed expulsion or death 
to the Americans; so the conquest had to be made 
again. Stockton returned to San Diego, and, after 
various events which cannot be here related in 
detail, was joined by General Kearney, who had 
marched across the country from Santa Fe, and, on 
the 20th of December, commenced his march of one 
hundred and thirty miles to Los Angeles. He found 



SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY FROM 1S41 TO 1847. 



31 



the enemy, a thousand or twelve hundred strong, 
drawn up in battle array on the bank of the San 
Grabriel river; a battle ensued, in which the Mexi 
cans were defeated by Stockton and Kearney, and 
fled towards Los Angeles, and, after three ineffect- 
ual attomjjts to make a stand, they scattered in con- 
fusion. On tin; loth of January Stockton re-entered 
Los Angeles, and restored the American flag to the 
eminence which it still maintains. Flores, after hav- 
ing made a much better fight than Castro, fled to 
Sonorii. The treaty of Couenga ensued, restoring 
peace to the country and completing the American 
conquest. 

Immediately after the conquest a dispute arose be- 
tween Commodore Stockton and General Kearney as 
to precedence in the territorial Government. Kearney 
was authorized to etablish a civil Government in Cal- 
ifornia, provided he should conquer it, as he did New 
Mexico; Stockton and Fremont maintained that the 
conquest was accomplished before he arrived. Fre- 
mont decided to report officially to Commodore 
Stockton, who thereupon commissioned him as Gov- 
ernor of the Territory. Thus Fremont obtained the 
ill-will of General Kearney, who, combining with 
Commodore Shubrick, in the absence of Stockton, 
abrogated the treaty of Couenga, and proceeded to 
oust Fremont from the Governorship. In the mean- 
time Colonel Stephenson arrived with his regiment 
of New York volunteers, and sided with Kearney. 
Mason was installed as Governor, and Fremont was 
ordered to report at Monterey within twelve daj^s; 
this he failed to do, and Kearney refused him per- 
mission to join his regiment, sold his horses, and 
ordered him to repair to Monterey, where he com- 
pelled him to turn over hi.s exploi-ing outfit to 
another person. When Kearney was ready to go 
F/ast he compelled Fremont to accompany him, and 
at Fort Leavenworth Fremont was arrested for 
insubordination, conveyed to Fortress Monroe, tried 
by Court-martial, found guilty of mutiny, disobedi- 
ence, and disorderly conduct, deprived of his com- 
mission, but recommended to the clemency of the 
President. Having eufiPered these outrageous indig- 
nities solely in consequence of a quarrel between 
Commod(n'e Stockton and General Kearney, Fre- 
mont declined to avail himself of executive clemency, 
and quit the service. 

The people of the country generally considered 
that Fremont had been ungenerously used by the 
Government, and, a few years after, his popularity 
having been greatly enhanced through the influence 
of his magnificent wife, the daughter of Senator 
Thomas H. Benton, he was nominated for the Fres- 
iilency by the Republican jiartj'. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SAN JOAQUIN VAl.r.TTV FROM THE TIME CAPT. C. 

M. WEBER FIRST SAW IT IN NOVEMBER. 

1841, UNTIL THE CLOSE OF 1847. 

BY FRANK T GILBERT. 

Captain C. M. Weber — Expedition to California, 1841 — Names 
of the Party — Sntter's Fort — Hoza Ha-soos — San Jose — 
French Camp or Weber Grant— Revolutionary Designs of the 
Foreigners — Treaty between Weber and Ha-sooa — How it 
was observed by Ha-soos — Fremont's Expedition, 1844— 
David Kelsey — Thomas Lindsay — Policy of the Foreigners — 
Weber and Micheltorena at San Jose — John A. Sutter aids 
Mioheltorena — A Revolutionary Document — The "Bear 
Flag "—Attempt to Settle the Grant, 1846— Isbel Brothers 
and Other Early Settlers — Twins, Second Children born in 
County, 1847 — End of Stanislaus City — First Marriage, 1847 
—Village of "Tuleburg" — William Gann, First Child born 
in 1847— Wild Horse Scheme — Resume. 

Capt. C. M. Weber was born at Hombourg. Depart- 
ment of Mont Tonnerre, under the Emperor Napo- 
leon I., on the 16th day of February, 1814. His 
parents were German. This province, about a year 
later, became a part of the Kingdom of Bavaria. 
Hi.s father was a minister, and held the position 
which in America would be called County School 
Superintendent. The Captain received an academic 
education — but not relishing an outlook that pre- 
sented the ministry in the future, his education was 
cut shoi-t at the threshold of the classic, and a mer- 
cantile horoscope was cast for the j^ears " that were 
not yet." 

Being of an adventurous disposition, the land where 
Washington had fought and De Kalb had fallen held 
to his youthful imagination an irresistible attraction; 
aud at the age of twenty-two he crossed the ocean, 
landed at New Orleans in the latter part of 1836, 
and for five years was a resident of Ijouisiana and 
Texas, when in the Spring of 1841, under medisal 
advice, he visited St. Louis. In the meantime he had 
read m the newspapers the glowing descriptions of 
California given by Dr. John Marshe, a resident of 
the San Joaquin valley, and which were attracting 
ing considerable attention in the States. The Cap- 
tain — knowing that a trip across the plains, over the 
mountains of the west, and down into the California 
valleys would benefit his health, and, at the same time 
give him an opportunity to see this comparatively un- 
known country — decided to join an expedition then 
fitting out in that city for a trip to the Pacific slope, 
intending in the following Spring to continue his 
journej' to Mexico, through that country, and ulti- 
mately, in that way, reach Louisiana, his final desti- 
nation, having no intention of stopping in California 
longer, at the farthest, than through the ensuing 
Winter. But "the best laid schemes o' mice and men 
gang aft agley. " 

The party to which the Captain attached himself was 
a combination of emigrants for three different points: 
One party was destined for Oregon, then the object- 
ive point for most Americans seeking the distant 
Pacific Coast, and being American territory of which 
faint but favorable descriptions had been written; 
another was a company of Jesuit priests going 



32 



HIST(^RY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



on a mission to the Indians, hoping to Christianize 
the tribes of Oregon and Idaho; their immediate 
destination was the missions of Cceiir d' Alene and 
Pen d' Oreille; Father P. J. DeSmet, S. J., was the 
leadini; spirit, and his eiforts in that field have been 
written, a brief page in history, and the red man 
still scalps his foes. The third was the California 
wing of the little emigrant arm}% and numbered 
among its party men whose subsequent acts helped 
materially to shape the destinies »f the State which 
has since become a golden star in the galaxy of the 
Republic. 

There were thirty-six in that party. One onl}- 
was a woman — the first American lady, probably, 
who ever entered California — certainlj- the first to 
reach it from over the plains. Her name was Mrs. 
Nancy A. Kelsey. She was the wife of Benjamin 
Kelsey, and they had a little daughter named Ann. 
This family commenced their march then, and, like 
the wandering Juvv, have never since found a place 
to stop and rest. The beauties of California could 
not keep them, — they moved away to the forests of 
Oregon, and then returned again to the El Dorado 
of the coast; but no sooner had they settled there than 
the spirit of unrest canae whispering 'move on," and 
over the plains again they started; they were attacked 
by the Camanches in Texas, lost everything, and 
their little girl was scalped by the savages. Stopping 
for a time, they once more started for California 
and now are possibly moving to some new scene. 

The men of the party were: — 
Capt. J. B. B.\rtelson; Captain of the party; re- 
turned to Missouri; is now dead. 
John Bidwell; lives at Chico. 
Joseph B. Childs; still alive. 

JosiAH Belden; lives at San Jose and San Francisco. 
Charles M. Weber; died in Stockton, May 4, 1881. 
Charles Hopper; lives in Napa county. 
Henry Huber; lives in San Francisco. 
Mitchell N\e: had a ranch at Marjsville; probably 

ntnv aliv(.'. 
Green McMahon; lives in Solano county. 
Nelson McMahon; died in New York. 
Talbot H. Greene; returned East. 
Ambrose Walton; returned East. 
John McDonel; returned East. 
George Henshaw; returned East. 
Robert Ryckmax; returned East. 
WjM. Betty or Beltv; returned East by way of 

Santa Ke 
Charles Fugge; returned Ii^ast. 
Gwin Patton; returned East; died in Missouri. 
BE^JIMAN Kelsey; was within a few years in Santa 
Barbara county, or at Clear Lake, Lake county 
Andrew Kelsey; killed by Indians at Clear Lake. 
James John or Littlejohn; went to Oregon. 
Henry Brolasky; went to Callao. 
James Dowson; drowned in Columbia river. 
Maj. Walton, drowned in Sacramento river. 
George Shortwell; accidentally shot on the way 
out. 



.loHN Swartz; died in California. 
Grove Cook; died in California. 
D. W. Chandler; went to Sandwich Islands. 
Nicholas Dawson; dead. 
Thomas Jones; dead. 

Robert H. Thomes; died in Tehama county, Cali- 
fornia, March 26, 1878. 
Elias Barnet. 
James P. SpRmoER. 
John Rowland. 

They left Indpendence, Missouri, May 8, 1841 and 
all traveled together as fa» as Fort Hall, near Salt 
Lake, where Capt. J. B. BarteUon's part}-, as named 
above, separated from the rest and started for Cali- 
fornia, without a guide, by the way of Mai-y's (now 
Humboldt") river, they went to Carson river, and 
from the latter, to the main channel of Walker's 
rivor, up which they went to near it* source, from 
which point the}- commenced their passage of the 
Sierra Nevada, descending its western slope between 
the Stanislaus and TuoliunDe rivers, reaching the 
San Joaquin valley and passing down along the 
Stanislaus, crossed the San Joaquin river and 
arrived at the Dr. Marshe ranch, near the east- 
ern base of Mount Diablo; on the 4th of November, 
1841, having been six months, lacking four days, on 
the way. Here the company rested for a number of 
days, and then disbanded, each going to the point 
in the country which his interests demanded. The 
Captain and a friend started for Sutter's Fort, having 
letters of introduction to Captain Sutter. They passed 
through the country now known as San Joaquin 
county, and beheld for the first time the land that 
the result of his own labors was to people within lii,>» 
life-time with thirty thousand souls. 

The Winter of 1841-2 was spent by the Captain at 
Sutter's Fort, occupying his time by acting as over- 
seer and assistant for Ca|)tain Sutter. While at 
the fort he found a quantity of seeds which had 
been laid away and apparently forgotten. They had 
been sent to Sutter by Wm. G. Ray, of the Hudson 
Bay Company, as a friendly expression of good will. 
The Captain, desiring te try an experiment, had the 
land around the fort prepared by Indians, and 
planted the seeds. Among them were three kinds of 
tobacco, a number of varieties of flowers, and some 
vegetables. The experiment proved a grand success, 
and in the Spring Sutter's Fort seemed like an en- 
chanted fortress built in the midst of perennial 
gai-dens. 

During the winter of 1841-2 Jose Jesu-s (pro- 
nounced Ho-za Ha-soos), the celebrated chief of the 
Si-yak-um-na tribe, visited the fort, at which time 
the Captain first met him. In after years there sprang 
up a warm friendship between these two men, that 
had much to do with the peaceable manner in which 
the country was afterwards settled by the whites. 
The Captain learned, in his intercourse with foreign- 
ers in the country, that there was germinating a prin- 
ciple or feeling which was in some localities freelj- 




Moses Audreivs. 



SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY FROM 1841 TO 1847. 



33 



talked of, to eventually Americanize California; 
and. concluded with that prospect to look forward 
to, that he was fully warranted in casting his des- 
tinies with the other venturesome spirits who had 
decided to make Alta California their future home. 

In the Spring he visited San Jose, and concluded 
to make that the point of his future business oper- 
ations, until the time should come, if ever, when it 
vvould become necessary to wrest from Mexico a 
portion of the country, over which to hoist a flag with 
the " lone star." 

We do not wish to be misunderstood in this 
matter. The intention of the leading pioneers of Cali- 
fornia, those who came here previous to June, 1846, 
with the intention of making this their home, with- 
out regard to their nationality, was to work a polit- 
ical change in the country, "peaceably if they could, 
forcibly if they must;" and this was to be done not 
because of any desire to injure the native Califor- 
nians, nor in a spirit of conquest, but because it was 
evident to those clear-headed Argonauts that to make 
the country a prosperous one, (one that would war- 
rant occupation by a people of progressive civiliza- 
tion), necessitated a radical change in the manner of 
administering the affairs of State. 

This change they proposed to effect in connection 
with the native inhabitants, if they could; and if this 
could not be done, to eventually, when they became 
strong enough, wi-est a portion of the territory from 
Mexico, and form a government of their own. 

Captain Weber formed a copartnership with 
Guillermo Gulnac, and soon established a credit which 
enabled the firm to do a very large business. They 
were the first parties in that portion of the State to 
build a flouring mill and manufacture flour, combin- 
ing with the business the manufacture of sea-biscuit 
or crackers, this mill having been erected and flour 
made in 1842. They also entered quite largely into 
the manufacture of soap and American shoes, being 
the first manufacturers of the latter in California. 

In 1843. July 14th, Guillermo Gulnac petitioned 
Manuel Micheltorena, the Governor of California, for 
a grant of eleven square leagues, or forty-eight thou- 
sand acres of land, to be located in the vicinity of 
French Camp, in the San Joaquin valley. Captain 
Weber was the real party, the power behind the 
throne; Mr. Gulnac's name being used because he 
was a Mexican citizen, as only such could obtain 
grants. About this time the commercial partnership 
was dissolved, the Captain becoming the successor to 
the business, and Mr. Gulnac, his eldest son, Jose, 
and Peter Lassen, with several vaqueros, took the 
cattle belonging to them and Captain Weber, and 
proceeded to take possession of the applied-forgrant, 
at first making their head-quarters where Stockton 
novi- is; but owing to the fact that the Hudson Bay 
trappers had left for the summer, they became 
alarmed for their personal safety among the Indians 
and moved their camp up to the Cosumnes river, so 
as to be in reach of Sutter's Fort for protection. Mr. 

5 



Gulnac visited Captain Sutter, and was presented by 
that officer with a swivel gun such as the navy used 
in those daj^s when attacking an enemy in small 
boats, mounting the swivel in the bow. This "young 
canBon"was to be used by Mr. Gulnac as a warning to 
the Indians to " flee from the wratli to come." It 
would make a " heap big noise" when fired, and was 
respected accordingly by the aborigines. 

A statement will probably come in no place more 
opportune than hero, of the reason which caused 
Captain Weber to desire the location of his proposed 
grant on the "up country side of the San Joaquin 
river." We have already given the political intentions 
of those pioneers which in 1843 had assumed so 
definite a form as to have caused the question 
to be discussed among them of where the division 
line was to be drawn between the Mexican prov- 
inces and the territory to be taken from them, 
in case it should result in that extreme measure : 
and the conclusion had been tacitly arrived at 
that the San Joaquin river and the bays of San 
Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun were to form the 
line of division. It will therefore be seen that a 
strong reason for choosing a locality north of the 
San Joaquin was to secure land where he could 
gradually concentrate his pi-operty within the limits 
of the country to be acquired. Another reason, for 
selecting this special locality, was the facilities it 
would give him for dealing with the Hudson Bay 
trappers, who made their head-quarters every winter 
at French Camp, from whom, in exchange for fur, he 
obtained ammunition, blankets, clothing, etc., of a 
better quality and at lower figures than could be 
obtained elsewhere at that time. 

The attempt to settle the expected grant had failed 
because of the fears of Gulnac, and the Captain ob- 
tained a passport from the Alcalde of San Jose, and 
proceeded to visit Sutter's Fort, with a view of see- 
ing the Indian chief, Ha-soos, and making a treaty 
of peace with him, if possible. After arriving in the 
country, an Indian runner was sent to find the chief, 
and ask him to meet the Captain at a given time 
and place. A meeting was arranged, and at the 
appointed time the two men, representatives of their 
races in the country, met. Captain Weber ex- 
plained his plans to the Indian, stating that he was 
desirous of settling on land in the San Joaquin valley; 
that the Americans were desirous of being his allies 
and friends; that they were not coming to injure nor 
rob, but as friends to aid and benefit his tribe; that 
he wished to settle here to be beyond the reach of 
the Spaniards, in case of trouble between the Ameri- 
cans and native Californians, against whom this cele- 
brated chief was waging an endless war. The result 
was a friendly alliance that remained unbroken to the 
end. The chief advised the building of the American 
village at the point where it was located, the present 
site of Stockton, and agreed to provide all the help 
necessai-y in the tilling of the soil, and to furnish a 
war party when called upon to defend the settlers' 



34 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



property against eithei- Indians or MexieanB. The 
Captain was generous in his presents, and a friend- 
ship was started at the interview that lasted during 
the life of Ha-soos, and the Captain now remembers 
the Si-yakum-na chief as one of his most reliable 
and valued friends of early daj^s. 

The inhabitants of to-day can little appreciate the 
importance at the time, and the immediate advantage 
accruing to the foreign population of the country 
resulting from that treaty. One may pass through 
the County of San Joaquin and ask the old settlers 
what they know of Ha-soos and his connection with 
this country in early days, and maj- find five persons 
in his travels that will remember the chief, and that 
he was friendly to the Americans; but they, with one 
exception, that of Capt. C. M. Weber, will give him 
no credit for being so, supposing that it was forced 
or indolent friendship. It has become popular with 
the historian, as well as the men of 1849 and later, to 
place the California Indians, in the scale of creation, 
but one step above the African gorilla. Whatever 
may have been the general rule, there certainly was 
an exception in favor of the aborigines occupj'ing 
the territory between the Tuolumne and iMokelumne 
rivers. These Indians were divided up into ranche- 
rias or villages, each village having its chief and 
name. Consequently there was a number of petty 
chiefs, but all acknowledge an indefinite but undis- 
puted supremacy and authority in the chief of the 
Si-yak-um-nas, Ho-za Ua-soos, who had made him- 
self a terror to the Spanish inhabitants of North 
California. His name was to the native population 
what Osceola's was to the Floridians, except that 
the former chief was less brutal than the latter. He 
did not scalp his victims, like the Seminole, nor seek 
the midnight massacre of isolated persons. 

He believed that he and his people had been 
wronged by the Spanish, and he would never smoke 
the pipe of peace with them. He would swoop down 
upon the plains and carry off their stock, taking it 
to his stronghold in the foot-hills of the Sierras; and 
if the missions or settlers of those valleys saw fit to 
attempt a rescue, he fought them, and was univers- 
ally victorious. The San Joaquin river divided his ter- 
ritory from the Californians, and when east of that 
stream he was upon his native heath; and it was 
rare indeed that the pursuers followed him into his 
own country. They had learned better in their 
battle on the banks of the Stanislaus in lc>29, when 
"Estanisloa." the former chief of the Si-yak-um-nas, 
defeated their combined San Jose and Yerba Buena 
forces. 

It will be seen that Ho-za Ha-soos was so circum- 
stanced as to receive favorable advances from a peo- 
ple who gave as one of their reasons for desiring his 
friendship the probable hostility that might in the 
future exist between them and the Spanish people of 
the country. He believed that he was strengthening 
himself against his old foe. It will also be observed 
that the line beyond which the native Californians, 



even in armed parties, found it dangerous to pasa, 
was the San Joaquin I'iver. Beyond this it wascon- 
! sidered and understood by them to be savage and 
inhospitable wilds. Ha-soos had made them respect 
j that river as the ■jn-aclical north boundary line of their 
territory. Hence the propriety or policy of the 
foreign population in selecting this river as the south 
bouudai-y of the country they proposed, under cer- 
tain circumstances, to make into an independent 
state, along the borders of which they would have 
a picket line of Indian allies. 

In this connection we will mention two instances 
in which Ha-soos demonstrated his good will to the 
Americans, carrying out, on his part, the spirit of 
the alliance he had made with Captain Weber ; and 
we mention these with some hesitancy, not because 
of any doubt of the facts, but because it is hitherto 
unwritten history that may be questioned. The 
incidents referred to were related to us by Captain 
Weber, who says that when Captain Sutter passed 
through the country, in the Winter of 1844, to join 
and aid Manuel Micheltorena against the revolution- 
ary General, Jose Castro, Ha-soos joined him with a 
number of warriors. And later, when Gen. J. C. 
Fremont passed through the San Joaquin valley 
south, to help take this country from Mexico, that 
this chief was again on hand, and accompanied him 
to San Jose, to fight his old foes, in the interest of 
his friends, the Americans. Whether he actually 
performed any military act of hostility to the enemy 
on either occasion does not appear, but that he was 
read}- so to do was demonstrated by his presence 
with his warriors. 

On the 13th of January, 1844, the Governor of 
California complied with the petition of Mr. Gulnae, 
and issued to him the grant of land known as " El 
Rancho del Campo de los Franceses,'' which in Eng- 
lish means " The French Camp Ranch." After the 
issuing of the grant, the next event worthj^ of note 
in the county was the passage through it of Capt. 
J. C. Fremont, who, on the 25th of March of that 
year, camped over night at the place since known 
as the village of Liberty, on the south side of Dry 
creek. It was in his memorable fii'st expedition to 
the Pacific coast. He had been at Sutter's Fort re- 
cruiting and had started south on his way through 
the San Joaquin valley en route for the States. The 
following taken from the published history of his 
expedition, will have peculiar interest to the residents 
of this county: — 

"March 25th — We traveled for twenty-eight miles 
over the same delightful country as yesterday, and 
halted in a beautiful bottom at the ford of the Riode 
los Mukdemnes, receiving its name from another 
Indian tribe living on the river. The bottoms on the 
stream are broad, rich, and extremely fertile ; and 
the uplands are shaded with oak groves. A showy 
lupinus of extraordinary beautj-, growing four or 
five feet in height, and covered with spikes in bloom, 
adorned the banks of the river, and filled the air 
with a light and grateful perfume. 



FAN JOAQIJK VALLEY FROM 1841 TO 1847. 



.•55 



'■On llio 2GLh we halted at the Arroyo de las Calaveras 
(Skull creek), a tributary to the San Joiiquin — the pre- 
vious two streams entering the bay between the San 
Joaquin and Sacramento rivers. This place is beau- 
tiful, wn b open groves of oak, and a grass}" sward be- 
neath, with many plants in bloom; some varieties of 
which seem to love the shade of the trees, and grow 
there in close, small fields. Near the river, and re 
placing the grass, are great quantities oi ammole (soap 
plant), the leaves of which are used in California for 
making, among other things, mats ibr saddle clothe. 
A vine with a small white flower (melothrw.} called 
here la yerba buena, and which from its abundance, 
gives name to an island and town in the bay, was 
to-day vei-y frequent on our road — sometimes running 
on the ground or climbing the trees. 

'•March 27th — To-day we traveled steadily and 
rapidly up the valley ; for with our wild animals 
any other gait was impossible, and making about 
four miles an hour. During the earlier part of the 
day, our ride had been over a very level part of 
prairie, separated by iines and groves of oak timber, 
growing along dry gullies, which are filled with 
water in seasons of rain ; and, perha|)s, also by the 
melting snows. Over much of this extent, the vege- 
tation was sparse ; the surface showing plainly the 
action of water, which, in the season of flood, the 
Joaquin spreads over the valley. At one o'clock we 
came again among innumerable flowers ; and a few 
miles further, fields of the beautiful blue flowering 
lupine, which seems to love the neighborhood of 
water, indicated that we were approaching a stream. 
We have found this beautiful shrub m thickets, some 
of them being twelve feet in height. Occasionallj- 
three or four plants were clustered together, forming 
a grand bouquet, about ninet}' I'eet in circumference, 
and ten feet high ; the whole summit covered with 
spikes of flowers, the perfume of which is very sweet 
and grateful. A lover of natural beauty can imagine 
with what pleasure we rode among these flovvering 
groves, which filled the air with a light and delicate 
fragrance. We continued our road for about hall' a 
mile, interspersed through an open grove of live- 
oaks, which, in form, were the most symmetrical and 
beautiful we had yet seen in the country. The ends 
of their branches rested on the ground forming some- 
what more than a half sphere of very full antl regu- 
lar figure, with leaves apparently .smaller than usual. 
The Oalifornian poppy, of a rich orange color, was 
numerous. To-day, elk and several bands of ante- 
lope made their appearance. 

"Our road was now one continued enjoyment; and 
it was pleasant, riding among this assemblage of 
green pastures with varied flowers and scattered 
groves, and out of the warm, green Spring, to look at 
the rocky and snowy peaks, where lately wo had 
sufi'ered so much. Emerging from the timber we 
came suddenly upon the Stanislaus river, where we 
hopi^d to find a ford, but the stream was flowing by, 
dark and deep, swollen by the mountain snows ; its 
general breadth was about fifty yards. 

" We traveled about five miles up the river, and 
encamped without being able to find a ford. Here 
we made a large corral, in order to be able to catch a 
sufticient number of our wild animals to i-elieve 
those previously packed. 

" Under the shade of the oaks, along the river, 1 
noticed erodium cicutarlum in bloom, eight or ten 
inches high. This is the plant which we had seen 
the squaws gathering on the Eio de los Americanos. 
By the inhabitants of the valley, it is highly esteemed 
for fattening cattle, which appear to be very fond of 



it. flere, where the soil begins to be sandy, it 
supplies to a considerable extent the want of grass, 

"Desirous, as far as possible, without delay, to 
include in our examination the Joaquin river, 1 
returned this moining down the Stanislaus, for 
seventeen miles, and again encamped without having 
found a fording-place. After following it for eight 
miles further the ne.\l morning, and finding ourselves 
iii the vicinity ol' the San Joaquin, encamped in a 
handsome oak grove, and, several cattle being killed, 
we ierried over our baggage in their skins. Here our 
Indian boy, who probably had not much idea ol 
where he was going, and began to be alarmed at the 
many streams we were putting between him and the 
village, deserted. 

'■ Thirteen head of cattle took a sudden fright, 
while we were driving them across the river, and 
galloped oft', I remairjed a day in the endeavor to 
recover them; but fiiiding they had taken the trail 
back to the fort, let them go without further effort. 
Here we hail several days of wai-in and pleasant rain, 
which doubtless saved the crops below.' 

In August, 18-i4. David Kclsey, with his wife and 
two children, a boy and a girl, settled at French 
Camp, and built a tule-house. Mr Gulnac. who was 
stopping at the C'osumnes river, had ottered to give 
Mr. Kelsey a mile square of land if he would stop at 
that place, and live one year; he turned over to him 
the "swivel" that Sutter had given him. Every 
night Mr Kelse}' threw this piece of ordnance " into 
battery,' and fired an evening gun; which he did to 
frighten the Indians, on the same principle that a boy 
sometimes whistles as he is going through the woods 
after dark. At that time there was only one other 
house in tlie county, also constructed of tule, occu- 
pied by Thomas Jjindsay, at Stocktmi. 

Mr, Kelsey remained lor several months at that 
place, and after his familj- had been obliged to live 
for two months on boiled wheat, meat, milk, and 
mint tea, gathered along the banks of the creek, he 
buried the swivel and removed temporarily to San 
Jose, where he first saw Captain Weber. While at 
that place he unfortunatel}- went to see a sick Indian 
who had the small-pox, just before returning to 
French Camp. After returning he was immediately 
taken sick, and Mrs, Kelsey desired to take him to 
Sutter's Fort, where he could have medical assist- 
ance, not knowing that he had the small-pox. When 
they reached Stockton, Mr, Lindsay induced them 
to stay over night, and while there a man by the name 
of James Williams gave him some medicine that 
caused the disease to break out, Lindsay immedi- 
ately vacated the premises, giving, as he left, advice 
that has a twang of barbarism in it; he told them if 
the old man died to leave his body where the coyotes 
would devour it. In about six days the father died, 
the mother and boy were prostrated with the same 
disease, and little America, a girl eleven years of age, 
was left alone with her sick mother and brother, to 
administer to their wants, while her dead father lay 
unbm-ied in the hut; a sad introduction to the first 
American girl who ever saw the place where Stock- 
ton now stands, and a sadder one to the first white 



36 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



vvomaa that visited the phice; I'ov the mother became 
blind from the effects of the disease, beholding that 
delirious, weird scene of pestilence and death as the 
last, to haunt the memory through the coming years 
of darkness; a hideous phantom, a scene of desola- 
tion, was that last look of the mother upon the sur- 
roundings of that little child nurse. 

Some herders chanced to come that vvay, who, 
after considerable hesitation, assisted little America 
in burying her father. One of them, Geo. F. Wyman, 
afterwards became the husband of America. The 
reason why they hesitated in coming to her assist- 
ance was a double one,— they feared the contagion 
and Captain Sutter, who had said he would have any 
man shot who brought small-pox to the fort, or went 
among the Indians who had it. The father was bur- 
ied near where Col. Thos. II. Sloseley's house now 
stands, and in a few days the little nurse was stricken 
down with the dread disease, but recovered so as to 
be able to leave for Monterey in about six weeks. 
In about two weeks after they left, Thomas Lindsay 
returned to his house on Lindsay's Point, in Stock- 
ton, and was killed by the Luck-lum-na Indians, 
from lone vallej', in Amador county, who fired the 
tule-house with their victim's body in it, and drove 
off all the stock. A party of whites, Mexicans and 
friendly Indians, went in pursuit of the band who 
had committed the depredations, and overtook them 
at the place called the " Island," near the foot-hills, 
where a conflict occurred, resulting in the burning 
of the Indian rancheria, with what provisions and 
property they had, the killing of a few of the war- 
riors of the hostile tribe, and the capture of one 
Indian boy by William Daylor, oi' Baylor's ranch; one 
Mexican by the name of Vaca, a member of the Vaca 
family, formerly of Solano county, was killed by the 
Indians in the tight. After this defeat they retreated 
into the mountains, where they were followed, but 
not overtaken.* 



* The early settlers being without Government protettion, 
necessarily banded together in quick retaliation for any outrage 
committed on one of their number, as it was only by such prompt 
movement that the predatory savages could be held in check. 

D. T. Bird, who, at one time, was an officer in the California 
battalion under Fremont, during the hostilities that succeedeil 
the Bear Flag war, says that he was one of the parties that pur- 
sued the Indians who murdered Lindsay at .Stockton, and he 
takes the poetry all out of the conclusion given to that e.xpedi 
tion. Instead of the Luck-lum-na Indians of lone valley being 
chastised, they whipped the pursuing party (about thirty strong, 
half whites and half friendly Indians), who were under the com- 
mand of Captain Merrit, of Bear Flag fame. Captain Sutter 
organized the pursuing i)arty, and among the white men accom- 
panying it, were Captain Merrit, D. T. Bird, Charles Heath, 
Vaca (a Spaniard), Hicks and Gillespie. The tight was a short 
one resulting in Vaca's receiving a mortal wound from an arrow 



The small-pox and the breaking out of the Mich- 
eltorena war, combined, had depopulated the county. 

There had been, in the latter part of 1844, and 
Spring of 1845, a serious departure bj' the foreign 
population of the country from their understood pol- 
icy, in their intercourse with the natives of Cali- 
fornia; which was a j)olicy of non-intervention 
between opposing factions of the country, that had 
been decided upon and agreed to between the lead- 
ing men, as being the best calculated to produce the 
final result at which they were aiming. Let the 
Spanish population quari-el to their hearts' content, 
let civil war sweep over the country, and array the 
opposing factions against each other on the battle- 
field; it helped to prepare the people of all classes, 
foreign and native, for a change; but in every emer- 
gency the American, the German, the Englishman, 
the immigrant, whatever his native land was to hold 
himself aloof, reserving his strength to be used as 
one man for the general good of all, when the proper 
time should come to act. All over California, from 
Los Angeles to Monterey, and froni Monterey to 
Sutter's Fort, the foreign population were few in 
numbers, one and two, sometimes a half-dozen in a 
place, so scattered and so isolated that a false move 
on the part of a few might prove fatal to many; it 
consequently was important at that time that the 
policy of non-mterference should be pursued. Yet. 
as we have previously mentioned, a serious depai-t- 
ure from that policy was inaugurated in the Michel- 
torena war, without, appa>'ently, any general con- 
sultation or plan on the part of immigrants, those of 
each section or country marking out their own line 
of action, regardless of the probable consequent 
injury that might result to those of a different 
locality. 

The first instance was that forced u|)on Capt. C. 
M. Weber, consequent from the loss of control, by 
Micheltorona, over the outlaws called soldiers, whom 
he commanded in 1844. The Captain was in busi- 
ness at the Pueblo of San Jose when the war broke 
out, and was acquainted with and personally friendly 
to both Micheltorena and Castro. He had a veiy 
large stock of goods in the place, and was anxious 
on account of it. He knew that the soldiers under 
Micheltorena were mostly convicts, turned loose 
from the prisons in Mexico, and were dependent 
upon the meager revenue derived from forced 
loans and plunder for their pay. Ills goods 

that eiiteied his side. In attempting to draw it from his body, 
the arrow-head was broken from the shaft, and in an hour the 
uufortunate man was dead. Up to the time of his death they 
managed to hold their position, when, finding the enemy too 
strong for them, the body of the dead ^^pania^d was laid upon a 
pile of brush and bui'ned, to prevent its falling into the hands of 
the savages; after which they stole away in the darkness, and 
reached Sutter's Fort without uuueccs ary delay. 



SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY FROM 184.1 TO 1.S47. 



37 



would be a rich prize, and if thej- once entered San 
Jose, the}- would be sure to help themselves to 
what he had; consequently all his interests were 
opposed to the occupation of the town by such a 
body of men. As Micheltorena advanced, Jose Cas- 
tro became alarmed, and, leaving San Jose to its fate, 
retreated up the valley towards Oakland with his 
forces; whereupon Captain Weber addressed a com- 
munication to the commander of the advancing 
forces, stating that Castro had left San Jose, and 
asked him if he would not pass to one side of the 
pueblo, and not enter it with his troops. Michelto- 
rena replied that ho found it necessary to pass 
through San Jose in his pursuit of Castro. In the 
meantime the Captain i-eceived prompt information 
to the effect that the Governor had lost control of 
his soldiery, who insisted on entering the village for 
plunder; whereupon the Captain caused the tocsin 
of war to be sounded through the streets. The 
people assembled, and the Captain presented the 
position of affairs, and told them that he believed, 
with a force composed of the citizens and foreigners 
in the place, the advancing army could be checked, 
and forced to take a different route in their line of 
march after Castro. A company was immediately 
formed, placed under his command, and moved out 
to meet the enemy, a handful against a host. Send- 
ing a courier in advance to meet Micheltorena, advis- 
ing him of what he was doing, and that it was 
done, not in a spirit of opposition to him personally, 
or the cause which he represented, but with a deter- 
mination to protect their homes from plunder. The 
forces met some twelve miles out from the village, 
and for several days the entire army, numbering 
several hundred, was held in cheek bj' this little band 
of brave men under Captain Weber. Castro, hear- 
ing of the fact, became ashamed of himself, turned 
back from his retreat, joined the Captain with his 
forces, took command of the army, and forced 
Micheltorena to surrender, and, finally, to agree to 
leave California and return to Mexico. For the time 
this ended the war. It was again revived by Mich- 
eltorena, who failed to comply with his agreement 
when he learned that Capt. John A. Sutter could be 
relied upon for assistance. Sutter, wishing to retain 
the old regime until his land titles were perfected, 
in December, 1844, marched to the lower country 
with his deluded followers, being met on the way, 
at the residence of Dr. John Marshe, by J. Alex. 
Forbes, of the Hudson Bay Company, who tried to 
dissuade him from proceeding further with the 
enterprise, but without avail, telling the Captain at 
the same time that in General Castro's army was a 
large number of Americans, and that his act was ar- 
rayingthe foreign-born jjopulation against each other. 
Sutter's reply to all was that he had gone too far to 
withdraw without discredit to himself. He pushed 
on towards the south, and his men, suspecting some- 
thing wrong, began to desert until but few remained. 
Finally, when the hostile armies stood face to face, a 



parley was insisted upon, and it was found that the 
foreigners were fighting in the ranks of both armies; 
after which, Sutter had, practically, no followers, 
and fell, finally, into the hands of Castro, who, but 
for the strong intervention of friends, would hare 
had him shot. 

This unfortunate proceeding was the second breach 
in the policy of non-intervention; and it came so 
near becoming disastrous, that it called forth an ex- 
pression of disapprobation for the course pursued; 
such a policy continued would Mexicanize the Amer- 
icans, not Americanize the Mexicans. The result 
was that the narrow escape demonstrated the neces- 
sity of an organized plan of action, so that in future 
they might be well advised of ail contemplated 
movements, and act together as a body and thus 
make themselves felt, instead of expending their 
force against each other. With a view of accom- 
plishing this object, and thus pave the way for the 
future segregation of California from Mexico, a call 
was written, subscribed and circulated. * f * * 

For various causes there was not as formidable a 
gathering as was desired at the time designated,* and 
the' meeting only included those within easy reach 
of San Jose; there was consequently nothing of 
importance accomplished, and there was a failure to 
obtain a general organization; but the purposes of 
the foreign population remained unchanged, and 
culminated, finally, in the hoisting of the " Bear 
Flag," which, but for the United States taking the 
struggle oft" their hands, would have proved to be 
what it was in fact, a premature move. It was 
entered upon without general consultation or ma- 
tured plan, and hut I'or the occupation of the coun- 
try by the United States, which occurred a little 
later, would have proved disastrous to many for- 
eigners living farther south, who were wholly 
unadvised in regard to the movement. Had the 
organization been made as was contemplated by the 
signers of the instrument, the Bear Flag would never 
have been raised, but without the intervention of the 
United States it would have resulted in taking the 
country from Mexico, making San Joaquin one of the 
frontier counties of the State. 

It is not the purpose of this work to give a State 
history, therefore we return to the march of events 
in San Joaquin, having followed those occurrences 
outside only which had a direct bearing upon the 
history of this county. 

On the third day of April, 1845, C. M. Weber 
purchased of Mr. Gulnac the remaining intei'est in 
the French Camp Grant, Mr. Weber becoming it-> 
sole owner; but no further attempt was made at 
settlement until 1846, when he induced a number of 
settlers, under the leadership of Napoleon Schmidt, 
to locate. They had no sooner become settled in 
their new homes than the war-cloud burst, which 
had been hanging over the country, and the settlers 

* July 4, 1845. 



38 



HISTORY OF PLACER COTTNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



igain scattered to locations where they would be 
less isolated in case of an attack by the Mexicans. 

In November, 1846, the Isbel brothers took up 
land on the Calaveras, that stream dividing their 
ranches or claims; Dr. I. C. Isbel occupying the 
north, and his brother James the south side of 
the " river of skulls," where Fremont had crossed 
it in 18-14. The doctor erected a log cabin near the 
rivei', which is still standing. It is the oldest house 
in the county, in fact the oldest in the San Joaquin 
valley, and should be preserved as a relic of the 
past. The same month and year. Turner Elder 
erected a cabin on Drj' creek, where the village of 
Liberty was afterwards laid out. Mr. Elder was a 
maiTied man, and had brought his wife and three 
little children with him to this country. On the 
opposite, or north side of the creek, and a little 
further down, his father-in-law, Thomas Rhodes, 
located. Thomas Pyle settled at what is now 
known as Staples' Ferry, in the same year and 
month, with his family — a wife and two children. It 
was during the month of November, 1846, that 
Samuel Brannan established his colony on the Stan- 
islaus, about one and one-half miles above its mouth, 
calling the place "Stanislaus City. 

It will be observed that during this year, two dis- 
tinct colonies were established, and four ranches 
taken up in San Joaquin county, at the points where 
the old Spanish trail, between Sutter's Fort and San 
Jose, ci'ossed the several streams in the county. 
This was a strong demonstration toward settlement. 
Weber's party had loft at the first notes of alarm ; 
Samuel Brannan's colony remained until the follow- 
ing Spring, and then all left, except Buckland — leav- 
ing only the ranchers on the Spanish trail and 
Buckland, as the inhabitants to dispute possession 
of the county with the Indians. The five settlers 
remaining were Dr. I. C. Isbel, and his brother, 
James, on the Calaveras; Thomas Pyle, on the 
Mokelumue; Turner Elder, on Dry creek; and 
liueklaud, on the Stanishius. 

Dr. Isbel retained his claim until 1818, when he 
sold to the Hutchinson brothers, and they in turn 
to Mr. Dodge. 

Thomas Pyle abandoned his place m 1848, and 
moved to Coyote creek, near San Jose, where he 
was shot through the head and killed, about 1855. 
by a young Spaniard. A man by the name of Smith 
took up the place, claiming a grant, and sold to John 
F., the brother of Thomas Pyle, and John W. Laird, 
who had married one of his sisters. These parties 
sold to Staples, Nichols & Co., in February, and 
moved from there in April. 1850. .Mr. Ijaird died 
near Grayson, in May, 1878; and J. F. Pyle is still 
living on his ranch, near Wclden, on Kern river. 
California. 

Turner Elder lived at Dry creek about one 
mile from where the C. P. R. R. now crosses that 
stream, which then bore the prettier Si):inish name of 
'' Arroyo Seca." Here he and his family resided one 



year, and then moved on to the north bank of the 
Mokelumne river, at the place afterwards known as 
the "Benedict Ranch," and, while there, on the 
fifth day of November, 1847, his wife presented him 
with a pair of twins, a boy and girl, who were named 
John and Nancy. These were the second children 
born of white parents in the county. Soon after the 
birth of these children, on account of the unpro- 
tected position, Mr. Elder abandoned his place and 
joined his brother-in-law Daylor, of the Daylor 
ranch, in Sacramento county. He afterwards made 
money in placer mining, and returned to Ray county, 
Missouri, in 1849, where he now lives. The children 
are both living; the girl in Ray county, as the wife 
of a Dr. Reese; and the boy, now married, at Emi- 
grant's Ditch, in Fresno county, Calitornia — his post- 
office address being "Kingsbury Switch." 

Mr. Buckland, of Stanislaus City, moved from 
there to Stockton, in the fall of 1847. Assisted by 
William Fairchilds, he afterwards built the Buck- 
land House, in San Francisco. Of the Stanislaus 
City settlers, the only ones known to be living now 
are Samuel Brannan, of San Francisco, John M. 

Horner, near San Jose, and Nichols, of San 

Leandro. 

When, in the Fall of 1847, Turner Elder left his log- 
house and claim at Dry creek, Mrs. Christina Pat- 
terson, his aunt, moved into it — her husband having 
died of mountain fever while crossing the mountains 
in 1846. She was soon after mari'ied to Ned Robin- 
son. This was the Jirst marriage ceremony performed 
in the county. Mr. Robinson, in turn, abandoned the 
place when gold was discovered, in January, 1848, 
and in 1878 they were stopping at French Camp, for 
the Winter, on their way to the northern countiy. 

Captain Weber, in the meantime, had been living 
at San Jose from 1842 to 1847, following his business 
of merchandizing, and not giving pei'sonal attention 
to the settlement of his grant. Daring the year 
1847 he sold his stock of goods, and in August of 
I that year, with a number of men, two hundred 
I horses and four thousand cattle, moved to the San 
I Joaquin, and founded a settlement which became 
ijermanont; Stockton being the point and result of 
his efforts. In the Fall, the grant was surveyed and 
sect ionized by Jasper O'Fai-rell, through his deputy, 
Wultei- Ilei'ron, a village site being at the same time 
laid out for settlers' homes, which received the name 
of ■■Tuleburg." Coming events had not yet "cast 
iheir shadows before.'- The village plat of Tule- 
burg, and the name, both passed out of existence at 
the same time, when, in 1848. after the gold discov- 
ery, the ])lace was ro-surveyed and laid out for com- 
mercial purposes by Captain Weber, who gave it the 
name of Stockton, after Com. Robert Stockton, of the 
United States navy. 

In October, 1847, a company of overland immi- 
grants arrived at the place, on their way to the lower 
country. Mr Weber pursuaded them to stop for a 
time and look over the valley, to see if they would 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTEE. 



39 



not consider it to their advantage to remain. W. H. 
Fairchild.s, County Supervisor in 1878, was of this 
party, as well as Nicholas Gann and his wife, Ruth, 
who, while they were camping on the point where 
Weber's house now stands, in October, gave birth to 
a son, to whom they gave the name of William. 
This was the first child born of white parents in the 
county. With the exception of .Mr. Fairchilds, the 
parties all decided to move farther south. Mr. 
Nicholas Gann now lives not far from Gilroy, in 
Santa Clara county, California. 

It was during that year that Capt. Charles 
Imus undertook to carry out a " wild horse scheme." 
He selected a point on the San Joaquin river, where 
San Joaquin City now stands, which he considered 
favorable, and then went to the mountains west of 
the valley and commenced cutting timber, to build a 
corral, into which he proposed driving wild horses, 
and there to capture them; when Pico, on whose 
grant he was cutting the timber, put a stop to his 
visions of corraling the " untamed steeds of the 
desert;" by singing to him the pathetic song of 
" Woodman, Spare that Tree," and the Captain, not 
earing to veriiy the old saw of " a nod is na sa good 
as a kick for a blind horse," folded up his tent like 
the Arab, and departed into the lower countiy. 
Captain Imus was the leader of the party that 
crossed the plains in 184{j, of which the Pyles, Isbels, 
Elders, and Rhodes were members. 

The bistorj" of San Joaquin viiUey, up to the close 
of 1847, has been given in the preceding pages as 
completely as it is possible to get it from the memory 
of the participants who still sui-vive. The only 
occupants of this section of country, up to that time, 
had first been the Indians, then the American 
trappers, followed by the Hudson Bay Com pan j-, 
who were succeeded in turn by the Americans, who 
came from the States, with a view of making for 
themselves and funilies permanent homes. 

But a change, absolute and radical, lay hid in 
the near future. On the line that separated the 
year 1847, and what had preceded it, from " the 
future that was not yet," stands a mile-post that 
"Time," set by the wayside, which marks the 
beginning of a year, in which was wrought a 
change as absolute, in the march of human events, 
and the destinies of this coast, as wcmld ordinarily 
have occurred in the passsing of a centiuy. 



'^^(^"(S '^^ ^ ^ '*"'' 



CHAPTER X. 
BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 

His Xativity — Migration to the American West — Arrival in Cal- 
ifornia — Fonndation of Sutter's Fort — Prosperity and 
Wealth of the Colony — Decline and Ultimate lUiin— Retire- 
ment to Hock Farm — Extract from Sutter's Diary. 

The following sketch of the life and adventures of 
General John A. Sutter is from Oscar T. Shuck's 
"Representative Men of the Pacific." The facts 
were derived directly from the famous old pioneer, 
and are, perhaps, the most complete and accurate 
that have ever been published. Jlr. Shuck says: — 

" General John A. Sutter was born March 1, 1803, 
in the Grand Duchy of Baden, where his early boy- 
hood was passed. His father, who was a clergyman 
of the Lutheran church, afterwards removed to 
Switzerland, and settled there with his family. He 
purchased for himself and heirs the rights and immu- 
nities of Swiss citizenship, and there the subject of 
our sketch received a good education, both civil and 
military. 

" Early in life he married a Bernese ladj', and was 
blessed with several children. At the age of thirty- 
one he determined to gratify a desire he had long 
cherished to immigrate to the United States. Not 
knowing whether or not he should settle perma- 
nently in the Great Republic, he concluded to leave 
his family behind him, and arrived at New York in 
July, lSo4. After visiting several of the Western 
States he settled in Missouri, and there resided for 
several years. During his residence in Missouri he 
made a short visit to New Mexico, where he met 
with many trappers and hunters who had returned 
from Upper California, and their glowing descrip- 
tions confirmed his previous impressions, and ex- 
cited an ardent desire to behold and wander over 
the rich lands and beautiiul valleys of that then 
almost unknown region. LTpon returning to .Mis- 
souri he determined to reach the Pacific coast by 
joining some one of the tra]iping expeditions of the 
American or English Fur Companies. But great 
ol)stacles were to be surmounted, and long years 
were to intervene before his feet would rest upon 
the virgin soil of California. On the 1st of April, 
1S38, he was enabled, for the first time, to connect 
himself with a trajtping expedition. On that day 
he left Missouri with Captain Tripp, of the American 
Fur Companj', and traveled with his party to their 
rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains. There he 
parted with the expedition, and with .six horsemen 
crossed the mountains, and, after encountering the 
usual dangers and hardships, arrived at Fort Van- 
couver, on the Columbia river. 

"Having learned that there was no lan<l communica- 
tion with California from the vallc3-s of the Columbia 
or Willamette in Winter, and there being then a ves- 
sel of the Hudson Bay Company ready to sail for 
the Sandwich Islands, General Sutter took passage, 
hoping to find at the islands some means of convey- 
ance to California. Only one of the men who had 
remained with him thus far consented to accompany 
him to the strange land. On reaching the islands 
he found no prospect of conveyance, and, after 
remaining five months, as the only means of accom- 
plishing his purpose, he shipped as supercargo, with- 
out pay, on an English vessel bound for Sitka. 

"After discharging her cargo at Sitka, and, with 
the authority of the owners, he directed the vessel 
southward, and sailed down the coast, encountering 



40 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



heavy gales. He was driven into the Bay of San 
Franeisco in distress, and, on the second day of July, 
1839, anchored his little craft opposite Yerba Buena, 
now San Francisco. 

■' He was immediatelj- waited upon by a Mexican 
official with an armed force, and ordered to leave 
without delay, the officer informing him that Mon- 
terey was the port of entrj-. He succeeded, however, 
in obtaining permission to remain forty-eight hours 
to get supplies. 

'■A few days later, upon arriving at Monterey. 
General Sutter waited upon Governor Alvarado, and 
communicated to him his desire to settle in Upper Cal- 
ifornia, on the Sacramento. Governor Alvarado 
expressed much satisfaction upon learning his visit- 
or's wish, particularly when he understood his desire 
to settle on the Sacramento; saying that the Indians 
in that quarter were very hostile, and would not 
permit any whites to settle there; that they robbed 
the inhabitants of San Jose and the lower settle- 
ments of horses and cattle. He readilj' gave Sutter 
a passport, with authority to settle on any territory 
he should Jccui suitable for his colony, and requested 
bim to return to Monterey one year from that time, 
when his Mexican citizenship would be acknowl- 
edged, and he would receive a grant for the land he 
might solicit. Thereupon, he returned to Yerba 
Buena and chartered i\ schooner, with some small 
boats, and started upon an exploring expedition on 
the Sacramento river, 

" Upon inquirj- he could not find anj' one at Yerba 
Buena who had ever seen the Sacramento river, or 
who could describe to him where he should find its 
mouth. The people of that place only professed to 
know that some large river emptied into one of the 
connected bays Ij'ing northerly from their town. 
General Sutter consumed eight daj-s in the effort to 
find the mouth of the Sacramento river. 

" After ascending the river to a point about ten 
miles below where Saci-amento City now stands, he 
encountered the first large party of Indians, who 
exhibited every sign of hostility save an actual 
attack. There were about two hundred of them, 
armed and jiainted for war. Fortunate!}- there were 
among them two who understood Spanish, and with 
whom the General engaged in conversation. He 
quieted tbem bj- the assurance that there were no 
Spaniards in his party, and that he wished to settle 
in their country and trade with them. He showed 
them his agricultural implements and commodities 
of trade, which he had provided for the purpose, 
and proposed to make a treat}' with them. Pleased 
with these assurances, the Indians became recon- 
ciled; the crowd dispersed, and the two who spoke 
the Spanish language accompanied Sutter and his 
party as far as the mouth of Feather i-iver, to 
show bim the country. All other parties of Indians 
seen fled at the sight of the vessel and boats. 

"Parting with his two Indian interpreters and 
guides at the mouth of Feather river, he ascended 
the latter stream to a considerable distance, when a 
few of his white men became alarmed at the sur- 
rounding dangers and insisted upon returning, which 
he was constrained to do. 

"On his descent he entered the mouth of the 
American river, and on the 15th day of August, 
1839, landed at the point on the south "bank of that 
stream, where he afterwards established his tannery, 
within the present limits of Sacramento. On the 
following morning, after landing all his effects, he 
informed the discontented whites that all who 
wished to return to Yerba Buena could do so; 



that the Kanakas were willing to remain, and that 
he had resolved to do so, if alone. Three of the 
whites determined to leave, and he put them in pos- 
session of the schooner, with instructions to deliver 
the vessel to her owners. They set sail for Yerba 
Buena the same day. 

■Three weeks thereafter General Sutter removed 
to the spot upon which he afterwards erected Fokt 
Sutter. In the early days of the settlement he 
encountered many troubles with the Indians, who 
organized secret expeditions, as he afterwards 
learned, to destroy him and his party, but he con- 
trived to defeat and frustrate all their machinations, 
and those of the Indians who were at first his great- 
est enemies, came to be his best and most steadfast 
friends. He now devoted himself energetically to 
agriculture, and became very wealthy and pros- 
perous. 

•■ In the Fall of the j-ear 1839, he purchased of 
Senor Martinez three hundred head of cattle, thirty 
horses, and thirty mares. During the Fall eight 
more white men joined his colonj-. When he com- 
menced the improvements that resulted in the erec- 
tion of Sutter's Fort and his establishment there, he 
had much trouble in procuring suitable lumber and 
timber. He floated some down the American river 
from the mountains, and was compelled to send to 
Bodega, on the sea-coast, a distance of several hun- 
dred miles. 

• In August, 1840, Sutter was joined by the five 
men who had crossed the Eocky Mountains with bim, 
and whom he had left in Oregon. His colony now 
numbered twenty-five men, seventeen whites and 
eight Kanakas. During the Fall of that year the 
Mokelumne Indians became troublesome, by stealing 
the live-stock of the settlers, and compelled General 
Sutter, bj* their acts and menaces, to make open war 
against them. He marched with his forces thirty* 
miles, in the night time, to the camp of the Indians,' 
where they were concentrating large forces for a 
movement against him, some two hundred warriors, 
and attacked them with such great effect that they 
retreated, and being hotly pursued, they sued for 
peace, which was readily granted, and ever after- 
wards mutuall}' maintained. 

"Shortlj- after this encounter, Sutter purchased 
one thousand more head of cattle, and seventy-five 
horses and mules. His colony continued to increase 
fast, by the addition of eveiy foreigner who came 
into the country; thej' sought his place as one of 
security. The trappers he furnished with supplies, 
and purchased their furs; the mechanics and laborers 
he either employed or procured them work. 

" In June, 1841, he visited Monterey, the capital, 
where he was declared a Mexican citizen, and 
received from Governor Alvarado a grant for his 
land, under the name of New Helvetia, a survey of 
which he had caused to be made before that time. 
Thereupon he was honored with a commission as 
' represendente del Govierno en las fronter as del 
norte y encargado de la justicia.' 

" Soon after his return to his settlement he was 
visited bj- Captain Einggold, of the United States 
Exploring Expedition under Commodore Wilkes, and 
about the same time bj- Alexander Eotcheff, Gov- 
ernor of the Eussian Possessions, Ross and Bodega, 
who oftered to sell to General Sutter the Eussian 
Possessions, settlements, and ranches at those places. 
"The terms were such as induced him to make the 
purchase, forthirty thousand dollars. The live-stock 
consisted of two thousand cattle, over one thousand 
horses, fifty mules, and two thousand sheep, the 













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,^5-4l?ff,5* 


( mm 








' L^- . 











^--^'^^^M J ^f 










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BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 



41 



greater part of which were driven to New Helvetia. 
'This increase of resources, together with the natural 
increase of his stock, enabled him the more rapidlj' 
to advance his settlement and improvements. 

" In the year 1844 he petitioned Governor Michel- 
lorena for the grant or purchase of the sohrante, or 
surplus, over tlio first eleven leagues of the land 
within the bounds of the survey accompanying 
the Alvarado grant, which the Governor agreed to 
let him have; but, for causes growing out of existing 
political troubles, t!ie grant was not finally executed 
until the 5th of February, 1845; during which time 
he had rendered valuable military services and ad- 
vanced to the Government large amounts of property 
and outlays, exceeding eight thousand dollars, to 
enable it to siippress the Castro rebellion; in consid- 
eration of all which he acquired by purchase and 
personal services the lands called the Sobrante, or 
surplus. 

''At that time he also secured from Governor 
Micheltorena the commission of ' Commandante mili- 
tar de las fronteras del norte y encargado de la 
justicia.' After this time the war between the 
United States and Mexico came on, and although 
General Sutter was an officer under the Mexican 
Government, and bound to it by his allegiance, yet, 
upon all occasions, such was his respect towards the 
citizens and institutions of the United States, that 
whenever any party of American citizens, civil or 
military service, visited him, his unbounded hospitali- 
ties were uniformly and cordially extended to them; 
and when the country surrendered to the American 
forces, the General, who had been for some time con- 
vinced of the instability of the Mexican Government, 
upon request, did, on the Ilth of July, 1846, hoist 
the American flag with a good heart, accompanied 
with a salute of artillery from the guns at the fort. 
Soon after this Lieutenant Missoon, of the United 
States Navy, came up and organized a garrison for 
Sutter's Fort, principally out of his former forces of 
whites and Indians, and gave to General Sutter the 
command, which he maintained until peace returned. 
He was then appointed by Commodore Stockton 
Alcalde of the district, and by General Kearney 
Indian Agent, with a salary of seven hundred and 
fifty dollars a year; but a single trip in discharge of 
his duty as Indian Agent cost him one thousand six 
hundred dollars, and he resigned the office. 

"General Sutter was now in the full tide of pros- 
perity. His settlement continued to grow and his 
property to accumulate, until the latter part of 
January, 1848. He had then completed his estab- 
lishment at the fort ; had performed all the condi- 
tions of his grants of land; had, at an expense of at least 
twenty-five thousand dollars, cut a race of three 
miles in length, and nearly completed a flouring-mill 
near the present town of Brighton ; had expended 
towards the erection of a saw-mill, near the town of 
Coloma, about ten thousand dollars; had sown over a 
thousand acres of land in wheat which promised a yield 
of forty thousand biishels, and had made preparations 
for other crops; was then the owner of eight thou- 
sand head of cattle, over two thousand horses and 
mules, over two thousand sheep, and one thousand 
head of hogs, and was in the undisturbed, undisputed 
and quiet possession of the extensive lands granted 
by the Mexi an Government. But a sad change was 
about to take place in the affairs of the old pioneer ; 
a grand event was about to transpire, which, while it 
would delight and electrify the world at large, was 
destined to check the growth of the settlement at 
Sutter's Fort. General Sutter's mills were soon to 
6 



cease operations; his laborers and mechanics were soon 
to desert him ; his possessions, his riches, his hopes 
were soon to bo scattered and destroyed before the 
impetuous charge of the gold-hunters. The immedi- 
ate effect was that Sutter was deserted by all his 
mechanics and laborers, white, Kanaka and Indian. 
The mills thus deserted became a dead loss; he could 
not hire labor to further plant or mature his crops, 
or reap but a small part after the grain had ripened. 
Few hands were willing to work for oven an ounce a 
day, as the industrious could make more than thai 
in the mines. Consequent of the gold discoverj- 
there was an immense immigration, composed of all 
classes of men, many of whom seemed to have no idea 
of the rights of property. The treaty between the 
United States and Mexico guaranteed to the Mexican 
who should remain in the country a protection of his 
property, and Sutter regarded himself as doubly 
entitled to that protection, either as a Mexican or a 
citizen of the United States, and that he held a 
strong claim upon his country's justice. Hisproperl}' 
was respected for a season; but when the great flood 
of immigration, which poured into the country in 
1849-'50, found that money could be made by other 
means than mining, many of the new-comers forcibl}" 
entered upon his land, and commenced cutting his 
wood, under the plea that it was vacant and unappro- 
priated land of the United States. Up to the first of 
January, 1852, the settlers had occupied all his lands 
capable of settlement or appropriation, and the other 
class had stolen all his horses, mules, cattle, sheeji 
and hogs, save a small portion used and sold by him 
self One partj' of five men, during the high water,-- 
of 1849-'50, when his cattle were partly surrounded 
by water near the Sacramento river, killed and sold 
enough to amount to sixty thousand dollars. 

"Having seen his power decline and his riches 
take wings. General Sutter removed to the west bank 
of Feather river, and took up his residence at Ilock 
farm. Here, in the midst of his family, who had 
recently arrived from Europe, he led the quiet life of 
a farmer in the county that bears his name." 

The following verhruim copy of notes in General 
Slitters ovvn handwriting, we insert, notwithstanding 
there are some repetitions of facts given in the former 
part of this chapter: — 

[The following rough notes of narrative, in the 
handwriting of the venerable General Sutter, the 
discoverer of gold in California, were found amongst 
the papers of an eminent citizen of this State, re- 
cently deceased, through the kindly courtesy of whose 
widow we are enabled to give them to the public. As 
a relation of incidents in the life of a man held in 
respect by every Californian, these hasty and imper- 
fect memoranda will, it Is believed, have a double in- 
terest and a lasting value. We have thought it best 
to preserve as nearly as was practicable, the quaint 
phraseology, erroneous orthography, and imperfect 
punctuation of the manuscript; giving, in our judg- 
ment, an added charm to the narrative. — .Saw Fran- 
cisco Argonaut.'] 

"Left the State of Missouri (where I has resided 
for a many years) on the 1th a April, 1838, and 
travelled with the party of Men under CaptTripps, of 
the Amer. fur Compy, to their Rendezvous in the 
Rocky Mountains (Wind River Vallej-) from there I 
travelled with 6 brave Men to Oregon, as I consid- 
ered myself not strong enough to cross the Sierra 
Nevada and go direct to California (which was my 
intention from my first Start on having got some 



42 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



informations from a Gent'n in New Mexico, who has 
been in California. 

•'Under a good Many Dangers and other troubles I 
have passed the Different forts or trading posts of 
the Hudsons Bay Compy. and arrived at the Mission 
at the Dalls on Columbia River. From this place I 
crossed right strait through thick & thin, and 
arrived to the great astonishment of the inhabitants. 
I arrived in 7 days in the Yalloy of the VVillametto, 
while others with good guides arrived only in 17 days 
previous my Crossing. At fort Vancouver I has been 
very hospitably received and invited to pass the 
Winter with the Gentlemen of the Company, but as 
a Vessel of the Compy was ready to sail for the 
Sandwich Islands, I took a passage in her,inhopes to 
get Soon a Passage from there to Califoi-nia, but 5 
fontr Months 1 had to wait to find an Opportunity to 
leave, hut not direct to California, except far out of 
my Way to the Russian American Colonies on the 
\orth West Cost, to Sitka the Residence of the 
Gov'r. (Lat. 57) I remained one Month thei"e and 
delivered the Cargo of the Brig Clementine, as I had 
Charge of the Vessel, and then sailed down the Coast 
iti heavy Gales, and entered in Distress in the Port of 
San Francisco, on the 2d of July, 1839. An Officer 
and 15 Soldiers came on board and ordered me out, 
saying that Monterey is the Port of entry, & at last 
J could obtain 48 hours to get provisions (as we 
were starving) and some repairings done on the Brig. 

"In Monterey I arranged my affairs with the Cos- 
turn House, and presented myself to the Govr Alva- 
rado, and told him mj^ intention to Settle herein this 
Country, and that 1 have brought with me 5 White 
Men 8 Kanacas (two of them married) H of the 
Whitemen were Mechanics, he was very glad to hear 
that, and particularly when I told him, that I intend 
to Settle in the interior, on banks of the the river 
Sacramento, because the Indians then at this time 
would not allow white M'>n and particularly of the 
Spanish Origin to come near them, and was very 
hostile, and stole the horses from the inhabitants 
near San Jose. I got a General passport for my small 
Colony and permis-sion to select a Territory where 
ever I would find it convenient, and to come in one 
Years time again in Monterey to get my Citizenship 
and the title of the Land, which I have done so, and 
not only this, 1 received a high civil Office. 

"When I left Yerbabuena (now San Francisco) after 
having leaved the Brig and dispatched her back to 
theS. 1. 1 bought several small Boats (Launches) and 
Chartered the Schooner "Isabella" for my Exploring 
•Tourney to the inland Rivers and particularly to find 
the Mouth of the River Sacramento, as I could find 
Nobody who could give me information, only that 
the}' Knew some very large Rivers are in the interior. 

" It took me eight days before I could find the 
entrance of the Sacramento, as it is very deceiving 
and verj' eas}" to pass by, how it happened to several 
Officers of the Navy afterwards which refused to 
take a pilot. About 10 miles below Sacramento 
City I fell in with the first Indians which was all 
armed & painted & looked very hostile, they was 
about 200 Men, as some of them understood a little 
Spanish I could make a Kind of treaty with thena, 
and the two which understood Spanish came with 
mo, and made me a little better acquainted with the 
Country, all other Indians on the up River hided 
themselves in the Bushes, and on the Mouth of 
Feather River they runned all away so soon they 
discovered us. I was examining the Country' a little 
further up with a Boat, while the larger Crafts let 
go their Ankers, on my return, all the white Men 



came to me and asked me, how much longer 1 in- 
tended to travell with them in such a Wilderness. 

" The following Morning I gave Orders to return, 
and entered in the American River, landed at the 
farmer Tannery on the 12th, Augt. 1839. Gave 
Orders to get every thing on Shore, pitch the tents 
and mount the 3 Cannons, called the white Men, and 
told them that all those which are not contented could 
leave on board the Isabella, next Morning, and that I 
M'ould settle with them imediatelj', and remain 
alone with the Canaca's, of 6 Men 3 remained, and 3 
of them I gave passage to Yerbabuena. 

" The Indians was first troublesome, and came fre- 
quently and would it not have been for the Cannons 
they would have Killed us for the sake of my prop- 
erty, which they liked very much, and this intention 
thej- had veiy often, how they confessed to me after- 
wards, when on good terms. I had a large Bull Dog 
which saved my life 3 times, when they came slyly 
near the house in the Night, he got hold of them 
and marked most severely, in a short time removed 
my Camps on the very spot where now the Ruins 
of Sutters fort stands, made acquaintance with a 
few Indians which came to work for a short time 
making Adobes, and the Canacas was building 3 
grass houses, like it is customary on the Sandwich 
Islands. Before I came up here. I purchassed Cattle 
& Horses on the Rancho of Sefior Martinez, and had 
great difficulties & trouble to get them up, and re- 
ceived them at least on the 22d October 1839. Not 
less than 8 Men, wanted to be in the party, as they 
was afraid of the Indians, and had good reasons to 
be so. 

" Before I got the Cattle we was hunting Deer & 
Elk etc and so afterwards to safe the Cattle as I had 
then only about 500 head, 50 horses & a manada of 
25 mares. One Year that is in the fall 1810, I bought 
1000 head of Cattle of Don Antonio Sunol and many 
hoi'ses more of Don Joaquin Gomez and others. In 
the fall 1839 I have built an Adobe house covered 
with Tuleand two other small buildings which in the 
middle of the fort, they was afterwards destroyed 
by fire. At the same time we cut a Road through 
the Woods where the City of Sacramento stand, then 
we made the New^Embarcadero, whore the old Zink- 
house stands now. After this it was time to make a 
Garden, and to sow some Wheat &c we broke up the 
soil with poor California ploughs, I had a few Califor- 
nians employed as Baqueros, and 2 of them making 
Cal. Carts & stocking the plougs etc. 

'•In the Spring 1840, the Indians began to bo 
troublesome all around me. Killing and Wounding 
Cattle stealing horses, and threatening to attack us 
en Mass, I was obliged to make Capaigns against 
them and punish them severely, a little later about 2 
a 300 was aproching and got United on Cosumne 
River, but I was not waiting for them, left a small 
Garrison at home. Canons & other Arms loaded, and 
left with 6 brave men & 2 Baquero's in the night and 
took them by surprise at Day light, the fighting was 
a little hard, but after having lost about 30 men. 
they was willing to make a treaty with me, and 
after this lecon they behalved very well, and became 
my best friends and Soldiers, with which I has been 
assisted to conquer the whole Sacramento and a part 
of the San Joaquin Valley. 

"At the time the Communication with the Bay was 
very long and dangerous, particularly in open Boats, 
it is a great Wonder that we got not swamped a 
many times, all time with an Indian Crew and a 
Canaca at the helm. Once it took me (in December 
1839.) IG days to go down to Yerba buena and to 



BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF GENERAL ST'TTKR. 



4S 



return, I went down again on the 22d Xbor 39. to 
Yerba buena and on account of the inclemency of 
the Weather and the strong current in the River I 
need a whole month (17 days coming up) and nearly 
all the provisions spoiled. 

"On the 23d Augt, 1841. Capt. Ringold of Coma- 
dore Wilkse Exploring Squadron, arrived on the 
Embarcadero, piloted by one of the Launches 
Indian crew, without this they would not have 
found 80 easy the entrance of the Sacramento. They 
had 6 Whaleboats & 1 Launch 7 Officers and about 
50 men in all, I was very glad indeed to see them, 
sent immediately saddled horses for the Officers, and 
my Clerk with an invitation to come and see me, at 
their arrival I fired a salut, and furnished them 
what they needed, they was right surprised to find 
me up here in this Wilderness, it made a very good 
impression upon the Indians to see so many whites 
are coming to see me, they surveyed the River so far 
as the Butes. 

"September 4th 1841. Arrived the Russian Govr 
Mr. Alexander Rottiheff on board the Schooner Sac- 
ramento, and offered me their whole Establishment 
at Bodega & Ross for sale, and invited me to come 
right off with him, as there is a Russian Vessel at 
Bodega, and some Officers with plein power, to trans- 
act this business with me, and particularly they 
would give me the preference, as they became all 
acquainted with me, during a months stay at Sitka. 
I left and went with him down to the Bay in Com- 
pany with Capt. Ringold's Expedition, what for a 
fleet we thought then, is on the River. Arriving at 
Bodega, we came very soon to terms, from there we 
went to fort Ross where they showed me everything 
and returned to Bodega again, and before the Vessel 
sailed we dined on board the Helena, and closed the 
bargain for $30,000, which has been paid. And other 
property, was a separate account which has been 
first paid. 

"On the 28th of September I dispatched a number of 
men and my Clerk by Land to Bodega, to receive 
the Cattle, Horses, Mules & Sheep, to bring them up 
to Sutter's fort, called then ISIew Helvetia, by crossing 
the Sacramento they lost me from about 2000 head 
about 100, which drowned in the Eiver, but of most 
of them we could safe the hides, our Cal. Banknotes 
at the time. 

"March 6, 1842. Captain Fremont arrived at the 
port with Kit Carson, told me that he was an 
oflScer of the U. S. and left a party behind in Dis- 
tress and on foot, the few surviving Mules was 
packed only with the most necessary, 1 received him 
politely and his Company likewise as an old acquaint- 
ance, the next Morning I furnished them with 
fresh horses, & a Vaquero with a pack Mule loaded 
with Necessary Supplies for his Men. Capt. Fre- 
mont found in my Establishment every thing what 
he needed, that he could travell without Delay, he 
could have not found it so by a Spaniard, perhaps 
by a great Many and with loosing a great deal of 
time. I sold him about 60 Mules & about 25 horses, 
and fat young Steers or Beef Cattle, all the Mules & 
horses got Shoed, on the 23d March, all was read}' 
and on the 24th he left with his party for the U. 
Slates. 

"As an officer of the Govt, it was my duty to 
report to the Govt, that Capt. Fremont arrived, 
Genl. Micheltorena dispatched Lieut. Col. Telles 
(afterwards Gov. of Sinalo) with Capt., Lieut., and 
25 Dragoons, to inquire what Captain Premonts 
business was here; but he was en route as the arrive 
only on the 27th, from this time on Exploring, 



Hunting & Trapping parties has been started, at 
the same time Agricultural & Mechanical business 
was progressing from Year to year, and more No- 
tice has been taken, of my establishment, it became 
even a fame, and some early Distinguished Travellers 
like Doctor Sandells, Wasnesensky & others. Cap- 
tains of Trading Vessels & Super Cargos, & even 
Califoi-nians (after the Indians was subdued) came 
and paid me a visit, and was astonished to see 
what for Work of all kinds has been done. Small 
Emigrant parties arrived, and brought me some very 
valuable Men, with one of those was Major Bidwell 
(he was about 4 Years in ray employ). Major Reading 
& Major Hensley with 11 other brave men arrived 
alone, both of these Gentlemen has been 2 Years in 
my employ, with these parties excellent Mechanics 
arrived which was all employed by me, likewise 
good farmers, we made imediately Amer. ploughs 
was made in my Shops and all kind of work done, 
every year the Russians was bound to furnish mo 
with good ifon & Steel & files. Articles which could 
not be got here likewise Indian Beeds and the most 
important of all was 100 lb of fine Rifle & 100 lb of 
Canon powder and several 100 lb of Lead (every 
year) with these I was careful like with Gold. 

"June 3d 1840. I left in company of Major Read- 
ing, and most all of the Men in my employ, for u 
Campaign with the Miikelemney Indians, which has 
been engaged by Castro and his Officers to revolu- 
tionize all the Indians against me, to Kill all the 
foreigners, burn their houses, and Wheat fields etc. 
These Mukelemncy Indians had great promessess 
and some of them were finely dressed and equiped. 
and those came apparently on a friendly visit to the 
fort and Vicinity and long Conversations with the 
influential Men of the Indians, and one Night a 
Number of them entered in my Potrero (a kind of 
closed pasture) and was Retching horses to drive 
the whole Cavallada away with them, the Sentinel 
at the fort heard the distant Noise of these Horses, 
and gave due notice, & imediately I left with about 
6 well armed Men and attacked them, but they 
could make their escape in the Woods (where Saf'. 
City stands now) and so I left a guard with tho 
horses. As we had to cross the Mukelemney River 
on rafts, one of these rafts capsized with 10 Rifles, 
and 6 prs of Pistols, a good supply of Amunition, 
and the clothing of about 24 Men, and Major 
Reading & another Man nearly drowned. 

"June 16th 1846. Merritt & Kit Carson arrived 
with News of Sonoma beeing occupied by the Amer- 
icans, and the same evening arrived as prissoners 
Genl. Vallejo, Don Salvador Vallejo, Lt. Col. Prudon 
& M. Leese, and given under my charge and Care, I 
have treated them with kinJness and so good as I 
could, which was i-eported to Fremont, and he then 
told me, that prissoners ought not to be treated so, 
then I told him, if it is not right how I treat them, 
to give them in charge of somebody else. 

"Capt. Montgomery did send an Amer. flag by 
Lieut. Eevere than in Command of Sonoma, and 
some dispatches to Fremont, 1 received the Order to 
hiss the flag by Sunrise from Lt. Revere, long time 
before daybreak, 1 got ready with loading the 
Canons and when it was day the roaring of the 
Canons got the people all stirring. Some them made 
long faces, as they thought if the Bear flag would 
remain there would bo a better chance to rob and 
plunder. Capt. Fremont received Ordei-s to proceed 
to Monterey with his forces, Capt. Montgomery 
provided for the upper Country, established Garri- 
sons in all important places, Yerba buena, Sonoma, 



4.4 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



San Jose, and fort Sacramento. Lieut. Missroon 
came to organize our Garrison better and more 
Numbers of white Men and Indians of my former 
Soldiers, and gave me the Command of this Fort. 
The Indians have not yet received their pay yet for 
their services, only each one a shirt and a pre. of 
pants, & abt. 12 men got Coats. So went the VVar on 
in California. Capt. Fremont was nearly all time 
engaged in the lower Country and made himself 
Governor, until Genl. Keai-ney arrived, when an 
other Revolution took place. And Fremont for 
disobeying Orders was made prissoner b}' Genl. 
Kearney, who took him afterwards with him to the 
U. States by Land across the Mountains. After the 
War I was anxious that Business should go on like 
before, and on the 28th May, 18i7, Marshall & 
Gingery, two Millwrights, I employed to survey the 
large Millraise for the Flour Mil! at Brighton. 

"May 13th, ] 847. Mr. Marshall commenced the 
great work of the large Millraise, with ploughs and 
scrapers. 

" July 20th, 1847. Got all the necessary timber 
and frame of the millbuilding. 

" Augt. 25th. Capt Hart of the Mormon Battaillon 
arrived, with a good many of his Men on their 
Way to great Salt Lake, they had Orders for Govt. 
Horses, which I delivered to them, (War Horses) 
not paid for yet. They bought provisions and 
got Blacksmith work done. I employed about 
Eighty Men of them, some as Mechanics, some as 
laborers, on the Mill and Millraise at Brighton, some 
as laborers at the Sawmill at Columa. 

"Augt. 2SLh, 1847. Marshall moved, with P. 
Wisners family and the working hands to Columa, 
and began to work briskly on the sawmill. 

" Septr. 10th. Mr. Sam'l Brannan returned from 
the great Salt Lake, and announced a large Emigra- 
tion by land. On the 19th the Garrison was 
removed, Lieut't Per Lee took her down to San 
fran Cisco. 

" Novr. 1th. Getting with a great deal of trouble 
and with breaking wagons the four Runs of Mill- 
stones, to the Mill Sit (Brighton) from the Mountains. 

"Decembr. 22. Received about 2000 fruit trees 
with great expenses from Fort Ross, Napa Valley 
and other places, which was given in Care of men 
who called themselves Gardeners, and nearly all of 
the trees was neglected by them and died. 

"January 28th, 1848. Marshall arrived in the eve- 
ning, it was raining very heavy, but he told me that 
he came on important business, after we was alone 
in a private Room he showed me the first Specimens 
of Gold, that is he was not certain if it was Gold or 
not, but he thought it might be; immediately I made 
the proof and found that it was Gold, I told him 
even that most of all is 23 Carat Gold; he wished 
that I should come up with him immediately, but L 
told him that I have to give first my orders to the 
people in all my factories and shops. 

"February 1th. Left for the Sawmill attended by 
a Baquero (Olimpio) was absent 2d, 3d, 4th, & 5th, 
I examined myself everything and picked up a few 
Specimens of Gold myself in the tail race of the 
Sawmill, this Gold and others which Marshall and 
some of the other laborers gave to me (it was found 
while in my employ and Wages) I told them .that 1 
would a ring got made of it so soon as the Goldsmith 
would be here. I had a talk with my employed 
people all at the Sawmill, 1 told them that as they 
do know now that this Metal is Gold, I wished that 
they would do me the great favor and keep it secret 
only 6 weeks, because my large Flour Mill at Brighton 



would have been in Operation in such a time, which 
undertaking would have been a fortune to me, and 
unfortunatelj- the people would not keep it secret, 
and so I lost on this Mill at the lowest calculation 
about S25.0(I0. 

" March 7th. The first party of Mormons, em- 
plo3'ed by me left for washing and digging Gold and 
very soon all followed, and left me only the sick and 
the lame behind. And at this time 1 could say that 
every body left me from the Clerk to the Cook. What 
for great Damages I had to suffer in my tannery which 
was just doing a profitable and extensive business, 
and the Vatts was left filled and a quantity of half 
finished leather was spoiled likewise a large quantity 
of raw hides collected by the farmers and of my own 
killing. The same thing was in every branch of 
business which I carried on at the time. I began to 
harvest my wheat, while others was digging and 
washing Gold, but even the Indians could not be 
keeped longer at Work, they was impatient to run 
to the mines, and other Indians had informed them 
of the Gold and its value; and so I had to leave 
more as J of my harvest in the fields. 

" April 18th, 1848, more curious people arrived, 
bound for the Mountains. I left for Columa, in 
Company with Major P. B. Readmg and Mr. Kembel 
(Editor of the Alta-C alifomia') we were absent 4 
Days, we was pi-ospecling and found Silver and 
iron or in abundance. 

" April 28th. A great many people more went up 
to the Mountains. This day the Saw mill was in 
Operation and the first Lumber has been sawed in 
the whole upper Country. 

" May 1th. Saml Brannan was building a store at 
Natoma, Mormon Islands, and have done a very 
large and heavy business. 

" May 15th. Paid of all the Mormons which has 
been employed by me, in building these Mills and 
other Mechanical trddes, all of them made their pile, 
and some of them became rich & wealthy, but all of 
them was bound to the great Salt Lake, and spent 
there their fortunes to the honor and Glory of the 
Lord ! 

" May 19th. The great Rush from San Francisco 
arrived at the fort, all my friends and acquaintances 
filled up the houses and the whole fort, I had only a 
little Indian boy, to make them roasted Ripps, etc. 
as my Cooks left me like every body else, the Mei-- 
chants. Doctors, Lawyers, Sea Captains, Merchants, 
etc. all came up and did not know what to do, all 
was in a Confusion, all left their wives and families 
in San Francisco, and those which had none locked 
their Doors, abandoned their houses, offered them 
for sale cheap, a few hundred Dollars House & Lot 
(Lots which are worth now $100,000 and moi-e) 
some of these men were just like greazy. Some of 
the Merchants has been the most prudentest of the 
whole, visited the Mines and retui'ned immediately 
and began to do a very profitable business, and soon 
Vessels came from every where with all Kind of 
Merchandize, the whole old thrash which was laying 
for Years unsold, on the Coasts of South & Central 
America, Mexico, Sandwich Islands etc. all found a 
good market here. 

"Mr. Brannan was erecting a very large Warehouse, 
and have done an immense business, connected with 
Howard & Green; S. Francisco. 

" May 21th. Saml Kyburg errected or established 
the first Hotel in the fort in the larger building, and 
made a great deal of Money. A great Many traders 
deposited a great deal of goods in my Store (an 
Indian was the Key Keeper and performed very 



BIOGRAPHK' SKETCH OF GENERAL SUTTER. 



'*.5 



well) afterwards every little Shanty became a Ware- 
house and Store, the fort was then a veritable 
Bazaar. As white people would not be emplo3-ed at 
the Time I had a few good Indians attending to the 
Ferry boat, and every night came up, and delivered 
the received Money for ferryage to me, after deduc- 
tion for a few bottles of brandy, for the whole of 
them, perhaps some white people at the time would 
not have acted bo honestly. 

" May 25th. The travelling to the Mines was 
increasing from day to day, and no more JSTotice was 
taken, as the people arrived from South America, 
Mexico, Sandwich Islands, Oregon etc. All the Ships 
Crews, and Soldiers deserted. In the beginning of 
July, Col. Mason our Military Governor, with Capt 
Sherman (Secretary of State) Capt. Folsom Quar- 
trmstr, and an Escort of which some deserted, and 
some other Gentlemen, travelled in Company with 
the Governor. 

" As we wanted to celebrate the 4th of July we 
invited the Governor and his suite to remain with 
us, and he accepted. Kyburg gave us a good Diner, 
every thing was pretty well arranged. Pinkett was 
the Orator. It was well done enough for such a new 
Country and in such an excitement and Confusion. 
And from this time on you know how every thing 
was going on here. One thing is certain that the 
people looked on my property as their own, and in 
the Winter of 1849 to 1850. A great Number of 
horses has been stolen from me, whole Manadas of 
Mares driven away and taken to Oregon etc. Nearly 
my whole Stock of Cattle has been Killed, several 
thousands and left me only a very small Quantity. 
The same has been done with my large stock of 
Hogs, which was running like ever under nobodies 
care and so it was easj^ to steal them, I had not an 
Idea that people could be so mean, and that they 
would do a Wholesale business in Stealing. 

"On the Upper Sacramento, that is, from the Buttes 
downward to the point or mouth of feather Eiver, 
there was most all of my Stock running and during 
the Overflow the Cattle was in a many bands on 
high spots like Islands, there was a fine chance to 
approach them in small Boats and shoot them, this 
business has been very succe.'isfully done by one 
party of 5 Men (partners) which had besides hired 
people, and Boats Crew's which transported the beef 
to the Market at Sacramento City and furnished 
that City with my own beef, and because these Men 
was nearly alone, on account of the Overflow, and 
Monopolized the Market. 

" In the Spring of 1850, these 5 men divided their 
Spoil of $60,000 clear profits made of Cattle, all of 
them left for the Atlantic State; one of them 
returned again in the Winter from 1850 to 51, hired 
a new band of Robers to follow the same business 
and kill of the balance of the few that was left. My 
Baqueros found out this Ne.st of thiefs in ther Camp 
butchering just some head of my Cattle, on their 
return they informed me what they have seen, in 
the neighborhood of the same Camp they saw some 
more cows shot dead, which the Rascal then butch- 
ered. Immediately I did send to Nicolaus for the 
Sheriff' (Jas Hopkins) as then at the time we had 
laws in force?!? after all was stolen and destroyed 
the Sheriff arrived at Hock farm I furnished him a 
Posse of my employed Men. they proceeded over 
on the Sacramento to where the thiels were en- 
camped, as the Sheriff' wanted to arrest them they 
just jumped in their Boats and off' they went, the 
Sheriff' threatened them to fire at them, but they 
was all, and laughing they went at large. 



"One day my Son was riding after Stock a few miles 
below Hock farm, he found' a Man (his name was 
Owens) butchering one of our finest milch Cows (of 
Durham stock of Chile, which cost S300.) He told 
the Man that he could not take' the Meat, that he 
would go home and get people, and so he -has done, 
and he got people and a Wagon and returned to the 
Spot, but Owens found it good to clear out. Two 
brothers of this Man, was respectable Merchants in 
Lexington, Mo. and afterwards in Westport well 
acquainted with me, he came one day in my house 
and brought me their compliments, I received him 
well, and afterwards turned out to be a thief. How 
many of this kind came to California which loosed 
their little honor by crossing the Istmus or the plains. 
I had nothing at all to do with speculations, but 
stuck by the plough, but by paying such high Wages, 
and particularly under Kyburg' management, I have 
done this business with a heavy loss as the produce 
had no more the Value like before, and from the time 
on Kyburg left 1 curtailed my business considerable, 
and so far that I do all at present with my family 
and a few Indian Servants. I did not speculate, only 
occupied my land, in the hope that it would be before 
long decided and in my favor by the U. S. Land Com- 
mission; but now already 3 years & two months have 
elapsed, and I am waiting now very anxiously for 
the Decision, which will revive or bring me to the 
untimely grave. 

" All the other Circumstances you know all your- 
self, perhaps I have repeated many things which I 
wrote in the 3 first sheets, because I had them not 
to see what I wrote, and as it is now several months 
I must have forgotten, well it is only a kind of mem- 
orandum, and not a History at all. Only to remember 
you on the different periods when such and such 
things ha])pened. 

" i need not mention again, that all the Visitors has 
allways been hospitably received and treated. That 
all the sick and wounded found always Medical As- 
sistance, Gratis, as I had nearly all the time a Physi- 
cian in my employ. The Assistance to the Emi- 
grants that is all well known. I dont need to write 
anything about this. 

" I think now from all this you can form some facts, 
and that you can mention how thousands and thou- 
sands made their fortunes from this Gold Discoveiy 
produced through my industry and energy, (some 
wise merchants and others in San francisco called 
the building of this Sawmill, another of Sutter's 
folly) and this folly saved not only the Mercantile 
World from bankruptcy, but even our General Govt, 
but for me it has turned out a folly, then without 
having discovered the Gold, I would have become the 
richest wealthiest man on the Pacific Shore. 

J. A. Sutter." 

James C. Ward, who visited Gen. Sutter in 1848, 
says of him : — 

" A Swiss by birth, he held during the reign of 
Charles X. the rank of captain in the French army. 
He purchased the buildings at Ross, just north of 
Bodega, of the Russians, and as he proposed to set- 
tle the wilderness to the north of the Bay of San 
Francisco with European immigrants, the Mexican 
Government made him a grant of eleven leagues of 
land on the Sacramento river. After landing ho 
camped, surrounded by hostile savages, in the open 
plain where the fort was afterward built, and the 
next morning, after dressing in full uniform, ho went, 
accompanied by his Indian servant, both well arnted. 
to the Indian village in the woods neap by' Tht 



46 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



lavages were informed through the interpreter that 
he came to them as a friend, and if they would help 
him a little with their labor, he would make them 
presents. 

"The Indians were set to work to make adobes, 
if which 'the fort was built. It is a parallelogram 
in form, with two bastions. In the middle of the 
square is a building two stories high, containing four 
rooms, and a counting-room upstairs. A black- 
jmith shop, mill for grinding corn, serape manufac- 
tory and dwelling are around it, built against the 
walls of the fort. At one time he bad a well-drilled 
Force of thirty Indians within its walls, with guards 
posted night and da}- for its defense. No one reached 
it without being fed and lodged. 

" I passed the evening of my arrival, after supper, 
1^ his company. His manners are polished, and the 
impression he makes on every one is very favorable. 
In figure he is of medium height, rather stout, but 
well made. His head is round, features regular, with 
smiling and agreeable expression; complexion 
healthy and roseate. He wears his hair cut close, 
and his moustache trimmed short, a la miUtaire. He 
dressed very neatly in fi-ock coat, pantaloons and cap 
of blue, and with his gold-headed malacca in hand, 
you would rather suppose him prepared for a saunter 
on the Boulevards than a consultation with Simplon, 
hie Indian alcalde, about hands required for the day's 
work, or ox-teams to be dispatched here and there." 



CHAPTKR Xi 



THE KING'S ORPHAN. 
His Observations iu the .Sacramento Valley in 1S43 — Indications 
of Gold — Life at .Sutter's Fort — Indian Gourmands — Won- 
derful Fertility of the Land. 

In 1843 a young Swedish scholar visited Sutter's 
Fort, and made observations which are now highlj' 
interesting. He had been educated at a Government 
institution, and, on that account, was known as one 
of the "King's Orphans." One of the requirements 
of the school was that the pupil, after receiving a 
gratuitous education, should travel in foreign lands, 
write out his observations and discoveries, and de- 
posit them in the library of the institution. In pur- 
suance of that duty, the j'oung Swede found his way 
to California, made drawings of the Golden Gate, 
the town of Yerba Buena, and the old Presidio, vis- 
ited and described Sutter's Fort, and, on his way 
home, died at New Orleans. Ills papers fell into the 
hands of Col. T. B. Thorpe, who reported them to 
the Associated Pioneers ||1' the Territorial Days of 
California. While examining the country surround- 
ing Sutter's Fort, in 1843. the ' Orphan " wrote : — 

" The Californias are rich in minerals. Gold, sil- 
ver, lead, oxide of iron, manganese, and copper ore 
are met with throughout the country, the precious 
metals being the most abundant.'' 

Describing Sutter's establishment, the Swedish 
traveler said : — 

" It has more the appearance of a foi-t than a farm- 
ing establishment. It is protected by a wall ten feet 
high, made of adobes, or sun-dried brick, having a 
turret with embrasures and loop-holes for fire-arms. 
Twenty-four pieces of cannon, of different sizes, can 
b^ brought to defend the walls. Against the walls 



on the inside are erected the store-houses of the es- 
tablishment ; also, a distillery to make spirits from 
the wheat and grapes, together with shops for coop- 
ers, blacksmiths, saddlers, granaries, and huts for the 
laborers. At the gate-wa}' is alwaj's stationed a ser- 
vant, armed as a sentinel. I arrived at the estab- 
lishment in the morning, just as the people were be- 
ing assembled for labor by the discordant notes of a 
Mexican drum. I found Captain Sutter busily em- 
ployed in distributing orders for the day. He re- 
ceived me with great hospitalitj', and made me feel 
on the instant, perfectly at home under his roof. The 
magical sound of the drum had gathered togethei- 
several hundred Indians, who flocked to their morn 
ing meal preparatory to the labors of the day, reap- 
ing wheat. The morning meal over, thej- filed off to 
the field in a kind of military order, armed with a 
sickle and hook. 

" Breakfast was by this time announced for the 
family, which was served up in aii out-house adjoin- 
ing the kitchen. It consisted of wholesome corn- 
bread, eggs, ham, an excellent piece of venison, and 
coffee. In the rear of the fort is a large pond, the 
borders of which are planted with willows and other 
trees. This pond furnishes water for domestic use, 
and for irrigating the garden. The want of rain is 
the greatest evil that befalls the country. In the 
front of the fort there are inclosures for horses and 
cattle, and places to deposit corn and wheat. The 
manner of threshing was conducted on a most patri- 
archal plan, the grain being strewn upon the floor 
and then trodden out by horses or cattle, which causes 
it to be much broken and mixed with the earth, and 
almo.st impossible to clean. 

" The raising of wheat, corn, horses, and cattle, 
constitutes the principal business of Captain Sutter ; 
but he has realized considerable income from the sal- 
mon fisheries of the rivera, the fish being unequaled 
in flavor, and found in the greatest abundance. He 
also organized extensive hunting and trap])ing expe- 
ditions for vhe skins of the beaver, otter, elk, deer, 
and antelope, but in this he was greatly interfered 
with by the Hudson Bay Company, who sent their 
hunters upon his grounds. He complained to the 
proper authorities, but they paid no attention to the 
matter. His enemies, not content with thus injur- 
ing him, informed the suspicious Mexican Govern 
ment that Captain Sutter was concocting revolu- 
tionary plans, and that he encouraged deserters and 
other disorderly persons to live at his settlement. 
Captain Sutter replied to these charges by stating 
that he had received the grant of his lands on condi- 
tion that he should obtain settlers, the principal por- 
tion of whom he expected from Europe. To make 
amends, he had encouraged all the stragglers in the 
country to flock to his central position, and they be- 
ing chiefly unmarried men, and some rather lalwess 
spirits from the mountains, thcj- soon formed a very 
independent set of men, and were quite competent 
to defend themselves. 

" The Government at Monterey was not satisfied 
with this explanation, and urged on by envious neigh- 
bors, it was prompted to send to Captain Sutter a 
committee of investigation. The Captain was so en- 
raged at the indignity that he treated the committee 
with great contempt, and said he could defend him- 
self against any force that might be employed ag linst 
him. Whereupon the Govornment at Monterey 
threatened to send a military force, but thought bet- 
ter of the matter when they learned the character 
of the men Sutter had about him, and the Russian 
ai-mament he had mounted on the walls of the fort. 



SUTTER'S FORT IN 1846. 



47 



but they annoyed him with lawsuits, and, after a 
gi'eat deal of difficulty, he was acquitted of any 
treasonable designs against the Government. 

'■ The Hudson Bay Company having destroyed his 
trade in furs, he retaliated upon them by erecting a 
large distillery, with the product of which ho se- 
cretly purchased from the hunters of the Company 
the greater part of their furs, and managed to make 
more by the operation than if he had kept up a large 
hunting establishment of his own. 

'■ Mr. Sinclair, a partner with Captain Sutter in 
farming pursuits, and a Mr. G-rimes, have large and 
productive farms on the American Fork. Mr. Sin- 
clair is from Scotland, is a very interesting gentle- 
man in conversation, and possesses great enterprise 
in business. He was a hunter for many years among 
the Rocky Mountains, acting as a clerk to one of the 
Hudson Bay Company's expeditions. He treated me 
to a rural breakfast, and, in accordance with his old 
habits, broiled his meat on a ramrod stuck up be- 
foi'e the fire. The limpid and beautiful river near 
which his home is situated, is made doubly attractive 
when compared with the sultry plains in the vicinity, 
upon which good water is not always to be ob- 
tained." 

The •• Orphan " explains the process of Indian sig- 
nal-fires: — 

"A hole is dug in the ground much wider at the 
bottom than at the top; this hole is filled with com- 
bustibles and set on fire; onoe well ignited the hole 
is nearly closed at the opening. By this means the 
,smoke rises to a considerable height in a column, and 
thus information is conveyed to different tribes of the 
approach of an enemy or friend, and whether they 
are coming in large or small bodies." 

The gluttonous habits of the Indians are described: 

" The Indians that constituted the crew of the 
schooner, having been rather stinted of food for a 
day or two, determined on a feast as a recompense 
for their previous fasting. They presented on that 
occasion a spectacle 1 had never before witnessed of 
disgusting sensual indulgence, the effect of which on 
their conduct, struck me as being exceedingly 
strange. The meat of the heifer, most rudelj' cooked, 
was eaten in a voracious manner. After gorging 
themselves they would lie down and sleep for a while, 
and get up and eat again. Thej' repeated this glut- 
tony until they actually lost their senses, and pre- 
sented in their conduct all the phenomena peculiar 
to an over-indulgence in spirituous liquors. They 
cried and laughed by turns, roiled upon the ground, 
dozed, and then sprang up in a state of delirium. 
The following morning they were all wretchedly 
sick, and had the expression peculiar to drunken 
men recovering their reason after a debauch." 

The great fertility of the soil in parts of the Sac- 
ramento valley is referred to as follows : — 

" Vegetables of all kinds can be raised in the great- 
est abundance, frequently two or three crops a year. 
Wormwood and wild mustard abound as weeds. Oats 
grow wild, and the cultivated grow to an enormous 
height. Wheat crops sown in the Fall, early the fol- 
lowing year have j-ielded one hundred and fourteen 
bushels to the acre. At the Mission of St. Joseph it 
was ascertained that the yield was one hundred and 
twenty bushels to the acre, and the spontaneous crop 
the following j-ear was sixty bushels to the acre. 
The wheat of T'aos has six distinct heads. Clover 
and the grasses are extraordinarily fine and pro- 
ductive. Indian flax grows wild all over the coun- 
try. Horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs thrive well, and 



are possessed in greater or less numbers by all th6 
inhabitants, and are tended by herdsmen." 



CHAPTER XII. 
SUTTER'S FORT IN 1846. 

Aspect of Sacramento Valley — Sinclair's Ranch — A Lady Pion- 
eer — Captain Sutter at Home — Tlie Fort Described — Condi- 
tion and Occupation of the Indians — Farm Products and 
Prices— Dinner with the Pioneer — New Helvetia. 

The following interesting and accurate description 
of Sutter's Fort, before the gold discovery, is from 
Edwin Brj-ant's work, '' What I iSaw in California,'' 
published in 1849. Mr. Bryant, with a party of nine 
persons, left Independence, Missouri, on the 1st of 
May, 1846, and reached Sutter's Fort about midsum- 
mer, when he took the following observations : — 

"Sept. 1, 1846. A clear, pleasant morning. We 
took a south course down the valley, and at 4 o'clock 
p. M. reached the residence of John Sinclair, Esq., 
on the Rio de los Americanos, about two miles cast 
of Sutter's Fort. The valley of the Sacramento, as far 
as we have traveled down it, is from thirty to forty- 
miles in width, from the foot of the low benches of 
the Sierra Nevada to the elevated range of hills on 
the western side. The composition of the soil ap- 
pears to be such as to render it highly productive, 
with proper cultivation, of the small grains. The 
ground is trodden up by immense herds of cattle 
and horses, which grapied here early in the Spring, 
when it was wet and apparently miry. We passed 
through large evergreen oak groves, some of them 
miles in width. Game is very abundant. We fre- 
quently saw deer feeding quietly one or two hundred 
yards from us, and large flocks of antelopes. 

"Mr. Sinclair, with a number of horses and In- 
dians, was engaged in threshing wheat. His crop 
this year, he informed me, would be about three 
thousand bushels. The soil of his rancho, situated 
in the bottom of the Rio de los Americanos, just 
above its junction with the Sacramento, is highlj' 
fertile. His wheat-fields are secured against the 
numerous herds of cattle and horses, which consti- 
tute the largest item in the husbandry of this coun- 
try, bj- ditches about five feet in depth, and four or 
five feet over at the surface. The dwelling-house 
and outhouses of Mr. Sinclair are all constructed 
after American models, and present a most com- 
fortable and neat appearance. It was a pleasant 
scene, after having traveled many months in the 
wilderness, to survey this abode of apparent thrift 
and enjoyment, resembling so nearlj^ those we bad 
left in the far-off country behind us. 

"In searching for the ford over the Rio de los 
Americanos, in order to proceed on to Sutter's Fort, 
I saw a lady of a graceful, though fragile figure, 
dressed in the costume of our own countrywomen. 
She was giving some directions to her female ser- 
vants, and did not discover me until I spoke to her. 
and inquired the position of the ford. Her pale and 
delicate, but handsome and expressive countenance, 
indicated much surprise, produced by my sudden 
and unexpected salutation. But, collecting herself, 
she replied to my inquiry in vernacular English, and 
the sounds of her voice, speaking our own language, 
and her civilized appearance, were highly pleasing. 
This lady, I presume, was Mrs. Sinclair; but I never 
saw her afterwards. 

" Crossing the Rio de los Americanos, the waters 



4.S 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



i)T- -which, at this season, are quite shallow at the 
ford, -we proceeded over a well -beaten road to Sut- 
ter's Fort, arriving there Avhen the sun was about 
an hour and a half high. Riding up to the front 
gate, I saw two Indian sentinels pacing to and fro 
before it, and several Americans, or foreigners (as all 
who are not Californians by birth are here called), 
sitting in the gatewa_y, dressed in buckskin panta- 
loons and blue sailor shirts, with white stars worked 
on the collars. I inquired if Captain Sutter was in 
the fort. A very small man, with a peculiarly sharp 
red face and a most voluble tongue, gave the re 
sponse. He was probably a corporal. He said, in 
substance, that perhaps I was not aware of the 
great changes which had recently taken place in 
California;- — that the fort belonged to the LTnitcd 
States, and that Captain Sutter, although he was in 
the fort, had no control over it. He was going into 
a minute history of the complicated circumstances 
and events which had produced this result, when I 
reminded him that we were too much fatigued to 
listen to n lon'j discourse, but if Captain Sutter was 
inside the wails, and could conveniently step to the 
gate a moment, 1 would be glad to see him. A lazy- 
looking Indian with a ruminating countenance, after 
some time spent in parlej"ing, was dispatched with 
my message to Captain Sutter. 

"Captain S. soon came to the gate, and saluted us 
with much gentlemanlj' courtesy and friendly cordi- 
ality. He said that events had transpired in the 
country, which, to his deep regret, had so far de- 
prived him of the control of his own property, that 
he did not feel authorized to invite us inside of the 
walls to remain. The fort, he said, was occupied 
by soldiers under the pay of the LT^nited States, and 
commanded by Mr. Kern. 1 replied to him that, 
although it would be something of a noveltj- to sleep 
under a roof, after our late nomadic life, it was a 
matter of small consideration. If he would supply 
us with some meat, a little salt, and such vegetables 
aB he might have, we neither asked nor desired more 
from his hospitality, which we all knew was liberal, 
to the highest degi-ee of generosity. 

" A servant was immediately dispatched with 
orders to furnish us with a supply of beef, salt, mel- 
ons, onions, and tomatoes, for which no compensa- 
tion would be received. We proceeded immediatelj- 
to a grove of live-oak timber, about two miles west 
of the fort, and encamped within a half a mile of the 
Sacramento river. * * * * 

■" He [Captain Sutter], planted himself on the spot 
where his fort now stands, then a savage wilderness, 
and in the midst of numerous and hostile tribes of 
Indians. With the small party of men which he 
originally brought with him, he succeeded in defend- 
ing himself against the Indians, until he constructed 
bis first defensive building. He told me that, sev- 
eral times being hemmed in by his assailants, he 
had subsisted for many days upon grass alone. 
There is a grass in this valley which the Indians 
eat, that is pleasant to the taste, and nutritious. 
He succeeded by degrees in reducing the Indians to 
obedience, and by means of their labor erected the 
spacious fortification which now belongs to him. 

"The fort is a parallelogram, about five hundred 
feet in length, and one hundred and fifty in breadth. 
The walls are constructed of adobes or sun-dried 
bricks. The main building, or residence, stands near 
the center of the area, or court, inclosed by the 
walls. A row of shops, store-rooms, and barracks, 
are inclosed within, and line the walls on everj- side. 
Bastions project from the angles, and ordnance, 



mounted in which, sweep the walls. The principal 
gates on the east and the south are also defended 
by heavy artillery, through port-holes pierced in the 
walls. At this time the fort is manned by about 
fifty well-disciplined Indians, and ten or twelve 
white men, all under the pay of the United States. 
These Indians are well clothed and fed. The gar- 
rison is under the command of Mr. Kem, the artist 
of Captain Fremont's exploring expedition. 

" The number of laboring Indians employed by 
Cajjtain Sutter during the seasons of sowing and 
harvest, is from two to three hundred. Some of 
these are clothed in shirts and blankets, but a large 
portion of them are entirely naked. They are paid 
so much per day for their labor, in such articles of 
merchandise as they may select from the store. 
Cotton cloth and handkerchiefs are what they most 
freely purchase. Common brown cotton cloth sells 
at one dollar per yard. A tin coin issued by Captain 
Sutter circulates among them, upon which is stamped 
the number of daj's that the holder has labored. 
These stamps indicate the value in merchandise to 
which the laborer or holder is entitled. 

"They are inveterate gamblers, and those who 
have been so fortunate as to obtain clothing, fre- 
quently stake and part with every rag upon their 
backs. The game which they most generally play 
is carried on as follows: Any number which may be 
concerned in it seat themselves cross-legged on the 
ground, in a circle. They are then divided into two 
parties, each of which has two champions or players. 
A ball, or some small article, is placed in the hands 
of the pla^'ers on one side, which they transfer from 
hand to hand with such sleight and dexterity that 
it is nearly impossible to detect the changes. When 
the players holding the balls make a particular 
motion with their hands, the antagonist players 
guess in which hand the balls are at the time. If 
the guess is wrong, it counts one in favor of the 
playing party. If the guess is right, then it counts 
one in favor of the guessing party, and the balls are 
transferred to them. The count of the game is 
kept with sticks. During the progress of the game, 
all concerned keep up a continual monotonous grunt- 
ing, with a movement of their bodies to keep time 
with their grunts. The articles which are staked 
on the game are placed in the center of the ring. 

" The laboring or field Indians about the fort are 
fed upon the offal of slaughtered animals, and upon 
the bran sifted from the ground wheat. This is 
boiled in large iron kettles. It is then placed in 
wooden troughs standing in the court, around which 
the several messes seat themselves, and scoop out 
with their hands this poor fodder. Bad as it is, 
they eat it with an apparent high relish; and no 
doubt it is more palatable and more healthy than 
the acorn mush, or afole, which constitutes the prin- 
cipal food of these Indians in their wild state. 

"The wheat crop of Captain Sutter, the jtresent 
year [1846], is about eight thousand bushels. The 
season has not been a favorable one. The average 
yield to the acre, Captain S. estimated at twenty- 
five bushels. In favorable seasons this yield is 
doubled; and if we can believe the statements often 
made »pon respectable authority, it is sometimes 
quadrupled. ***** The wheat-fields of 
Captain S. are seeui'ed against the cattle and horses 
by ditches. Agriculture, among the native Califor- 
nians, is in a very primitive state, and although Cap- 
tain S. has introduced some American implements, 
still his ground is but imperfectly cultivated. * * * 
" Wheat is selling at the fort at two dollars and ' 



i '<'---"x;ii«')J^^"°"- 



"WW 









'^^^fi 




w^ I 



.-.i^>,,^-:-. r,:^ ■' 



iivi'r»-'i.-'tijiriniii-i«r7yiiii 



THE HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY. 



49 



fifty cents per fanega, rather more than two bushels 
English measure. It brings the same price when 
delivered ut San Francisco, near the mouth of the 
Bay of San Francisco. It is trans])ortcd from the 
Sacramento valley to a market in launches of about 
fifty tons burden. Unbolted flour sells at eight dol- 
lars per one hundred pounds. The reason of this 
high price is the scarcity of flouring-mills in the 
country. The mills which are now going up in 
various places will reduce the price of flour, and 
probably they will soon be able to grind all the 
wheat i-aised in the country. The streams .of Cali- 
fornia aff^ord excellent water-power, but the flour 
consumed by Captain Sutter is ground by a very 
ordinary horse-mill. 

" I saw near the fort a small ])atch of hemp, which 
had been sown as an experiment, in the spring, and 
had not been irrigated. I never saw a ranker 
growth of hemp in Kentucky. Vegetables of several 
kinds appeared to be abundant, and in perfection. 
********* 

"Captain Sutter's dining-room and his table" fur- 
niture do not present a very luxurious appearance. 
The room is unfurnished, with the exception of a 
common deal table standing in the center, and some 
benches, which are substitutes for chairs. The 
table, when spread, presented a correspondingly 
primitive simplicity of aspect and of viands. The 
first course consisted of good soup, served to each 
guest, in a china bowl, with silver spoons. The 
bowls, after they had been used for this purpose, 
were taken away and cleaned by the Indian servant, 
and were afterwards used as tumblers or goblets, 
from which we drank our water. The next course 
.consisted of two dishes of meat, one roasted and one 
fried, and both highlj^ seasoned with onions. Bread, 
cheese, butter, and melons, constituted the dessert. 
********* 

''Such has been the extortion of the Government 
in the way of import duties, that i'ow sujjplies which 
are included even among the most ordinary elegan- 
cies of life, have ever reached the inhabitants, and 
for these they have been compelled to pay prices 
that would be astonishing to a citizen of the United 
States or of Europe, and such as have imjioverished 
the population. As a general fact, they cannot be 
obtained at any price, and hence those who have 
the ability to purchase are compelled to forego their 
use from necessity. 

"The site of the town of Nueva Helvetia, which 
has been laid out bj- Captain Sutler, is about a mile 
and a half from the Sacramento. It is on an eleva- 
tion of the plain, and not subject to overflow when 
the waters of the river are at their highest known 
point. There arc now but three or four ^mall houses 
in this town, but I have little doubt that it will soon 
become a place of importance. 

"Near the Embarcadero of New Helvetia is a large 
Indian 'sweat-house,' or temoscal, an apjuMulage of 
most of the rancherias." 



^"^'l^ — ^ '® '^ — s«)' 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE HISTORY OF THE DONNER PARTY. 

Scene of the Tragedy — Organization and Composition of the 
Party — Election of George Doimer as Captain — Hastings' 
Ciit-otf — Ascent of the >lountains — Arrival at Donuer Lake 
— Snow-storms — Construction of Cabins — "Forlorn Hope 
Party " — Captain Reasin P. Tucker's Relief Party — .James 
F. Reed's Relief Party— "Starved Camp "—Third Relief 
Party — -Heroism and Devotion of Mrs. George Donner — 
Fourth Relief Party — Tlie .Survivors. 

Three miles from Truckee, and resting in the 
green lap of the Sierras, lies one of the loveliest 
sheets of water on the Pacific coast. Tall mountain 
peaks are reflected in its clear waters, revealing a 
picture of extreme loveliness and quiet peace. Yet 
this peaceful scene was the amphitheatre of the most 
tragic event in the annals of early California. " The 
Donner Party " was oi-ganized in Sangamon county, 
Illinois, by George and Jacob Donner and James F. 
Eeed, in the Spring of 184(j. In April, 1846, the 
party set out irom Springfield, Illinois, and by the 
first week in May had reached Independence, Mis- 
souri, where the parly was increased until the train 
numbered about two or three hundred wagons, the 
Donner familj- numbering sixteen; the Eeed family, 
seven; the Graves family, twelve; the Murphy family, 
thirteen; these were the principal families of the 
Donner part)- jjroper. At Independence, provisions 
were laid in for the trip, and the line of journey taken 
up. In the occasional glimpses we have of the party, 
features of but little interest present themselves, 
beyond the ordinary experience of pioneer life. A 
letter from Mrs. George Donner, written near the 
junction of the North and South Platte, dated June 
IG, 184(3, reports a favorable journey of four hundred 
and fifty miles from Independence, Missouri, with 
no forebodings of the terrible disasters so soon to 
burst upon them. At Fort Lar.unic a portion of the 
parly celebrated the Fourth of July. Thereafter 
the train passed, unmolested, upon its journey. 
George Donner was elected ca])lain of the train at 
the Little Sandy river, on the 20th of July, 1846, 
fnini which act it took the name of "The Donner 
Party." 

At Fort Bridger, then a mere trading post, the 
I'alal choice was made of the I'outc that led to such 
fearful disasters and tragic death. A new route, via 
Salt Lake, known as Hastings' Cut-off, was recom- 
mended to the party as shortening the distance by 
three hundred miles. After due deliberation, the 
Donner party, of eighty-seven souls (three having 
died) were indui-ed to se]>arate from the larger por- 
tion of the train (which afterwards arrived in Cali- 
fornia in safety) and commenced their journej' by 
way of Hastings' Cut-oft'. They reached Weber 
river, near the head of the canon, in safety. From 
this point, in their journey, to Salt Lake, almost 
insurmountable ditticiilties were encountered, and 
instend of reaching Salt Lake in one week, as antici- 
pated, over thirty days of perilous travel were con- 
sumed in making the trip — most precious time in 



50 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



view of the dangers imminent in the rapid!}' ap- 
proaching stormn of Winter. The story of their 
trials and sufferings, in their journey to the fixtal 
camp at Donner lake, is terrible; nature and stern 
necessity seemed arrayed against them. On the 
19th of October, near the present site of Wadsworth, 
Nevada, the destitute company were happily repro- 
visioned by C. T. Stanton; furnished with food and 
mules, together with two Indian vaqueros, by Caj)- 
tain Sutter, without compensation. 

At the present site of Reno it was concluded to 
rest. Three or four days' time was lost. This was 
the fatal act. The storm-clouds were already brew- 
ing upon the mountains, only a few miles distant. 
The ascent was ominous. Thick and thicker grew 
the clouds, outstripping in threatening battalions 
the now eager feet of the alarmed emigrants, until, 
at Prosser creek, three miles below Truckee, October 
28, 1846, a month earlier than usual, the storm set 
in, and they found themselves in six inches of newly- 
fallen snow. On the summit it was already from two 
to five feet deep. The party, in much confusion, 
finally reached Donner lake in disordered fragments.* 
Frequent and desjierate attempts were made to cross 
the mountain tops, but at last, baffled and despairing, 
they returned to camp at the lake. The storm now 
descended in all its pitiless fury upon the ill-fated 
emigrants. Its dreadful import was well understood, 
as laden with omens of suftering and death. With 
slight interruptions, the storm continued for several 
days. The animals were literally buried alive and 
frozen in the drifts. Meat was hastily prepared from 
their frozen carcasses, and cabins rudely built. One. 
the Schallenberger cabin, erected November, 1844, 
was already standing, about a quarter of a mile be- 
low the lake. This the Ereen familj^ appropriated. 
The Murphys erected one three hundred yards from 
the lake, marked by a large stone twelve feet high. 
The Graves family built theirs near Donner creek, 
three-quarters of a mile further down the stream, 
the three forming the apexes of a triangle; the 
Breen and Murphy cabins were distant from each 
othej- about one hundred and fifty yards. The Don- 
ner brothers, with their families, hastily constructed 
a brush shed in Alder Creek valley, six or seven 
miles from the lake. Their provisions were speedily 
consumed, and starvation, with all its grim attend- 
ant horrors, stared the poor emigrants in the face. 
Day by day, with aching hearts and paralyzed ener- 
gies, they awaited, amid the beating storms of the 
Sierras, the dread revelation of the morrow, 'hopinir 
against hope " for some welcome sign. 

On the sixteenth daj- of December, 1846, a party 
of seventeen were enrolled to attempt the hazardous 
journey over the mountains, to press into the valley 
bej'ond for relief. Two returned, and the remaining 
fifteen pressed on, including Mary Graves and her 
sister; Mrs. Sarah Fosdick, and several other women, 
the heroic C. T. Stanton and the noble F. W. Graves 
(who left his wife and seven children at the lakes 



to await in vain his return) being the leaders. This 
was the "Forlorn Hope Party," over whose dreadful 
sufferings and disaster we must throw a veil. A de- 
tailed account of this party is given from the graphic 
pen of C. F. McGlashan, and lately published in book 
form from the press of Crowley & McGlashan, pro- 
prietors of the Truckee Republicmi, to which we take 
pleasure in referring the reader. Death in its most 
awful form reduced the wretched company to seven— 
tvvo men and five women — when suddenly tracks 
were discovered imprinted in the snow. " Can any 
one imagine," says Mary Graves in her recital, " the 
joy these foot-prints gave us ? We ran as fast as our 
strength would carry us." Turning a sharp point 
ihej'^ suddenlj- came upon an Indian rancheria. The 
acorn-bread offered them by the kind and awe- 
stricken savages was eagerly devoured. But on they 
]jresscd with their Indian guides, only to repeat their 
dreadful sufferings, until at last, one evening about 
the last of January, Mr. Eddy, with his Indian guide, 
preceding the party fifteen miles, reached Johnson's 
ranch, on Bear river, the first settlement on the 
western slope of the Sierras, when relief was sent 
back as soon as possible and the remaining six sur- 
vivors were brought in next day. It had been thii'- 
ly- two days since they left Donner lake. No tongue 
can tell, no pen portraj', the awful suffering, the ter- 
rible and appalling straits, as well as the noble deeds 
of heroism that characterized this march of death. 
The eternal mountains, whose granite faces bore wit- 
ness to their sufferings, are fit monuments to mark 
the last resting-place of Charles T. Stanton, thatcul 
tured, heroic soul, who groped his way through the 
blinding snow of the Sierras to immortality. The 
divinest encomium — ■ He gave his life as a ransom 
for many" — is his epitaph, foreshadowed in his own 
noble words, ■' I will bring aid to these famishing 
people 01" lay dowii my life." 

Nothing could be done, in the meantime, for the 
relief of the sufferers at Doimer lake, without 
securing help from Fort Sutter, which was speedily 
accomplished by John Rhodes. In a week, six men, 
fully provisioned, with Captain Reasin P. Tucker at 
their head, reached Johnson's ranch, and in ten or 
twelve days' time, with provisions, mules, etc., the 
first relief party started for the scene at Donner lake. 
It was a fearful undertaking, hut on the morning of 
the 19th of F'ebruary, 1847, the above party began 
the descent of the gorge leading to Donner lake. 

We have purposely thrown a veil over the dread- 
ful sufferings of the stricken band left in their 
wretched hovels at Donner lake. Reduced to the 
verge of starvation, many died (including numei-ous 
children, seven of whom were nursing babes) who, 
in this dreadful state of necessity, were summarily 
disposed of. Rawhides, moccasins, strings, etc., 
wei'c eaten. But relief was now close at hand for 
the poor, stricken sufferers. On the evening of the 
19th of February, 1847, the stillness of death that 
had settled upon the scene was broken by pro- 



THE DISCOVERY OF OOLD. 



o] 



longed shouts. In an instant the painfully sensitive 
ears of the despairing watchers caught the welcome 
sound. Captain Tucker, with his relief party, had 
at last arrived upon the scene. Every face was 
bathed in tears, and the strongest men of the relief 
party melted at the appalling sight, sat do«'n, and 
wept with the rest. But time was precious, as storms 
were imminent. The return party was quickly gath- 
ered. Twentj'-three members started, among them 
several women and children. Of this number two were 
compelled to return, and three perished on the jour- 
ney. Many hardships and privations were expe 
rienced, and their provisions were soon entirely 
exhausted. Death once more stared them in the 
face, and despair settled upon them. But assistance 
was near at hand. James F. Reed, who had pre- 
ceded the Domier party by some months, suddenly 
appeared with the second relief party, on the 
25th of February. 1847. The joy of the meeting 
was indescribable, especially between the family and 
the long-absent father. Re-provisioned, the party 
pressed on, and gained their destination after severe 
suftering, with eighteen members, only three having 
perished. Reed continued his journey to the cabins 
at Douner lake. There the scene was simply inde- 
scribable; starvation and disease were fast claiming 
their victims. March 1st (according to Breen's 
diary) Reed and his party arrived at the camp. 
Proceeding directly to his cabin, he was espied by 
his little daughter (who, with her sister, was carried 
back by the previous party) and immediately recog- 
nized with a cry of joy. Provisions were carefully 
dealt out to the famishing people, and immediate 
steps were taken for the return. Seventeen com- 
prised this party. Hall-starved and completely 
exhausted, they were compelled to camp in the 
midst of a furious storm, in which Mr. Reed barely 
escaped with his life. This was •' Starved Camp, ' 
and from this point Mr. Reed, with his two little 
children and another person, struggled ahead to 
obtain hasty reliel, if possible. 

On the second day after leaving " Starved 
Camp," Mr. Reed and the three companions were 
overtaken by Cady and Stone, and on the night ol 
the third day, reached Woodworth's camp, at Bear 
valley, in safety. The horrors of " Starved Camp ' 
beggar all description, indeed, require none. The 
third relief party, composed of John Stark, Howard 
Oakley, and Charles Stone, were nearing the rescue, 
while W. H. Foster and VV. H. Eddy (rescued by a 
former party) were bent on the same mission. 
These, with Hiram Miller, set out from Woodworth's 
camp on the following morning after iieed's arrival. 
The eleven were duly reached, but were in a starving 
condition, and nine of the eleven were unable to 
walk. By the noble resolution and herculean 
efforts of John Stark, a part of the number were 
borne and urged onward to their destination, while 
the other portion was compelled to remain and 
await another relief party. When the third relief 



party, under Foster and Eddy, arrived at Honner 
lake, the sole survivors of Alder creek were George 
Donner, the captain of the company, and his heroic 
and faithful wife, whose devotion to her dying 
husband caused her own death during the last and 
fearful days of waiting for the fourth relief George 
Donner knew he was dying, and urged his wife to 
save her life and go with her little ones, with the 
third relief, but she refused. Nothing was more 
heart-rending than her sad parting with her beloved 
little ones, 'Who wound their childish arms lovingly 
around her neck and besought her with mingled 
tears and kisses to join them. But duty prevailed 
over atfection, and she retraced the weary distance 
to die with him whom she had promised to love and 
honor to the end. Such scenes of anguish are seldom 
witnessed on this sorrowing earth, and such acts of 
triumphant devotion ai"e among her most golden 
deeds. The snowy cerements of Donner lake 
enshrouded in its stilly whiteness no purer life, no 
nobler heart than Mrs. George Donner's. The 
terrible recitals that close this awful tragedy we 
willingly omit. 

The third relief j)arty rescued four of the last five 
survivors; the fourth and last relief party rescued 
the last survivor, Lewis Eeseberg, on the 7th of 
April, 1847. Ninety names are given as members of 
the Donner party. Of these forty-two perished, six 
did not live to reach the mountains, and forty-eight 
survived. Twenty-six, and possibly twenty-eight, 
out of the forty-eight survivors are living to-day — 
several residing in San Jose, Oalistoga, Los Gatos, 
.Marysville, and in Oregon. 

Thus ends this narrative of horrors, without a 
parallel in the annals of American history, of appall- 
ing disasters, fearful sutterings, heroic fortitude, self- 
denial and heroism. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

Karly Reports and Discoveries — M-irsliall's Great Discovery at 
Sutter's MiU^His Accouut of tlie Event — Views of the 
Newspapers uf tliat Time — Political aiul Social Revolu- 
tion — Great Rush to the Alines — Results — General .Sutter's 
Account of the Gold Discovery — Building of Saw-Mill. 

From the first discovery of California by the Span- 
iards the impression prevailed that the country was 
rich in silver, gold, and precious stones. When set- 
ting out on his northern expedition, the object of 
Cortez was to find another country like Mexico, in- 
habited by a semi-civilized people, whose rich treas- 
lu-es he might appropriate; and afterwards there 
existed among the inhabitants of New Spain a strong 
belief in the great riches of the new province, both 
in "■old and precious stones. The first published 
report of gold in California is found in Hakluyt's 
account of Sir Francis Drake's expedition to this coast 
in 1579. The historian of the voyage says: ''There 
is no part of the earth here to be taken up wherein 
there is not a reasonable quantity of gold or silver." 



HISTORY OF PLAOER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



It is not related that any of Drake's men penetrated 
into the interior of the country or made any search 
for these metals; and, since neither gold nor silver 
is found in the neighborhood of Drake's or San Fran- 
cisco bay, it is to be infen-ed that this statement 
was a falsehood, uttered for the purpose of giving 
importance to Drake's supposed discovery. 

There is no further account of gold or silver dis- 
coveries for two hundred and twenty-three years, 
until 1802, when it is said that silver was found at 
Alizal, in Monterey county, but the mine never pro- 
duced anything of consequence. Manfras says that 
gold was found in San Diego county in 1828; but as 
the discovery had not been heard of by Alexander 
Forbes, the historian of California, in 1835, it could 
not have been of any importance. On the contrary. 
Forbes, in his book of that date, says: "No min- 
erals of particular importance have yet been found 
in Upper California, nor any ores of metals." In 
another place, referring to Hijar's migration to Cali- 
fornia in 1833, he says: ■• There were goldsmiths in 
the party proceeding to a country where no gold 
existed." Mr. Forbes was then the British Vice- 
Consul at Monterey, and was doing all in his power 
to interest the English Government in the country'; 
it is therefore certain that up to that time — 1835 — 
no mineral discoveries of any consequence had been 
made in the province. 

The first mine to produce any noticeable amount 
of pi-ecious metal was the gold placers in the canon 
of the San Francisquito creek, forty-five miles north- 
west of Los Angeles. It was discovered about the 
year 1831S, and was worked continuously for ten 
years, when it was deserted for the richer discov- 
eries in the Sacramento basin. Its total j-ield was 
probably not over sixty thousand dollars or about 
six thou'^and dollars a year. 

In 1S42, James D. Dana, the geologist and miner- 
alogist with Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, traveled 
from the northern frontier through the Sacramento 
basin to the Bay of San Frau(;isco, and afterwards 
published a work in which he said: •' The gold rocks 
and veins oi' quartz were observed bj' the author in 
1K4:2, near the Umpqua river, in southern Oregon, 
and ]iebbles from similar rocks were met with along 
the shores of the Sacramento, in California, and the 
resemblance to other gold districts was remarked; 
but there was no ()])]x)rtunity of exploring the 
coiintiy at the time." Mr. Dana's professional 
knowledge enabled him to perceive certain indica- 
tions of gold, but no practical discoveries were made. 

On the 4th of May, 1846, Thomas O. Larkin, then 
United States Consul at Monterey, wrote to the Sec- 
retary of State as follows: "There is said to be 
black lead in the country at San Fernando, near 
San Pedro. By washing the sand in a plate, any 
person can obtain from one to five dollars per daj- of 
gold that brings seventeen dollars per ounce in Boston . 
The gold has been gathered for two or three years, 
though but few persons have the patience to look lor 



it. On the south-west end of the Island of Catalina 
there is a silver mine from which silver has been 
extracted. There is no doubt that gold, silver, 
quicksilver, copper, lead, sulphur and coal mines 
are to be found all over California, and it is equally 
doubtful whether, under their present owners, they 
will ever be worked." Till May, 1846, no productive 
mines were in operation, except the one on San 
Francisquito creek, in what is now Los Angeles 
county. 

It was reserved for James W. Marshall to make 
the great discovery, on the 19th of January, 1848. 
at Sutter's mill, on the South Fork of the American 
river, near the jiresent town of Coloma, inEl Dorado 
count\'. 

No account of the memorable event can be so 
interesting as that of Mr. Marshall himself, who in 
a letter of January 28, 1856, says: — 

"Towards the end of August, 1847, Captain Sut- 
ter and I formed a copartnership to build and run a 
saw-mill upon a site selected by myself (since known 
as Coloma). We employed P. L. Weimer and fam- 
ily, to remove i'rom the fort (Suiter's Fort) to the 
mill-site to cook and labor for us. Nearly the first 
work done was the building of a double log cabin, 
about half a mile from the mill-site. We commenced 
the mill about Christmas. Some of the mill hands 
wanted a cabin near the mill. This was built, and 
I went to the iort to superintend the construction of 
the mill irons, leaving orders to cut a narrow ditch 
where the race was to be made. Upon my return, 
in January, 1848, I found the ditch cut as directed, 
and those who were working on the same were 
doing so at a great disadvantage, expending their 
labor upon the head of the race instead of the foot. 

"I immediately changed the course of things, and 
upon the 19th of the same month, January, dii?- 
covered the gold near the lower end of the race, 
about two hundred yards below the mill. William 
Scott was the second man to see the metal. He was 
at work at a carpenter's bench near the mill. 1 
showed the gold to him. Alexander Stephens. 
James Brown, "Henry Bigler, and William Johnston, 
were likewise working in front of the mill, framing 
the upper story. They were called up next, and, of 
course, saw the precious metal. P. L. Weimer and 
Charles Bennett were at the old double log cabin 
(where Hastings & Co. afterwards kept a store), 
and, in my opinion, at least half a mile distant. 

•• In the meantime we put in some wheat and peas, 
nearly five acres, across the river. In February, the 
Captain (Captain Sutter) came to the mountains for 
the first time. Then we consummated a treaty 
with the Indians, which had been previously nego- 
tiated. The tenor of this was that we were to pay 
them two hundred dollars yearly in goods, at Yerba 
Buena prices, for the joint possession and occupation 
of the land with them; they agreeing not to kill our 
stock, viz.: horses, cattle, hogs or sheep, nor burn 
the grass within the limits fixed by the treaty. At 
the same time, Captain Sutter, myself and Isaac 
Humphrey, entered into a copartnershi]) to dig gold. 
A short tfme afterwards, P. L. W^eimer moved away 
from the mill, and was awaj^ two or three months, 
when he returned. With all the events that sub- 
sequently occurred, you and the public are well in- 
formed. ' 



THE DISCOVERY OF HOLD. 



53 



The following additional particulars of the dis- 
cover}^ appeared in the Coloma Argus in the latter 
part of the year 1855, and were evidently derived 
from Weimer himself: — 

"That James W. Marshall picked up the first 
piece of gold, is beyond doubt. Peter L. VVimmer 
(Weimer), who resides in this place, states positivelj' 
that Mr. Marshall picked up the gold in his presence; 
they both saw it, and each spoke at the same time, 
'What's that yellow stuft?' Marshall being a ste]i 
in advance picked it up. This first piece of gold 
is now in the possession of Mrs. VVimmer, and weighs 
six penny-weights, eleven grains. The piece was 
given to her by Marshall himself. * * * fphe 
dam was finished early in January, the frame for 
the mill also erected, and the flume and bulk-head 
completed. It was at this time that Marshall and 
Wimmer adopted the plan of raising the gate during 
the night to wash out sand from the mill-race, clos- 
ing it during the day, when work would be con- 
tinued with shovels, etc. Early in February — the 
exact da}' is not remembered — in the morning, after 
shutting oft' the water, Marshall and Wimmer walked 
down the race together to see what the water had 
accomplished during the night. Having gone about 
twenty yards below the mill, they both saw the 
piece of gold mentioned, and Marshall picked it up. 
After an examination, the gold was taken to the 
cabin of Wimmer, and Mrs. Wimmer instructed to 
boil it in saleratus water; but, she being engaged in 
making soap, pitched the piece in the soap-kettle, 
where it was boiled all daj' and all night. The fol- 
lowing morning the strange piece of stuff was fished 
out of the soap, all the brighter for the boiling it 
had received. Discussion now commenced, and all 
expressed the opinion that perhaps the yellow sub- 
stance might be gold. Little was said on the sub- 
ject; but every one each morning searched in the 
race for more, and every day found several small 
scales. The Indians also picked up many small 
thin pieces, and carried them always to Mrs. Wimmer. 

'•About three weeks after the first piece was ob- 
tained, Marshall took the fine gold, amounting to 
between two and three ounces, and went below to 
have the strange metal tested. On his return, he 
infoi'med Wimmer that the stutf was gold. All 
hands now began to search for the 'root of all evil.' 
Shortly after Captain Sutter came to Coloma, when 
he and Marshall assembled the Indians, and bought 
of them a large tract of country about Coloma, in 
exchange for a lot of beads and a few cotton hand- 
kerchiefs. They, under color of this Indian title, 
required one-third of all the ' gold dug on their 
domain, and collected at this rate until the Fall of 
1848, when a mining party from Oregon declined 
paying 'tithes,' as they called it. 

"During February, 1848, Marshall and Wimmer 
went down the river to Mormon Island, and there 
found scales of gold on the rocks. Some weeks later 
they sent a Mr. Henderson, Sj'dney Willis, and Mr. 
Fifield, Mormons, down there to dig, telling them 
that that ]ilace was better than Coloma. These 
were the first miners at Mormon Island." 

In a little work entitled " Mining in the Pacific 
States," published by H. H. Bancroft & Co., in 18G1, 
Mr. John S. Hittell presents the following interest- 
ing facts concerning the great discover)': — 

" Marshall was a man of an active, enthusiastic 
mind, and he at oiiee attached great importaiu-e to 



his discovery. His ideas, however, were vague; he 
knew nothing about gold-mining; he did not know 
how to take advantage of what he had found. Only 
an experiiinced gold-miner could understand the 
importance of the discovery, and make it of practical 
value to all the worla. That gold-miner, fortu- 
nately, was near at hand; his name was Isaac Hum- 
phrey, lie was residing in the town of San Fran- 
cisco, in the month of February, when a Mr. Bennett, 
one of the party employed at Marshall's mill, went 
down to that place with some of the dust to have it 
tested; for it was still a matter of doubt whether 
this yellow metal reallj' was gold. Bennett told his 
errand to a friend whom he met in San Francisco, 
and this friend introduced him to Humphrey, who 
had been a gold-miner in Georgia, and was therefore 
competent to pass an opinion upon the stuft'. Ilum- 
phrej' looked at the dust, pronounced it gold, at the 
fii'st glance, and expressed a belief that the diggings 
must be rich. He made inquiries about the place 
where the gold was found, and sub.sequent inquiries 
about the trustworthiness of Mr. Bennett, and on 
the 7th ot March he was at the mill. He tried 
to induce several of his friends in San Francisco to 
go with him; they all thought his expedition a fool- 
ish one, and he had to go alone. He found that 
there was some talk about the gold, and persons 
would occasionally go about looking for pieces of it; 
but no one was engaged in mining, and the work ot 
the mill was going on as usual. On the 8th he 
went out pi'ospecting with a pan, and satisfied him- 
self that the country in that vicinity was rich in 
gold. He then made a rocker and commenced the 
business of washing gold; and thus began the busi- 
ness ot mining in California. Others saw how he 
did it, followed his example, found that the work 
was profitable, and abandoned all other occupations. 
The news of their success spread, people flocked to 
the place, learned how to use the rocker, discovered 
new diggings, and, in the course of a few months, 
the country had been overtui-ned by a social and 
industrial revolution. 

'•Mr. Humphrey had not been at work more than 
three or four days before a Frenchman, called Bap- 
tiste, who had been a gold-miner in Mexico for manj- 
years, came to the mill, and he agreed with Hum- 
phrey that California was very rich in gold. He. 
too, went to work, and being an excellent prospector, 
he was of great service in teaching the new-comers 
the principles of prospecting and mining for gold, 
principles not abstruse, yet not likely to suggest 
themselves, at first thought, to men entirely igno- 
rant of the business. Baptiste had been employed 
by Captain Sutter to saw timber with a whip-saw. 
and had been at work for two years at a place, since 
called Weber, about ten miles eastward from Coloma. 
When he saw the diggings at the latter place, he at 
once said there were rich mines where he had been 
sawing, and he expressed surprise that it had never 
occurred to him before, so experienced in gold-min- 
ing as he was; but afterwards he said it had been 
so ordered by Providence, that the gold might not 
be discovered until California should be in the hands 
of the Americans. 

"About the middle of March, P. B. Reading, an 
Amei'ican, now a prominent and wealthy citizen cf 
the State, then the owner of a large ranch on the 
western bank of the Sacramento river, near where 
it issues from the mountains, eame to Coloma, and 
after looking about at the diggings, said that if simi- 
larity in the appearance of the country could be 
taken as a guide, there must be gold in the hills 



54 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



uear his ranch; and he went ott', declaring his in- 
tention to go back and make an examination of 
them. John Bidwell, another American, now a 
wealthy and influential citizen, then residing on his 
ranch on the bank of Feather river, came to Coloma 
about a week later, and he said there must be gold 
near his ranch, and he went off with expressions 
similar to those used by Reading. In a few weeks 
news came that Reading had found diggings near 
Clear creek, at the head of the Sacramento valley, 
and was at work there with his Indians; and not 
long after, it was reported that Bidwell was at work 
with his Indians on a rich bar of Feather river, 
since called Bidwell's Bai\" 

Although there were two newspapers, the Gali- 
fomian and <S'/f«r, published in San Francisco, thej^ 
do not seem to have been either very credulous or 
fery enterprising. They did not hear of the dis- 
aovery till some weeks after the great event; or, if 
they did hear of it, they did not credit the report. 
The first published notice of the gold discovery ap- 
peared in the Californiun on the fifteenth of March, 
Qearly two months after the event, and was as fol- 
lows: — 

"Gold Mine Found. — In the newly -made race- 
way of the saw-mill recently erected by Captain 
Sutter, on the American fork, gold has been found 
in considei-able quantities. One person brought 
thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gathered 
there in a short time. California, no doubt, is rich 
in mineral wealth; great chances here for scientifie 
capitalists. Gold has beeii found in almost every 
part of the country." 

Three days afterwards the Star made the follow- 
ing brief allusion to the subject: — 

"We were informed a few days since that a very 
valuable silver mine was situated in the vicinity of 
this place, and again, that its locality was known. 
Mines of quicksilver are being found all over the 
country. Gold has been discovered in the northern 
Sacramento district, about forty miles above Sutter's 
Fort. Rich mines of copper are said to exist north 
of these bays." 

The Star of March 25th says: "So great is the 
quantity of gold taken from the new mines recently 
found at New Helvetia, that it has become an article 
of traffic in that vicinity." 

It was three months after Marshall's discovery, 
before the San Francisco papers announced that 
gold-mining had become a regular and profitable 
business. The CaUfomian of April 26Lh says: — 

"Gold Mines oe tue Sacramento. — From a gen- 
tleman just from the gold region, wo learn that many 
new discoveries have very recently been made, and 
it is fully ascertained that a large extent of country 
abounds with that precious mineral. Seven men, with 
picks and spades, gathered nine thousand six hun- 
dred dollars within fifteen days. Many persons are 
settling on the lands with the view of holding pre- 
emptions, but as yet every person takes the right to 
gather all he can, without any regard to claims. 
The lai-gest piece yet found is worth six dollars." 

The Star of April 1, 18-18, contained an elaborate 
article on the resources of California, giving due 
credence and importance to the great event which 



was so soon to vitalize the sluggish province, in 
which the writer said: — 

" It would be utterly impossible at present to make 
a correct estimate of the mineral wealth of Cali- 
fornia. Popular attention has been but lately 
directed to it. But the discoveries that have already 
been made will warrant us in the assertion that 
California is one of the richest mineral countries in 
the world. Gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, copper, 
lead, sulphur, saltpetre, and other mines of great 
value have already been found. We saw, a few days 
ago, a beautiful specimen of gold from the mine 
newly discovered on the American fork. From all 
accounts the mine is immensely rich, and already 
we learn the gold from it, collected at random and 
without any trouble, has become an article of 
trade at the upper settlements. This precious metal 
abounds in this country. We have heard of several 
other newly-discovered mines of gold, but as these 
reports are not yet authenticated we shall pass over 
them. However, it is well known that there is a 
placer of gold a few miles from the ciudad de Los 
Angeles, and another on the San Joaquin." 

The Calif orn'Mn of August 14, 1848, contained an 
article descriptive of the process and implements of 
gold-mining at that time, and having related the 
particulars of the discovery at Sutter's mill, the 
writer continues: — 

"It soon began to attract attention, and some 
persons discovered gold in the river below, and for 
some distance above the mill, in large quantities; 
so much so that persons who only gave credit to 
one-third of what was said about it left their homes 
and went to work in the mines. It was the work 
of but a few weeks to bring almost the entire popu- 
lation of the Territory together, to pick up the 
precious metal. The result has been that in less 
than four months, a total revolution bus been effected 
in the prospects and fate of Alta California. Then, 
the capital was in the hands of a few individuals 
engaged in trade and speculation; now, labor has 
got the upper hand of capital, and the laboring men 
hold the great mass of the wealth of the country- - 
the gold. 

"There are now about four thousand white per- 
sons, besides a number of Indians, engaged in the 
mines; and from the fact that no capital is required, 
they are working in companies, on equal shares, or 
alone, with their baskets. In one part of the mine, 
called the dry-diggings, no other implement is nec- 
essary than an ordinary sheath-knife, to pick the 
gold from the rocks. Id other parts, where the 
gold is washed out, the machinery is very simple, 
being an ordinary trough made of plank, round on 
the bottom, about ten feet long, and two feet wide 
at the top, with a riddle, or sieve, at one end, to 
catch the larger gravel, and three or four small bars 
across the bottom, about half an inch high, to keep 
the gold from going out with the dirt and water at 
the lower end. This machine is set upon rockers, 
which give a half-rotary motion to the water and 
dirt inside. But far the largest number use nothing 
but a large tin-pan, or an Indian basket, into which 
they place the dirt, and shake it about until the gold 
gets to the bottom, and the dirt is carried over the 
side in the shape of muddy water. It is necessary, 
in some cases, to have a crowbar, pick, or shovel; 
but a great deal is taken up with large horns, shaped 
spoon-fashion at the large end. 



THK DISCOVERY OF COLD. 



" From the fact that no capital is nccessaiy, a fair 
competition in labor, without the influence of capital, 
men who were only able to procure one month's 
provisions have now thousands of dollars of the 
precious metal. The laboring clasB have now become 
the capitalists of the country. 

" As to the richness of the mines, were we to set 
down half the truth, it would be looked upon in 
other countries as a Sinbad story, or the history of 
Aladdin's lamp. Many persons have collected in 
one day, of the finest grade of gold, from three to 
eight hundred dollars, and for many days together 
averaged from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty 
dollars. Although this is not universal, yet the 
general average is so well settled, that when a man 
with his pan or basket does not easily gather from thir- 
ty to forty dollarsin a day, he moves to another place; 
.so that taking the general average, including the 
time spent in moving from place to place and in 
looking for better diggings, we are of the opinion 
that we maj' safely set down an ounce of jiure gold, 
or sixteen dollars per day, to the man. Suppose 
there are four thousand persons at work, they will 
add to the aggregate wealth of the Territory about 
four thousand ounces, or sixty-four thousand doHars 
a day. 

• " Pour months ago, flour was sold in this market 
(San Francisco) for four dollars per hundred; now it 
is sixteen. Beef cattle wei'e then six; now they are 
thirty. Eeady-made clothing, groceries, and other 
goods, have not risen in the same proportion, but are 
at least double their former cost. If we make bi'ead 
and meat the standard by which to determine the 
value of gold, then it is worth only one-fourth of 
what it is elsewhere. But if gold and silver be the 
standard, then the bread and meat is woi'th four 
times what it was. But, the relative value of the 
grain-gold, compared with gold and silver coin, can 
only be changed by the action of Government; for, 
however abundant the gold may be, it must produce 
its relative value in coin; and, while a five-dollar 
gold-piece will be received at the Treasury as five 
dollars, so long must an ounce of gold be worth 
sixteen dollars. 

" As to the future hopes of California, her course 
is onw^ard, with a rapidity that will astonish the 
world. Her unparalleled gold mines, silver mines, iron 
ore, and lead, with the best climate in the world, 
and the richest soil, will make it the garden-spot of 
creation.' 

The Galifomian, of September 23, 1848, gives the 
following graphic account of the grand rush to the 
gold mines: — 

" It would seem that but little doubt was enter- 
tained of its being the Slmon-pij,re stufl'; for operations 
immediately ceased at the mill, and all hands com- 
menced searching for gold. It was soon found that 
gold abounded all along the American fork, for a 
distance of thirty miles. But little credit howevei- 
was given the report, though occasionally a solitary 
gold-hunter might be seen stealing down to the 
launch, with a pick and shovel, more that half- 
ashamed of his ci-edulity. Sometime dui'ing the 
month of May a number of credible persons arrived 
in town from the scene of operations, bringing spec- 
imens of the ore, and stating that those engaged in 
collecting the precious metal were making from three 
to ten dollars per day. Then commenced the grand 
rush. The inhabitants throughout the Territjor}- 
were in a commotion. Large companies of men, 
women, and children could be seen on every road 



leading to the mines; their wagons loaded down 
with tools for digging, provisions, etc. Launch after 
launch left the wharves of our city (San Fiancisco) 
crowded with passengers and freight, for the Sacra- 
mento. Mechanical operations of every kind ceased. 
Whole streets, that were but a week before alive 
with a busy population, were entirely deserted, and 
the place wore the appearance of a city that had 
been suddenly visited by a devastating plague. To 
cap the climax, the newspapers were obliged to stop 
printing, for want of readers. 

" Meantime, our mercantile friends were doing an 
unwonted stroke of business. Every arrival from 
the mining district brought more or less gold-dust, 
the major part of which immediately passed into the 
hands of the merchants, for goods. Immense quan- 
tities of merchandise were conveyed to the mines, 
until it became a matter of astonishment where so 
much could be disposed of. During the first eight 
weeks of the golden times, the receipts at this place 
(San Francisco) in gold-dust amounted to two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For the eight 
weeks ending at this ilate (Sept. 23, 1848), they 
were six hundred thousand dollars. The number of 
persons now engaged in gold-hunting will yjrobably 
exceed six thousand, including Indians, and one 
ounce per day is the lowest average we can put for 
each person, while many collect their hundreds ot 
dollars for a number of days in succession, and 
instances have been known where one individual has 
collected from fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred 
dollai-s worth of pure gold in one day. Explorations 
have been progressing, and it is now fully ascertained 
that gold exists on both sides of the Sierra Nevada, 
from latitude forty -one degrees north, as far south 
as the head-waters of the San Joaquin river, a dis- 
tance of four hundred miles in length and one 
hundred in breadth. Farther than this has not been 
explored; but from the natuie of the country beyond 
the sources of the San Joaquin, wo doubt not gold 
will also be found therein equal abundance. The gold 
region already known is sufficiently extensive to 
give profitable employment to one hundred thousand 
persons for generations to come. The ore is in a 
virgin state, disseminated in small doses, and is 
found in three distinct deposits — in sand and gravel 
beds, in decomposed granite, and intermingled with 
a kind of slate." 

In April, 1848, Mr. Jonas Spect, an enterprising 
yjioneer, gave the following interesting account ol 
gold discovei'ies: — 

" Up to this time there had been little excite- 
ment about the gold diggings; but at Knight's 
Landing we were overtaken by iSpaniards, who were 
on their way to Suiter's mill to dig gold, and they 
reported stories of fabulously rich diggings. After 
discussing the matter, we changed our course to the 
gold mines and hurried on, arriving at the mill on 
the thirtieth day of April. It was true that several 
rich strikes had been made, but the miners then at 
work did not average two and a half dollars per 
day. Marshall and Sutter claimed the land and 
rented the mines. Every one supposed gold was 
confined to that particular locality. We did not 
engage in mining, and concluded to resume our 
journey across the plains. On our return trip we 
learned that gold had been found on Mormon Island. 
But we took no further notice of gold, and on the 
12th of May arrived at Johnson's ranch. We 
found one man there waiting our arrival, but we 
expected many others in a short time. We waited 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



until about the 25th, when we learned that 
tboro was another rush to the mines, and then 
vanished all pros])ect of any company crossing the 
mountains that Slimmer. My partner left for the 
American river, and I proposed to Johnson that we 
should prospect for gold on Bear river. We went 
some distance up the stream and spent three days in 
the search without any satisfactory result. I then 
suggested to Johnson that he should send his Indian 
witii me, and I would prospect the Yuba river, as 
that stream was about the size of the South Fork of 
the American river. We prepared the outfit, and 
on the 1st of June; we struck the Yuba near Long 
Bar. After a good deal of ]irospecting, I succeeded 
in raising ' color.' That night I camped in Timbuc- 
too ravine, a little above where we first found the 
gold. The next day, June 2d, 1 continued pros- 
pecting up the stream, finding a little gold, but 
not enough to pay. The Indian was well acquainted, 
and he piloted me up to the location of Rose's Bar, 
where we met a large number of Indians, all entirely 
nude and eating clover. I prospected on the bar, 
and found some gold, but not sufficient to be remu- 
nerative. Greatiy discouraged, I started on my 
return home. When I arrived at a point on the 
Yuba river, a little above Timbuctoo ravine, I washed 
some of the dirt and found three lumps of gold 
worth about seven dollars. I pitched my tent here 
on the night of June 2d, and sent the Indian home 
for supplies. In about a week I moved down on the 
creek, and remained there until November 2()th, 
when I left the mines forever. June 3d, the next day 
after the location of my camp, Michael C. Nye and 
William Foster came up the creek prospecting for 
gold." 

The discoveiy of gold on the American river led 
Mr. Nye and party to start out on a ])rospecting 
trip. In the Summer — the exact date is not known — 
they found paying diggings on Dry creek, near its 
junction with the Yuba, and commenced working on 
an extensive scale. The discoveries by Mr. Spect 
and Mr. Nye's company were nearly contempora- 
neous, and as the parties started from different local- 
ities, and without any knowledge of the acts of the 
other, due credit should be given to each. 

(iENERAL SUTTER's ACCOKNT OF THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 

The following extracts are from an article com- 
municated, in his own handwriting, by General 
Sutter to Hulcldngs' California Magaziyie for Novem- 
ber, 1857. As a part of the history of the great 
event referred to, and as the personal nai'rative of 
one of the chief actors in the golden drama, it is one 
of the most interesting records of the time. General 
Sutter says: — 

" It was in the first of January, 1848, when the 
gold was discovered at Coloma, where I was build 
ing a saw-mill. The contractor and builder of this 
mill was James W. Marshall, from New Jersey. In 
the Fall of 18-47, after the mill-site had been located. 
1 sent up to this place Mr. P. L. Wimmer. with his 
familj-, and a number of laborers from the disbanded 
Mormon Battalion; and a little later 1 engaged Mr. 
Bennett, from Oi-egon, to assist Mr. Marshall in the 
mechanical labors of the mill. Mr. Wimmer had 
the team in charge, asfisted by his young sons to do 
the teaming, and Mrs. Wimmer did the cooking for 
all hands. 



" I was veiy much in need of a saw-mill to get 
lumber to finish my flouring-mill, of four run of 
stones, at Brighton, which was commenced at the 
same time, and was rapidly progressing; likewise, 
for other buildings, fences, etc., for the small village 
of Yerba Buena," now San Francisco. In the City 
Hotel (the only one) this enterprise was unkindly 
called 'another folly of Sutter's;' as my first settle- 
ment at the old fort, near Sacramento City, was 
called by a good many ' a folly of his,' and they 
were about right in that, because 1 had the best 
chances to get some of the finest locations near the 
settlements; and even well-stocked ranches had 
been offered me on the most reasonable conditions. 
But I refused all these good offers, and preferred to 
explore the wilderness, and select a territory on the 
banks of the Sacramento. 

" It was a rainj- afternoon when Mr. Marshall 
arrived at my office, in the fort, very wet. I was 
somewhat surprised to see him, as he was down a 
few days previous, when I sent up to Coloma a num- 
ber of teams with provisions, mill irons, etc. He 
told me then that he had some important and inter- 
esting news which he wished to communicate secretly 
to me, and wished me to go with him to a place 
wiiere we should not be disturbed, and where no 
listeners could come and hear what we had to say. 
I went with him to my private rooms; he requested 
me to lock the door; I complied, but told him at the 
same time that nobody was in the house except the 
clerk, who was in his office in a different part of the 
house 

" After requesting of me something which he 
wanted, which my servants brought and then left 
the room, I forgot to lock the door, and it happened 
that the door was opened by the clerk just at the 
moment when Marshall took a rag from his pocket, 
showing me the yellow metal. He had about two 
ounces "of it; but how quick Mr. Marshall put the 
yellow metal in his pocket again, can hardly be 
described. The clerk came to see me on business, 
and excused himself for interrupting me; and as 
soon as he had left, I was told, ' Now, lock the door. 
Didn't I tell you that we might have listeners?' I 
told him he need fear nothing about that, as it was 
not the habit of this gentleman; but I could hardly 
convince him that he need not be suspicious. 

" Then Mr. Marshall began to show me this metal, 
which consisted of small pieces and specimens, some 
of them worth a few dollars. He told me that he 
had expressed his opinion to the laborers at the mill 
that this might be gold; but some of them laughed 
at him and called him a crazy man, and could not 
believe such a thing. 

'• Afler having proved the metal with aqua fortis, 
which I found iii my apothecary shop, likewise with 
other experiments, and read the long article ' Gold,' 
in the Encych>peilia Americana, I declared this to be 
gold of the finest quality, of at least twenty-three 
carats. After this Mr. Marshall had no more rest or 
jialience. and wanted me to start Avith him imme- 
diately for Coloma; but I told him I cinild not 
leave," as it was late in the evening, and nearly 
supper-tune, and that it would be belter for him to 
remain with mc till the next morjiing, and I would 
then travel with him. But this would not do; he 
asked me only, 'Will you come to-morrow?' I 
told hin yes, and off" he started for Coloma, in the 
heaviest rain, although already very wet, taking 
nothing to eat. I took this news very easy, like 
all other occurrences, good or bad. but thought a 
great deal during the night about the consequences 




! 

\ ' ^- -- 

I 



KTT' 



iC'IrM 



»*' fe' 





O < 

QC O 

LUCC 



X CO 



THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 



which might follow such a discovery. I gave all 
the necessary orders to my numerous laborei's, and 
left the next morning at seven o'clock, accorapaniod 
by an Indian soldier and a vaquero, in a heavy rain, 
for Coloma. About halfway on the road, I saw at 
a (li.stance a human being crawling out I'rom the 
brushwood. 1 asked the Indian who it was. He 
lold me, ' the same man who was with you last 
evening.' When I came nearer I found it was Mar- 
shall, very wet. I told him he would have done 
better to remain with me at the fort, than to pass 
such an ugly night here; but he told me that he went 
to Coloma, fifty-four miles, took his other horse and 
came half-way to meet me. Then we rode up to the 
new El Dorado. 

" In the afternoon, the weather was clearing up, 
and we made a prospecting promenade. The next 
morning, we went to the tail-race of the mill, 
through which the water was running during the 
night, to clear out the gravel which had been made 
loose for the purpose of widening the race; and 
alter the water was out of the race, we went in to 
search for gold. This was done every morning. Small 
pieces of gold could be seen remaining on the surface 
of the clean-washed bed-rock. I went into the race and 
picked up several pieces of this gold; several of the 
laborers gave me some which they had picked up, 
and from Marshall I received a part. I told them I 
would get a ring made of this gold as soon as it 
could be done in California; and I have had a heavy 
ring made, with my family's coat-of-arms engraved 
on the outside, and on the inside of the ring is 
engraved; ' the first gold discovered in January, 
1848.' Xow if Mrs. Wimmer possesses a piece which 
had been found earlier than mine, Mr. Marshall can 
tell, as it was probably received from him. I think 
Mr. Marshall could have hardly known himself which 
was exactly the first little piece, among the whole. 

"The next day I went with Mr. Marshall on a 
prospecting tour in the vicinity of Coloma, and the 
following morning I left for Sacramento. Before my 
departure, I had a conversation with all hands; I 
told them I would consider it a great favor if they 
would keep this discovery secret only for six weeks, 
so that I could finish my large flour-mill at Brighton, 
which had cost me already about twenty-four or 
twenty -five thousand dollars. The people up there 
promised to keep it secret so long. On my way 
home, instead of feeling happy and contented, I 
was very unhappy, and could not see that it 
would benefit me much; and I was perfectly right 
in thinking so, as it came just precisely as I 
expected. I thought, at the same time that it 
could hardly be kept secret for six weeks ; and 
in that I was not mistaken, for, about two weeks 
later, after my return, I sent up several teams, in 
charge of a white man, as the teamsters were Indian 
boys. This man was acquainted with all hands up 
there, and Mrs. Wimmer told him the whole secret ; 
likewise the young sons of Mrs. Wimmer told him 
that they had gold, and that they would let him have 
some, too; and so he obtained a few dollars' worth of 
it, as a present. As soon as this man arrived at the 
fort, he went to a small store in one of my outside 
buildings, kept by Mr. Smith, a partner of Samuel 
Brannan, and asked for a bottle of brandy, for which 
he would pay the cash. After having the bottle he 
paid with these small pieces of gold. Smith was 
astonished, and asked if he meant to insult him. The 
teamster told him to go and ask me about it. Smith 
came in, in great haste to see me, and I told him at 
once the truth — what could I do ? I had to tell him 
8 



all about it. He reported it to Mr. S. Brannan, who 
came up immediately to get all possible information, 
when he returned and sent up large supplies of goods, 
leased a larger house from mo, and commenced a 
very large and profitable business. Soon he opened 
a branch house at Mormou Island. 

" So soon as the secret was out, my laborers began 
to leave me, in small parties at first, but then all left, 
from the clerk to the cook, and I was in great dis- 
tress. Only a few mechanics remained to finish some 
necessary work which they had commenced, and 
about eight invalids, who continued slowly to work 
a few teanis, to scrape out the mill-race at Brighton. 
The Mormons did not like to leave my mill unfin- 
ished; but they got the gold-fever, like everybody 
else. After they had made their piles they left for 
the Great Salt Lake. So long as these people have 
been emploj^ed by me, they have behaved very well 
and were industrious and faithful laborers; and when 
settling their accounts, there was not one of them 
who was not contented and satisfied. 

" Then the people commenced rushing up from San 
Francisco and other parts of California, in May, 1848. 
In the former village (San Francisco,) only five men 
were left to take care of the women and children. 
The single men locked their doors and left for ' Sut- 
ter's Fort,' and from thence to the El Dorado. For 
some time the people in Monterey and further south, 
would not believe the news of the gold discovery, 
and said it was only a ^ruse de guerre of Sutter's, be- 
cause he wanted to have neighbors in his wilderness.' 
From this time on I got only too many neighbors, 
and some verj'^ bad ones among them. 

" What a great misfortune was this sudden gold 
discovery to me ! It has just broken up and ruined 
my hard, industi-ious, and restless labors, connected 
with many dangers of life, as I had many narrow 
escapes before I became properly established. From 
my mill buildings I reaped no benefit whatever; the 
mill-stones, even, have been stolen from me. My 
tannery, which was then in a flourishing condition, 
and was carried on very profitably, was deserted; a 
large quantity of leather was left unfinished in the 
vats, and a great quantity of rawhides became val- 
ueless, as they could not be sold. Nobody wanted to 
be bothered with such trash, as it was called. So it 
was in all the other mechanical trades which I had 
carried on ; all was abandoned, and work com- 
menced, or nearly finished, was left, at an immense 
loss to me. Even the Indians had no more patience 
to work alone, in harvesting and threshing my large 
wheat crop; as the whites had all left, and other 
Indians had l>een engaged by some white men to work 
for them, and they commenced to have some gold, for 
which they were buying all kinds of articles at 
enormous prices in the stores, which, when my Indians 
saw this, they wished very much to go to the mount- 
ains and dig gold. At last I consented, got a num- 
ber of wagons ready, loaded them with provisions 
and goods of all kinds, employed a clerk, and left 
with about one hundred Indians and about fifty 
Sandwich Islanders, which had joined those which I 
brought with me from the Islands. The first camp 
was about ten miles from Mormon Island, on the 
South fork of the American river. In a few weeks 
we became crowded, and it would no more pay, as 
my people made too many acquaintances. I broke 
up the camp and started on the march further south, 
and located my next camp on Sutter creek, now in 
Amador county, and thought that I should there be 
alone. The work was going on well for awhile, un- 
til three or four traveling grog-shops surrounded me, 



58 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



at from one-half to ten miles distance from the camp. 
Then, of coiu'se, the gold was taken to these places, 
for drinking, gambling, etc., and then the following 
day they were sick and unable to work, and be- 
came deeper and more indebted to me, pai-ticuiarly 
the Kanakas. I found it was high time to quit this 
kind of business, and lose no more time and money. I 
therefore broke up the camp and returned to the fort, 
where I disbanded nearly all the people who had 
worked for me in the mountains digging gold. This 
whole expedition proved to be a heavy loss to me. 

'At the same time, I was engaged in a mercantile 
firm at Coloma, which I left in January, 1849, like- 
wise with many sacrifices. After this, I would have 
nothing more to do with the gold affairs. At this 
ti7ne the fort was the great trading-place, where 
nearly all the business was transacted. I had no 
pleasure to remain there, and moved up to Hock 
farm, with all my Indians, who had been with me 
from the time they were children. The place was 
then in charge of a major-domo. 

" It was very singular that the Indians never found 
a piece of gold and brought it to me, as they veiy 
often did other specimens found in the mountains. 
I requested them continually to bring me some curi- 
osities from the mountains, for which 1 always recom- 
pensed them. I have received animals, birds, plants, 
young trees, wild fruits, pipo-clay, red ochre, etc., 
but never a piece of gold. Mr. Dana, of the Wilkes' 
Exploring Expedition, told me that he had the strong- 
est proof and signs of gold in the vicinity of Shasta 
mountain, and further south. A short time after- 
wards Dr. Sandels, a verj' scientific traveler, visited 
me. explored a part of the country in a great hurry, 
as time would not permit him to make a longer stay. 
He told me likewise that he found some signs of gold, 
and was very sorry that he could not explore the 
Sierra Nevada. He did not encourage me to attempt 
to work and i>pen mines, as it was uncertain how it 
would pay, aiid would ])robubly be only profitable for 
a Governmetit. So 1 thought it more prudent to stick 
to the plow, notwithstanding I did know the country 
was rich in gold and other minerals. An old, at- 
tached Mexican seiTant, who had followed me from 
the United States as soon as he knew that I was 
here, and who understood a great deal about work- 
ing in placers, told me he found sure signs of gold in 
the mountains on Bear creek, and that we would go 
right to work after returning from our campaign in 
1845; but he became a victim to his patriotism, and 
fell into the hands of the enemy near my encamp- 
ment, with dispatches for me from General Michelto- 
rena, and he was hung as a spy, for which I was 
very sorry. J. A. Sutter." 



CHAP TEE XY. 



EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 

Mountains Unexplored by the Spaniards — The Trappers — Fre- 
mont's Passage of the Mountains in 1844 — Battles with the 
Snow — The Indian's Warning — A Glimpse of the Valley — 
Subsisting on Horse Flesh — Arrival at Sutter's Fort — Early 
Settlements — An Immigrant Party of 1844 — Ciptain Truckee 
— -Truckee Eiver — Alone on the Summit — Death of Captain 
Truckee — Immigr.Tuts in 1846 — Discovery of Gold on the 
Yuba. 

The native (Jalifornians never penetrated into the 
heart of the mountains that skirt the Sacramento 
valley on the east; gazing from a distance upon their 
snow-clad crests, they had named them Sierra 
Nevada, the " snowy i»ountains." but beyond this 



they remained terra incognita to them. The bold 
and adventurous trappers of the American Fur Com- 
pany, and the Hudson Bay Company, passed over 
them several times on their way to and from the 
choice trapping grounds in the valley. The cele- 
brated trapper, Stephen H. Meek, claims to have 
been the first white man who gazed upon the 
Truckee river, on which stream he set his traps in 
18.33. The river did not rceive its name, however, 
until eleven years later, as will appear further on. 
The Yuba and Bear rivers, having been explored by 
the Spaniards in 1822, in the vallej^, had been named 
at that time, the one Eio de las Uva (Grape river") 
and the other Eio de los Osos ('Bear river), but as to 
their source and direction in the mountains nothing 
whatever was known. To them were unknown 
lakes Donner, Tahoe, and the scores of lesser lakes 
that are the pride of the mountains. A few misera- 
able Digger Indians lived in huts, and subsisted on 
acorns, grass, rabbits, etc., and were sovereign lords 
of the beautiful Sierras. 

The valleys of California were, during the early 
part of this century, occupied and traversed by 
bands of trappers in the employ of the many Ameri- 
can and foreign fur companies. The stories of their 
wanderings and experiences are mostly related in the 
form of sensational novels, whose authenticity and 
accuracy must be taken with a great degree of allow- 
ance. Few records concerning these fur-hunters 
remain which are within the reach of the historian, 
and the information given has been gleaned in part 
from personal interviews with those whose knowl- 
edge of the subject was gained by actual experience, 
or by a personal acquaintance with those who 
belonged to the parties. In many cases their stories 
differ widely in regard to facts and names. 

As early as 1820, the Tulare, San Joaquin, and Sac- 
rainento valleys were occupied by trappers, who 
had wandered there while searching for the Colum- 
bia river. Captain Sutter, in 1834, while in New 
Mexico, heard from these California trappers of the 
Sacramento valley, which afterwards became so 
reputed as his home. The disputes arising in regard 
to the occupation of the northern part of the Pacific 
coast trapping region, in Oregon, led the American 
hunters to occupy the territory in and about the 
Eocky Mountains. In 1815, Congress, at the earnest 
request of the people of the West, passed an Act 
driving out British traders from the American terri- 
tory east of the Rocky Mountains. Immediately 
the employes of the old North American Fur Com- 
pany, still under charge of John Jacob Astor, began 
to trap and hunt in the region of the head- waters of 
the Mississippi and Upper Missouri. In 1823, Mr. 
W. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, an old merchant in the 
fur trade, at the head of a partj-, explored the 
Sweetwater, the Platte, the South Pass, and the 
head-waters of the Colorado, returning in the Sum- 
mer. In 1824 he extended his explorations to Great 
Salt Lake, near which, on a smaller lake named 



EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 



59 



Lake Ashley, he built a fort and trading post, which 
was occupied for three years by his men. In 1826 
(or 1827) Mr. Ashley disposed of his business, 
including the fort, to the Rocky Mountain Fur Com- 
pany, under the leadership of Jedediah Smith, 
David Jackson and William Sublette. 

During the Spring of 1825, Smith, with a party of 
forty trappers and Indians, started from the head- 
quarters on Green river, traveling westward, crossed 
the Sierra Nevada mountains, and in July entered 
the Tulare valley. The country from the Tulare to 
the American fork of the Sacramento river was 
traversed in trapping for beaver. They found at the 
fork another party of American trappers encamped, 
and located their own rendezvous near the present 
town of Folsom. In October, Smith, leaving the 
remainder of the party at the camp, returned to the 
company's head-quarters on Green river. In May, 
1826, Smith again set out for the new trapping 
region, taking a route further south than on the first 
trip, but when in the Mohave settlements, on the 
Colorado, all the party excejit Smith, Galbraith, and 
Tiu-ner, were killed bj^ Indians. These three escaped 
to San Gabriel Mission, and December 26, 1826, were 
arrested as sjiies or filibusters. They were taken to 
the presidio at San Diego, where they were detained 
until the following certificate from Americans then 
in San Francisco was presented; — 

"We, the undersigned, having been requested by 
Capt. Jedediah S. Smith to state our opinion regarding 
his entering the Province of California, do not hesi- 
tate to say that we have no doubt but that he was com- 
pelled to, for want of provisions and water, having 
entered so tar into the barren country that lies 
between the latitudes of forty-two and forty-three 
west, that he found it impossible to return by the 
route he came, as his hoi-ses had most of them per- 
ished for want of food and water ; he was therefore 
under the necessity of pushing forward to Califo)uia, 
it being the nearest place where he could procure 
supplies to enable him to return. 

'• We further state as our opinion, that the 
account given by him is circumstantially correct, 
and that his sole object was the hunting and trap- 
ping of beaver and other furs. 

'■ We have also examined the passports produced 
by him from the Superintendent of Indian affairs 
for the Government of the United States of Amer- 
ica, and do not hesitate to say we believe them per- 
fectly correct. 

" We also state that, in our opinion, his motives 
for wishing to pass by a different route to the Co- 
lumbia river, on his return, is solely because he feels 
convinced that he and his companions run great risk 
of perishing if they return by the route they came. 

'• In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our 
hand and seal, this 20th day of December, 1826. 

William G. Dana, Captain of schooner Wacerly. 

William H. Cunninuham, Captain of ship Courier. 

William Henderson, Captain of bi-ig Ulive Branch. 

jAiiEs Scott. 

Thomas M. Robbins, Mate of schooner Waverly. 

Thomas Shaw, Supercargo of ship Cowrier." 

Smith was liberated, and during the Summer of 1827, 
with his i^arty, left the Sacramento valley, joorneyinj 



toward the Columbia river. While encamped at the 
mouth of the Umpqua river, near Cape Arago, the 
Indians attacked them, and, with the exception of 
Smith, Richard Laughlin, and Daniel Prior, killed 
the entire party. These three escaped to Fort Van- 
couver, where they received a cordial reception and 
kind treatment. Some writers state that Smith then 
went directly to St. Louis, while others claim that, 
with a party of the Hudson Bay Company's men, he 
returned to the scene of his last battle, and meeting 
no opposition, journeyed on and down the Sacra- 
mento valley until he reached the junction of the 
Sacramento and Feather rivers, near which a camp 
was located. This party, under command of a 
Scotchman named McLeod, was the first of the 
Hudson Bay Company to occupy California. If the 
latter version is correct, then Smith soon after left 
the party and returned to the trapping grounds of 
his own company. 

In the Spring of 1832, Capt. B. L. E. Bonne- 
ville, an officer in the United States Army, on fur- 
lough, at the head of a company of one hundred 
men, with wagons, horses, mules, and merchandise, 
crossed the Rocky Moimtains, leading parties of men 
into the Colorado, Humboldt and Sacramento valleys. 
Ewing Young, who had trapped with parties on 
the upper part of the Del Norte, the eastern part of 
the Grand and the Colorado rivers, pursuing the 
route formerly traversed by Smith, in the Winter of 
1829-3U, entered the San Joaquin valley, and 
hunted on Tulare lake and the adjacent streams. 
Daring the last part of 1832, or early in 1833, Young, 
having again entered the San Joaquin valley and 
trapped on the streams, finally arrived at the Sacra- 
mento river, about ten miles below the mouth of the 
American. He followed up the Sacramento to the 
Feather river, and from there crossed over to the 
coast. The coast-line was traveled till they 
reached the mouth of the Umpqua, where they 
crossed the mountains to the inland. Entering the 
upper portion of the Saci-amento valley, they pro- 
ceeded southerly till they reached the American 
river. Then they followed down the San Joaquin 
valley, and passed out through the Tejon pass, in 
the Winter of 1833-4. Besides these parties and 
leaders mentioned, during this period there were 
several trappers or " lone traders," who explored 
and hunted through the valleys. 

The attention of the oftieers of the wealthy and 
powerful Hudson Bay Company was first specially 
called to the extent and importance of the fur trade 
in California by Jedediah Smith, in 1827 or 1828. 
The first expedition sent out by them was that 
under the command of McLeod. A short time after 
the departure of this company, a second one was 
sent out under the leadership of Mi-. Ogden, which 
followed up the Columbia and Lewis rivers, thence 
southerly over Western Utah, Nevada, and into the 
Sau Joaquin valley. On their return they trapped 
on the streams in Sacramento valley, and went out 



(iO 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



at the northern limit in 1830. About the middle of 
1832 another band of trappers, under Michael Lafram- 
boise, came into the Sacramento valley from the 
north, and until the next Spring spent the time in trap- 
ping on the streams flowing through the great val- 
ley. The Hudson Bay Company continued sending 
out its employes into this region until about the year 
1845. Their trappers in California belonged to the 
" Southern Trapping Party of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany," and were divided into smaller parties composed 
of Canadians and Indians, with their wives. The 
trapping was carried on during the Winter, in 
order to secure a good class of furs. The free trap- 
pers were paid ten shillings sterling for a prime 
beaver skin, while the Indians received a moderate 
compensation for their services. The outfits and 
portions of their food were purchased from the com- 
pany. The Hudson Bay Company cmploj'ed about 
ninety or one hundred men in this State. The 
greater part of the Indians were fugitives from the 
Missions, and were honest and jieaceably inclined, 
from the fact that it was mainly to their interest to 
be 80. From 1832 the chief rendezvous was at 
French Camp, about five miles south of Stockton. 
About 1841 the company bought of Jacob P. Leese 
the building he had erected for a store in San Fran- 
cisco, and made that their business center for this 
territory. The agents were J. Alex. Forbes, and 
William G. Eay, both of whom were intelligent, dig- 
nified, and courteous gentlemen. Mr. Pay, who was 
very sensitive, and given slightly to dissipation, 
when some complaint of a trivial character was made 
in reference to his acts, committed suicide in 
1845. His death, and the scarcity of beaver and 
otter, caused the company to wind up their agency 
and business in the territory. Mr. Forbes was, for 
a long series of years, the British Consul at San 
Francisco, and by his genial manners, superior cul- 
ture, and finished education, made a good record, 
which places him among the noted men of the State. 
This gentleman now resides in Oakland, and 
although seventy-five years of age, his faculties are 
as strong as ever. His memory is wonderful, and 
this power of retention, with the vast fund of knowl- 
edge possessed, has been of great service to the his- 
torian. He has the honor of being the first English 
historian of California, his " California," published in 
London in 1839, being written in Mexico four years 
previous to the date of its publication.* 

During the months ol' January and February, 1844, 
John C. Fremont, then Brevet Captain of Topo- 
graphical Engineers, on his return from his first 
exploring expedition to Oregon, passed down the 
east side of the Sierras, and crossed the snow-cov- 
ered summit of New Helvetia (Sacramento), suffer- 
ing many privations and hardships. His experiences 
are so clearly related in his report to the Chief of 
Engineers, that the portion relating to this stage of 
his journey is here given to show the character of 

*Mr. Forbes died recently of heart disease. 



the mountains, the nature of the inhabitants, and the 
scarcity of knowledge of the iSierras, although the 
passage was made in El Dorado county. Passing by 
the account of his journey southward from the Dalles 
we take up his narrative on the evening of Jan- 
uary 31, 1844, upon reaching the Upper Truckee 
river, south of Lake Tahoe. 

"In the course of the afternoon, one of the men 
had his foot frost-bitten; and about dark we had the 
satisfaction of reaching the bottom of a stream tim- 
bered with large trees, among which we found a 
sheltered camp, with an abundance of such grass as 
the season afforded, for the animals. We saw before 
us, in descending from the pass, a great, continuous 
range, along which stretched the valley of the river; 
the lower parts steep, and dark with pines, while 
above it was hidden in clouds of snow. This we felt 
satisfied was the central ridge of the Sierra Nevada, 
the great California mountain, which now only inter- 
vened between us and the waters of the bay. We 
had made a forced march of twenty-six miles, and 
three mules had given out on the road. Up to this 
point, with the exception of two stolen by Indians, 
we had lost none of the horses which had been 
brought from the Columbia river, and a number of 
these were still strong, and in tolerably good order. 
We had now sixty-seven animals in the band. (The 
party consisted of twenty-five persons.) 

(i * * * \yg gathered together a few of the more 
intelligent of the Indians, and held this evening an 
interesting council. I explained to them my inten- 
tions. I told them that we had come from a very 
far country, having been traveling now nearly a year, 
and that we were desirous simply to go across the 
mountain into the country of the other whites. 
There were two who appeared particularly intelli- 
gent — one, a somewhat old man. He told me that, 
before the snows fell, it was six sleeps to the place 
where the whites lived, but that now it was impossi- 
ble to cross the mountain on account of the deep 
snow; and showing us, as the others had done, that 
it was over our heads, he urged us strongly to fol- 
low the course of the river, which, he said, would 
conduct us to a lake (Tahoe), in which there wei-e 
many large fish. There, he said, were many people; 
there was no snow on the ground, and we might 
I'emain there until the Spring. From their descrip- 
tions, we were enabled to judge that we were en- 
camped on the upper water of the Salmon Trout 
river. It is hardly necessary to say that our com- 
munication was only by signs, as we understood 
nothing of their language; but they spoke, notwith- 
standing, rapidly and vehemently, explaining what 
they considered the folly of our intentions, and urg- 
ing us to go down to the lake. Tah-ve, a word 
signifying snow, we very soon learned to know, from 
its frequent I'epetition. I told him that the men and 
horses were strong, and that we would break a road 
through the snow; and spreading before him our bales 
of scarlet cloth and trinkets, showed him what we 
would give for a guide. It was necessary to obtain 
one, if possible, for I had determined here to attempt 
the passage of the mountain. Pulling a bunch of 
gi'ass from the ground, after a short discussion 
among themselves, the old man made us comprehend 
that if we eoidd break through the snow, at the 
end of three days we would come down upon grass, 
wb't^h heshowcd us would be about six inches high, 
anu where the ground would be entirely free. So far, 
he /aid, he had been in hunting for elk; but beyond 



EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 



in 



that (and he closed his e}'es) he had scon nothing; 
but there was one among them who had been to the 
whites, and, going out of the lodge, he returned with 
a young man of very intelligent appearance. Here, 
said he, is a young man who has seen the whites with 
his own eyes; and he swore, first by the sky, and 
then by the ground, that what he said was true. 
With a large present of goods, we prevailed upon this 
young man to be our guide, and he acquired among 
us the name Melo — a word signifying friend, which 
they used very frequently. He was thinly clad and 
nearly bare-footed, his moccasins being about worn 
out. We gave him skins to make a new pair, to enable 
him to perform his undertaking to us. The Indians re- 
mained in the camp during the night, and we kept 
the guide and two others to sleep in the lodge with 
us — (Jar.son (Kit Carson) b'ing across the door, 
having made them acquainted with the use of our 
fire-arms. The snow, which had intermitted in the 
evening, commenced falling again in the course of 
the night, and it snowed steadily all day. In 
the morning I acquainted the men with my decision, 
and explained to them that necessity required us to 
make a great effort to clear the mountains. I 
i-eminded them of the beautiful valley of the Sacra- 
mento, with which they were familiar from the 
descriptions of Carson, who had been there some fif- 
teen years ago, and who, in our late privations, had 
delighted us in sjjeaking of its rich pastures and 
abounding game, and drew a vivid contrast between 
the Summer climate, less than a hundred miles dis- 
tant, and the falling snow around us. 1 informed 
them (and long experience had given them confi- 
dence in my observations and good instruments) 
that almost directly west, and only about seventy 
miles distant, was the great fanning establishment 
of Captain Sutter — a gentleman who had formerlj' 
lived in Missouri, and, emigrating to this country, 
had become the possessor of a principality. I assured 
them that from the heights of the mountain before 
us, we should doubtless see the valley of the Sacra- 
mento river, and with one effort place ourselves 
again in the midst of plenty. The people received 
this decision with the cheerful obedience which had 
always characterized them, and the day was imme- 
diately devoted to the preparations necessary to 
enable us to carry it into eftect. Leggins, mocca- 
sins, clothing — all were put into the best state to 
resist the cold. Our guide was not neglected. Ex- 
tremity of suffering might make him desert; we 
therefore did the best we could for him. Leggins, 
moccasins, some articles of clothing, and a large 
green blanket, in addition to the blue and scarlet 
cloth, were lavished upon him, and to his great and 
evident contentment. He arrayed himself in all his 
colors, and, clad in green, blue and scarlet, he made 
a gay looking Indian; and, with his various pres- 
ents, was probably richer and better clothed than 
any of his tribe had ever been before. 

" * * * The river was forty to seventy feet wide, 
and now entii-ely frozen over. It was woodfed with 
large cottonwood, willow and grain de b<mi/. By 
observation, the latitude of this encampment was 
38° 37' 18". 

'• February 2d. It had ceased snowing, and this 
morning the lower air was clear and frosty; and six 
or seven thousand feet above, the peaks of the Sierra 
now and then apjieared among the rolling clouds 
which were rapidly disappearing before the sun. 
Our Indian shook his head as he pointed to the icy 
pinnacles, shooting high iip into the sky, and seem- 
ing almost immediately above us. Crossing the river 



on the ice, and leaving it immediately, we com- 
menced the ascent of the mountain along the valley 
of a tributary sti-eam. The people were unusually 
silent, for every man knew that our enterprise was 
hazardous, and the issue doubtful. The snovv deep- 
ened rapidly, and it soon became necessaiy to 
break a road. For this service a party of ten was 
formed, mounted on the strongest horses, each man 
in succession opening the road on foot, or on horse- 
back, until himself and his horse became fatigued, 
when he stepped aside, and, the remaining number 
passing ahead, he took his station in the rear. Leav- 
ing this stream, and pursuing a very direct cuui'se, 
we passed over an intervening ridge to the river we 
had left. On the way we passed two huts, en- 
tirely covered with snow, which might very easily 
have escaped observation. A family was living in 
each, and the only trail I saw in the neighborhood 
was from the door-hole to a nut-pine near, which 
supplied them with food and iuel. We found two 
similar huts on the creek where we next arrived, 
and traveling a little higher up, encamped on its 
banks, in about four feet of snow. To-day we had 
traveled sixteen miles, and our elevation above the 
sea was six thousand seven hundred and sixty feet, 
"February 3d. Turning our faces directly towards 
the main chain, we ascended an open hollow along a 
small tributary to the river, which, according to the 
Indians, issues from a mountain to the south. The 
snow was so deep in the hollow that we were obliged 
to travel along the steep hill-sides, and over spui's 
where wind and sun had lessened the snow, and 
where the grass, which appeared to be in good qual- 
ity along the sides of the mountain, was exposed 
We opened our road in the same way as yesterday 
but only made seven miles, and encamped by some 
springs at the foot of a high and steep hill, by whicb 
the hollow ascended to another basin in the mount- 
ain. The little stream below was entirely buried in 
snow. * * * We occupied the remainder of the day 
in beating down a road to the foot of the hill, a mile 
or two distant: the snow being beaten down when 
moist, in the warm part of the day, and then hard 
frozen at night, made a foundation that would beai 
the weight of the animals the next morning. Dur- 
ing the day several Indians joined us on snow-sliDes. 
These were made of a circular hoop, about a foot in 
diameter, the interior space being filled with an open 
net- work of bark. 

"February 4th. I went ahead early with two or 
three men, each with a led horse, to break the road. 
We were obliged to abandon the hollow entirely, and 
work along the mountain side, which was very steep, 
and the snow covered with an icy crust. * * * To- 
wards a pass which the guide indicated, we at- 
tempted in the afternoon to force a road; but after a 
laborious plunging through two or three hundred 
yards, our best horse gave out, entirely refusing to 
make any further effort; and, for a time, we were 
brought to a stand. The guide informed us that we 
were entering the deep snow, and here began the 
difficulties of the mountain; and to him, and almost 
to all, our enterprise seemed hopeless. I returned a 
short distance back, to the break in the hollow, where 
I met Mr. Fitzpatrick. The camp had been all the day 
occupied in endeavoring to ascend the hill, but only 
the best horses had succeeded, not having suflicient 
strenaith to bring themselves up without the packs; 
and all the line of road between this and the springs 
was strewed with camp stores and equipage, and 
horses floundering in snow. I therefore immediately 
encamped on the'ground with my own mess, which 



62 



HISTORY OF PLACER C'OTTNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



was in advance, and directed Mr. Fitzpatrick to en- 
camp at the springs, and send all the animals, in 
charge of Taban, with a strong guard, back to the 
place where they had been pastured the night before. 
* * * Two Indians joined our party here; and one 
of them, an old man, immediately began to ha- 
rangue us, saying that ourselves and animals would 
perish in the snow; and that if we would go back, he 
would show us another and a better way across the 
mountain. He spoke in a very loud voice, and there 
was a singular repetition of phrases and arrange- 
ment of words, which rendered his speech striking, 
and not unmusical. We had now begun to under- 
stand some words, and, with the aid of signs, easily 
comprehended the old man's simple ideas. 'Rock 
upon rock — rock ujjon rock — snow upon snow — 
snow upon snow,' said he; 'even if j-ou get over the 
snow you will not be able to get down from the 
mountains. He made us the sign of precipices, and 
showed us how the feet of the horses would slip, and 
throw them off from the narrow trails that led along 
their sides. Our Chinook, who comprehended even 
more readily than ourselves, and believed our situa- 
tion hopeless, covered his head with his blanket and 
began to weep and lament. 'I wanted to see the 
whites,' said he; ' 1 come away from my own people 
to see the whites, and 1 wouldn't care to die among 
them, but here,' and he looked around into the cold 
night and the gloomy forest, and, drawinghis blankeL 
over his head, began again to lament. Seated around 
the tree, the fire illuminating the rocks and the tall 
bolls of the pines around about, and the old Indian 
haranguing, we presented a group of very serious 
faces. 

" February 5th. The night had been too cold to 
sleep, and we were up very early. Our guide was 
standing by the fire with all his finery on; and see- 
ing him shiver in the cold, I threw on his shoulders 
one of my blankets. We missed him a few minutes 
afterwards, and never saw him again. He had de- 
serted. His bad faitli and treachery wei-e in per- 
fect keeping with the estimate of Indian character, 
which a long intercourse with this people had grad- 
ually forced upon my mind. While a portion of the 
camp were occupied in bringing up the baggage to 
this point, the remainder were busy in making sledges 
and snow-shoes, I had determined to explore the 
mountain ahead, and the sledges were to be used in 
transporting the baggage. * * * 

"February 6th. Accompanied by Mr. Fitzpatrick, 1 
set out to-day with a reconnoitering party, on snow- 
shoes. We marched all in single file, trampling the 
snow as heavily as we could. Crossing the open 
basin, in a march of about ten miles we i-eached the 
top of one of the peaks, to the left of the pass indi- 
cated by our guide. Far below us, dimmed by the 
distance was a large snowless valley, bounded on the 
western side, at the distance of about a hundred 
miles, by a low range of mountains, which Carson 
recognized with delight as the mountains borderinu- 
the coast. ' There,' said he, ' is the little mountain 
(Mt. Diablo) — it is fifteen j'ears ago since I saw it- 
but I am just as sure as if I had seen it yesterday.' 
Between us, then, and this low coast range, was the 
valley of the Sacramento; and no one who had not 
accompanied us through the incidents of our life for 
the last few months could realize the delight with 
which we at last looked down upon it. At the dis- 
tance of apparently thirty miles bej'ond us were dis- 
tingiushed spots of prairie; and a dark line, which 
could be traced with the glass, was imagined to be 
the course of the river; but we were evidently at a 



great height above the valley, and between us and 
the plains extended miles of snowy fields and broken 
ridges of pine-covered mountains. * * * All our en- 
ergies were now directed to getting our animals 
across the snow; and it was supposed that, after all 
the baggage had been drawn with the sleighs over 
the trail we had made, it would be sufficiently hard 
to bear our animals. * * * VV^ith one party drawing 
sleighs loaded with baggage, I advanced to-day 
about four miles along the trail, and encamped at the 
first grassy spot, where we intended to bring our 
horses. . Mr. Fitzpatrick, with another party, re- 
mained behind, to form an intermediate station be- 
tween us and the animals. * * * 

"February 8th. =!= * * Scenery and weather, com- 
bined, must render these mountains beautiful in Sum- 
mer; the purity and deep-blue color of the sky 
are singularly beautiful; the days are sunny and 
bi'ight, and even warm in the noon hours; and if we 
could be free from the many anxieties that oppress 
us, even now we would be delighted here; but our 
provisions are getting fearfully scant. Sleighs ar- 
rived with baggage about ton o'clock; and leaving a 
portion of it here, we continued on for a mile and a 
half, and encamped at the foot of a long hill on this 
side of the open bottom. * * * 

" February 9th. During the night the weather 
changed, the wind rising to a gale, and commencing 
to snow before daylight; before morning the trail was 
covered. We remained quiet in camp all day, in the 
course of which the weather improved. Four sleighs 
arrived toward evening, with the bedding of the 
men. We sufl'er much from want of salt, and all 
the men are becoming weak from insufficient food. 

" February 10th. Tapliu was sent back with a few 
men to assist Mr. Fitzpatrick; and continuing on 
with three sleighs carrying a part of the baggage, 
we had the satisfaction to encamp within two and a 
half miles of the head of the hollow, and at the foot 
of the last mountain I'idge. Hei-e two large trees 
had been set on fire, and in the holes, where the 
snow had been melted away, we found a comfortable 
camp. Putting on our snow-shoes, we spent the 
afternoon in exploring a road ahead. The glare of 
the snow combined with great fatigue^ had rendered 
many of the people nearly blind; but we were foi-tu- 
nate in having some black silk handkerchiefs, which, 
worn as veils, verj^ much relieved the eyes. 

" February Ilth. High wind continued, and our 
trail this morning was nearly invisible — here and 
there indicated by a little ridge of snow. Our situa- 
tion became tiresome and dreary, requiring a strong 
exercise of patience and resolution. In the evening 
I received a message from Mr. Fitzpatrick, acquaint- 
ing me with the utter failure of his attempt to get 
our mules and horses over the snow — the half-hidden 
trail had proved entirely too slight to support them, 
and they had broken through, and were plunging 
about or lying half buried in the snow. * * * I 
wrote him to send the animals immediately back to 
their c^ld pastures; and after having made mauls and 
shovels, turn in all the strength of his party to 
open and beat a road through the .snow, strengthen- 
ing it with branches and boughs of the pines. 

" February 13th. We continued to labor on the 
road; and in the course of the day had the satisfac- 
tion to see the jjeojile working down the face of the 
opposite hill, about three miles distant. * * * The 
meat train did not arrive this morning, and 1 gave 
Godey leave to kill our little dog (Tlamath), which 
he prepared in Indian fashion; scorching off the hair, 
and washing the skin with soap and snow, and then 



EARLY CONDITION OF THIS REGION. 



63 



cutting it up in pieces, which were laid on the snow. 
Shortly afterward, the sleigh arrived with a supply 
of horse meat; and we had to-night an extraordinary 
dinner — pea soup, mule and dog. * * * 

" February 16th. We had succeeded in getting our 
animals safely to the first grassy hill; and this 
morning 1 started with Jacob on a reconnoitering 
expedition beyond the mountain. 

" We travehsd along the crest of narrow ridges, 
extending down from the mountain in the direction of 
the valley, from which the snow was fast melting 
away. On the open spots was tolerably good grass; 
and I judged that we should succeed in getting the 
camp down by way of these. Toward sun-down 
we discovered some icy points in a deep hollow, and, 
descending the mountain, we encamped at the head- 
water of a little creek, where at last the water found 
its way to the Pacific. * * * Wc started again early 
in the morning. The creek acquired a regular 
breadth of about twenty feet, and we soon began to 
hear the rushing of the water below the ice-surface, 
over which we traveled to avoid the snow; a few 
miles below we bi-oke through, where the water was 
several feet deep, and halted to dry our clothes. Wo 
continued a few miles further, walking being very 
laborious without snow-shoes. 1 was now perfectly 
satisfied that we had struck the stream on which 
Mr. Sutter lived; and, turning about, made a hard 
push, and i-eaehcd the camp at dark. * * * 

"On the 19th, the people were occupied in mak- 
ing a road and bringing up the baggage; and, on the 
afternoon of the next day, February 20, 1844, we 
encamped with the animals and all the materinl oi the 
camp, on the summit of the pass in the dividing 
ridge, one thousand miles by our traveled road from 
the Dalles of the Columbia. The people, who had not 
yet been to this point, climbed the neighboring peak 
to enjoy a look at the valley. The temperature of 
boiling water gave for the elevation of the encamp- 
ment nine thousand three hundred and thirty-eight 
feet above the sea. This was two thousand feet 
higher than the South Pass in the Rocky Mountains, 
and several peaks in view rose several thousand feet 
still higher. * * *" 

From the summit the party passed down the 
western slope of the Sierras, following the general 
course of the stream, and suffering many hardships 
and privations, encountering much deep snow and 
sustaining life on none too juicy mule meat. The 
stream whose course was being followed was the 
south fork of the American river. Describing the 
happy termination of this perilous journey by an 
advance party of eight, Mr. Fremont says: — 

"March 6th. We continued on our road through 
the same surjiassingly beautiful country, entirely 
unequaled for the pasturage of stock by anything we 
had ever seen. Our horses had now become so 
strong that they were able to cany us, and we* trav- 
eled rapidly — over four miles an hour ; four of us 
riding every alternate hour. Every few hundred 
yards we came upon little bands of deer ; but we 
were too eager to reach the settlement, which we 
momentarily expected to discover, to halt for any 
other than a passing shot. In a few hours we reached 
a large fork (North Fork of the American river), 
the northern branch of the river, and equal in size to 
that which we had descended. Together they formed 
a beautiful stream, sixty to one hundred yards wide, 
which at first, ignorant of the nature of the country 



through which that river ran, we took to be the 
Sacramento. Wc continued down the right bank of 
the river, traveling for a while over a wooded upland 
where wc had the "delight to discover tracks of cattle. 

* * * "We made an acorn meal at noon and 
hurried on. Shortly afterwards we gave a shout 
at the appearance on a little bluff of a neatly built 
adohe house with glass windows. We rode up, but, 
to our disappointment, found only Indians. There 
was no appeai-ance of cultivation, and we could see 
no cattle, and wo supposed the place had been aban- 
doned. We now pressed on more eagerly than ever; 
the river swept round in a large bend to the right ; 
the hills lowered down entirely; and, gradually enter- 
ing a broad valley, we came unexpectedly into a large 
Indian village, where the people looked clean, and 
wore cotton shirts and various other articles of dress. 
They immediately crowded around us, and we had 
the inexpressible delight to find one who spoke a lit- 
tle indifferent Spanish, but who at first confounded 
us by saying there were no whites in the countiy ; 
but just then a well-dressed Indian came up and 
made his salutations in very well-spoken Spanish. 
In answer to our inquiries, he informed us that we 
were upon the Rio de los Americanos (the river of the 
Americans), and that it joined the Sacramento river 
about ten miles below. Never did a name sound 
more sweetlj- ! We felt ourselves among our country- 
men; for the name of ^Iw^encrm, in these distant parts, 
is applied to the citizens of the United States. To 
our eager inquiries he answered, 'I am a vaquero 
(cow herd) in the service of Captain Sutter, and the 
people of this rrmc/ieriffl work for him.' Our evident 
satisfaction made him communicative; and he went 
on to say that C.iptain Sutter was a very rich man, 
and always glad to see his country people. We asked 
for his house. He answered that it was just over the 
hill before us, and oftered, if we would wait a moment 
to take his horse and conduct us to it. We readily 
accepted his civil offer. In a short distance we came 
in sight of the fort; and passing on the way the house 
of a settler on the opposite side (a Mr. Sinclair), we 
forded the river; and in a few miles were met a short 
distance from the fort by Captain Sutter himself. 
He gave us a most frank and cordial reception — con- 
ducted us immediately to his residence — and under his 
hospitable roof had a night of i-est, enjoyment, and 
refreshment, which none but ourselves could appre- 
ciate." 

Gen. Fremont the next day started back with 
provisions and horses to meet and relieve the main 
body of the party, who were several days in the 
rear. He met them near the forks of the river, 
" Each man, weak and emaciated, leading a horse 
or mule as weak and emaciated as himself." Of 
sixty-seven horses and mules, only thirty- three had 
survived that terrible journey across the mountains. 
Many of them had been killed for food, while others 
had died of starvation or exhaustion or lay at the 
bottom of rocky canons, down which they had 
plunged from the precipitous heights above. Many 
valuable specimens, collected during the long jour- 
ney were lost. 

It was in the few years prior to the discovery of 
gold that the genuine pioneers of Califoi-nia braved 
the unknown dangers of the plains and mountains, 
with the intention of settling in the fair valley, of 
which so much was said and so little known, and 



(]+ 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



building a homo for themselves and their children. 
Many of these immigrants crossed the mountains by 
nearly the same route pursued by the Central Pacific 
Railroad, except that they followed down Bear river 
to the plains. The first settlement reached by them 
was that of Theodore Sicard, at Johnson's Crossing, 
on the Placer county side, and a few miles below 
Camp Far West. This settlement was made in 184-1:, 
and was the first point reached by the members of 
the ill-starred Donner Party in 1847. Opposite 
Sicard's settlement was Johnson's ranch, owned by 
William Johnson and Sebastian Kyser, who settled 
there in 1845. Johnson's Crossing was for years a 
favorite landmark and rallying point. 

The next Winter after Fremont made his perilous 
crossing of the Sierras, another party, a band of 
hardy pioneers, worked their laborious way through 
the drifting snow of the mountains, and entered the 
beautiful valley, one of them remaining in his snow- 
bound camp at Donner lake until returning Spring 
made his rescue possible. The party consisted of 
twenty-three men: John Flomboy; Captain Stevens, 
now a resident of Kern county, Cal.; Joseph Foster; 
Dr. Townsend; Allen Montgomery; Moses Schallen- 
berger, now living in San Jose, Cal.; G. Greenwood, 
and his two sons, John and Britt; James Miller, now 
of San Rafael, Cal.; Mr. Calvin; William • Martin; 
Patrick Martin ; Dennis Martin; Martin Murphy, and 
his- five sons; Mr. Hitchcock, and son. They left 
Council Bluffs, May 20, 1844, e» route to California, of 
the fertility of whose soil and the mildness of whose 
climate glowing accounts had been given. The dan- 
gei's of the plains and mountains were passed, and 
the party reached the Humboldt river, when an 
Indian named Truckee presented himself, and 
offered to guide them to California. After question- 
ing him closely, they employed him as their guide, 
and as they progressed, found that the statements 
he had made about the route were fully verified. 
He soon became a great favorite among them, and 
when they reached the lower crossing of the Truckee 
river, now Wadsworth, they gave his name to the 
beautiful stream, so pleased were they bj' the pure 
water and abundance of fish to which he had 
directed them. The stream will ever live in history 
as the Truckee river, and the fish, the famous 
Truckee trout, will continue to delight the palate of 
the epicure for years to come. 

From this point the parly pushed on to the beauti- 
ful mountain lake, whose shores but two years' later 
witnessed a scene of suffering and death unequaled 
in the annals of America's pioneers. Here, at Don- 
ner lake, it was decided to build a cabin and store 
their goods until Spring, as the cattle were too 
exhausted to drag them further. The cabin was 
built by Allen Montgomery, Joseph Poster, and 
Moses Schallenberger, all young men used to pioneer 
life, and who felt fully able to maintain themselves 
by their rifles upon the beai's and dear that seemed 
so plentiful in the mountains. The cabin was built 



of pine sapplings, with a roof of brush and raw- 
hides; it was twelve by foiirteen feet and about eight 
feet high, with a rude chimney, and but one aperture 
for both a window and door; it was about a quarter 
of a mile below the foot of the lake, and is of 
peculiar interest, as it was the first habitation built 
by white men within the limits of Nevada county, 
the entering wedge of civilization that in a few 3'ears 
wrested these beautiful hills with their wealth of 
gold from the hands of the barbarous Digger, and 
brought on'e more country under the dominion of 
intelligence. 

The cabin was completed in two days, and the 
party moved on across the summit, leaving but a 
few provisions and a half-starved and emaciated 
cow for the support of the young men, who had 
undertaken a task, the magnitude of which they 
little dreamed. It was about the middle of Novem- 
ber when the party left Donner lake, and they 
arrived at Sutter's Fort on the Loth of December, 
1844, the journey down the mountains consuming a 
month of toil and privation. The day after the 
cabin was completed a heavy fall of snow com- 
menced and continued for several days, and while 
the journeying party were plunging and toiling 
through the storm and di'ifts, the three young men 
found themselves surrounded by a bed of snow from 
ten to fifteen feet deep. The game had fled down 
the mountains to escape the storm, and when the 
poor cow was half consumed the three snow-bound 
prisoners began to reali/.e the danger of their situa- 
tion. Alarmed by the prospect of starvation, they 
determined to force their M'ay across the barrier of 
snow. In one day's journey they reached the sum- 
mit, but poor Schallenberger was here taken w^th 
severe cramps, and was unable to proceed the follow- 
ing day. Every few feet that he advanced in his 
attempt to struggle along, he fell to the ground. 
What could they do'? To remain was death, and 
yet they could not abandon their sick comrade among 
the drifting snows on the summit of the Sion-as. 
Foster and Montgomery were placed in a trying 
situation. Schallenberger told them that he would 
remain alone if they would conduct him back to the 
cabin. They did so, and pi-oviding everj'thing they 
could for his comfort, took their departure, leaving 
him, sick and feeble, in the heart of the snow-locked 
mountains. 

A strong will can accomplish wonders, and a deter- 
mination to live is sometimes stronger than death, 
and young Schallenberger by a great exertion was 
soon able to rise from his bed and seek for food. 
Among the goods stored in the cabin he found some 
steel-traps, with which he caught enough foxes to sus- 
tain himself in his little mountain cabin, until the 
doors of his prison were unlocked by the melting 
rays of the vernal sun, and a party of friends came 
to his relief On the 1st of March, 1845, he, too, 
arrived at Sutter's Fort, having spent three months 




T. M. Todd. 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



65 



in the drifting snows of the '• Snowy Mountains " — 
the Sierra Nevada. 

The after history of the Indian Truclcec, whose 
name so many objects bear, is an interesting one. 
Passing down the mountains, he arrived at Sutter's 
Fort with the main party, and remained until the 
breaking out of the war in 1846, when he joined 
Fremont's Battalion, and was ever afterwards 
known as Captain Truckee. He was quite a favorite 
with Fi-emont, who presented him with a Bible with 
the donor's autograph on the fly-leaf. This, with a 
copy of the St. Louis Republican, Captain Truckee 
jealously preserved till the time of his death- 
After the American conquest, Truckee returned to 
his people east of the Sierras, and when the i-ich 
silver discoveries in the Washoe region brought 
thousands of white men there, he became their fast 
friend and a universal favorite among the miners. 
The Indian camp where he lived was in the Palmyra 
District, Lyon County, Nevada, about a mile from 
Como, and near the spring where the town of 
Palmyra was subsequently built. One day in 18(30, 
Captain Truckee went to the mining camp at Como 
to ask the men what remedy he should use for a 
large swelling on his neck. The men thought he 
had been bitten by a tarantula and advised him to 
apply a slice of bacon. Poor Captain Truckee died 
that night, his last request being to be buried by the 
white men and in the white man's style. The miners 
dug a grave near Como, in the croppings of the old 
Goliah Ledge, and good Captain Truckee was laid 
away to rest, the Bible and the paper he had 
cherished so long lying by his side. 

The terrible sufferings of the Donner party have 
already been portrayed. The groans of the starv- 
ing, and the wails of the dying, crazed with hunger, 
will ever haunt the shores of Donner Lake, and the 
winds as they moan among the drooping branches 
of the pines, will whisper tales of sufiering such as 
few have seen, and the most vivid imagination fails 
to realize. The two cabins built by the Donner 
party near that of Schallenberger, and which formed 
the camp of the Breens, Graves, and Murphys, were 
the second monuments of civilization in Nevada 
County. About two weeks before the Donner party 
found the way across the summit barred by snow, 
another emigrant train passed in safety. Among 
these emigrants were Claude Chana, who now lives 
at Wheatland, Yuba County, and Charles Covillaud, 
one of the original proprietors of Marysville, and 
who married Mary Murphy, a member of the Don- 
nor party, from whom the name Marysville was 
derived. The widely difterent experiences of these 
two parties in crossing the mountains, but illustrate 
the changes that can there be wrought hj a few days 
of snow. This party also followed down Bear River 
to Johnson's Ranch, from which point the relief 
parties were sent to Donner Lake. The j'ears 1846, 
1847 and 1848 saw many trains of emigrants on their 
way to Oregon and California, those for this State 
crossing the mountains by several I'outes, though 
most of them came by way of Truckee River. 



CUAPTFi; XYI. 
EARLY MINING HISTORY. 

Pre- American GolJ Discoveries — Spread of the Gold Discovery — 
Beales E.xpeditiou to Washington — Great Excitement in 
New York — First Mining in Placer County — Claude Chana 
in Auburn Eavine — Rich Dry Diggings, Auburn — Progress 
of the Excitement — Exploring the Rivers — Mines in the 
Winter of IS-lil-oO — Adventures of Pioneers — Murderer's 
Bar — Buckner's Bar — Pioneer Mining Experiences — The 
"Glorious Days'' of 184!) — Mining in 1S50 — A Mining 
Claim — Cirand Fluming Enterprise — A Model Saw-mill — 
Doctors, Lawyers, and Divines Mining — The Grand Finale — 
Marshall Prospecting in Placer — Ohio Prospectors — A 
Ghastly Discovery — In Memory — "Yankee Jim" — A 
Primal Forest Scene — Occupants of the Caiions — Finding 
Yankee Jim — Journal of a Pioneer — Soldiers and Prospectors 
in 1S49 — Prices of 1849— Prices in Auburn in 1849. 

A WORK was published in London, England, in the 
year 1818 by Mr. Philipps, entitled " Lectures on 
Mineralogy," where it is stated that " Gold is found 
in large lumps deposited in the soil, a few inches 
from the surface, in California. This is found 
throughout an extensive district bordering on the 
sea in that country." Among American documents 
the most entitled to consideration in this matter is 
a publication at Boston, in 1822, which states that 
Mr. Ellis, a merchant in that city, had obtained from 
California a mass of gold and quartz of considerable 
amount. Again, in the year 1830, Alfred Robinson, 
also a merchant of Boston, received S10,000 worth 
of gold in lumps. Prior to this latter date, and in 
the year 1832, Capt. John Bradshaw took home 
some $18,000 from this coast, to his employer, Capt. 
Joseph Peabody, of Salem, Massachusetts, for whom 
he had been engaged in trading in the Pacific during 
many years. His present residence is in the town 
of Beverly, Massachusetts. Captain Bradshaw i.s 
well known to the older residents of the southern 
portion of California, and the buildings erected hj 
him for curing of hides and furs are still standing on 
the Island of Catalina, and known as Bradshaw's 
Fort. 

These discoveries and shipments of gold from Cali- 
fornia, of which there were many in fact and many 
in fable, prior to the acquisition of the country by 
the LTnited States, were from the southern part of 
the State, from the placers of the San Gabriel, Santa 
Clara and San Francisquito Rivers, near Los Angeles, 
and from the Cuyamaca and other mountains of 
San Diego, where mines still exist. But the discov- 
ery which set the world ablaze was made by INfar- 
sball in 1848. 

SPREAD OF THE GOLD DISCOVERT. 

The discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada as has 
been related in the preceding pages, was made 
known throughout the world as rapidly as the means 
of intercommunication of those days permitted. 
First it was carried to the Sandwich Islands by ves- 
sels going for vegetables and other classes of mer- 
chandise; thence to Oregon and to the coast of Cen- 
tral and South America. Natives of Mexico soon 



66 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



carried the news, and much gold with it, across the 
Colorado and into Sonora. 

BEALE's expedition to WASHINGTON. 

Lieut. Edward F. Beale, of the Navy — now Gen- 
eral Bealo of Tejon — who had been executive offi- 
cer of Commodore Stockton in the conquest of Califor- 
nia, and distinguished for his courage and energy, was 
dispatched by Colonel Mason, then Military Governor, 
with the news of the discovery to Washington. He 
was directed to proceed to Mazatlan, thence to cross 
Mexico, and hasten to his destination with all the 
speed possible. Lieutenant Beale arrived in Wash- 
ington early in June, 1848, and made his report to 
President Polk, who, when receiving the enthusiastic 
young officer, was engaged in a game of chess 
with Secretary Bancroft. The story of the gold 
was received with a smile of incredulity, and the 
messenger was bantered by the august officials with 
the remai'k that the officers were probably speculat- 
ing in city lots and wanted to induce an immigration ; 
or were unduly excited over an unimportant discov- 
ery, and he was sent back with dispatches to Gov- 
ernor Mason. In the meantime he had visited New 
York, and conferred with Wm. H. Aspinwall, the 
head of the new steamship company to California, 
told him of the discovery, and gave him advice 
to prepare his steamers, then building, for carrying 
passengers, which advice was fortunately followed. 
Aspinwall appeared to he the only one who credited 
the report of Lieutenant Beale. The story was told, 
however, in the newspapers, but so little attention 
was paid to it that no excitement was then created. 
Beale returned to California, arriving in August, and 
then found the country wild over the results from 
the mines. 

GREAT EXCITEMENT IN NEW YORK. 

Governor Mason had visited, in the meantime, the 
place of discovery, and was prepared to announce 
the facts in an indisputable official report. He had 
also procured from a young volunteer of the Stev- 
enson Regiment, a lump of pure gold of the size of 
a large potato, and Beale was again ordered to the 
East with these dispatches and bright and weighty 
proof of the story. The messenger arrived on his 
second journey in September, made his report and 
exhibited his lump of gold. Governor Mason, Cap- 
tain Folsom and Lieutenant, now General, Sherman 
had visited the mines, and sent reports. These with 
the gold were proofs that could not be ridiculed. The 
report was first published in the Baltimore Sim, of 
y September 20, 18-48. Lieutenant Beale took his lump 
of gold to New York, and sought his old friend, 
Aspinwall. With him he went to Wall Street, and 
from the steps of the Stock Exchange the gold was 
exhibited to the populace. The crowd became a jam, 
the news spread from mouth to mouth, and soon the 
street was impassably blocked for a long distance by 
the intensely excited people. This was the first 
excitement on the Atlantic Coast regarding the gold 



discovery in California. The excitement was conta- 
gious, and was communicated through letters and 
newspapers to all people susceptible of enthusiasm 
throughout the country. 

The precious lump of gold was afterwards taken 
to Barnum's Museum, a steel band put around it 
and suspended by a chain, where it became the 
attraction for thousands of visitors. Subsequently it 
was sold to the mercantile firm of Cross, Ilobson & 
Co., by whom it was sent to Great Britain, and there 
again exhibited as tangible evidence of the wealth of 
California. 

The great discovery was by this made known to 
all the great centers of population and commerce of 
the world, and all looked and wondered. 

FIRST MINING IN PLACER COUNTY. 

Placer County has no history prior to 18-18. From 
Johnson's Ranch on Bear River, a road led to Sin- 
clair's on the American, and thence to Sutter's Fort, 
and travelers give accounts of encamping en route 
between the two places, but no settlements were 
made, nor discoveries, nor developments that could 
give a name to a locality. South of Johnson's Ranch 
were some small water-holes, or ponds, which some 
writers have mentioned as lagoons, which is the 
nearest to a Spanish name of anything of olden time 
in the county. 

Gold had been discovered on the south fork of the 
American, on the 19th of January, 1848, and in two 
or three months thereafter, the fact was made known 
throughout California, and the rush to the placers 
began. As the miners spread rapidly over the coun- 
try it is presumed that some reached to the north 
fork of the American early in the season. 

CLAUDE CHANA IN AUBURN RAVINE. 

The discovery of gold in Auburn Ravine is due to 
Mr. Claude Chana, now a resident of Wheatland, 
Yuba County, who first turned the precious metal to 
light in the Dry Diggings of Placer County on the 
16th of May, 1848. The movements which led to 
the discovery are as follows: In the spring of 1847 
Claude Chana, having arrived in the country with 
the overland immigration of the preceding j'oar, 
and then stopping at Sigard's Ranch, on Bear River, 
went to Sutter's Fort and there engaged to work as 
a cooper, continuing thereat for seven months, when 
he returned to the ranch of his countryman, both 
being natives of France. While thus engaged at the 
fort James W. Marshall was at work across the room 
on the opposite side of Ghana's bench as a wagon- 
maker, and the two became well acquainted. 

During the winter that followed his return to 
Sigard's Ranch, that place had become quite a ren- 
dezvous for persons of French extraction — mostly 
old trappei's — and communication with Sutter's Fort, 
via Sinclair's Ranch, on the American, was not in- 
frequent. Therefore it was not strange that but a 
short time elapsed after Marshall picked up the first 
piece of gold at Coloma that the news thereof 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



67 



should reach Sigard's Ranch, and the confirmation 
thereof coming not many weeks after, Ghana 
determined to have ocular proof by visiting the 
locality of Sutter's Mill. The first week in 
May, 1848, found him en route lor the his- 
toi'ie spot. The region across the country trom 
Bear River to the south fork of the American 
then being to him a terra incoynifa, his route was 
chosen via Sinclair's Ranch to Sutter's Fort, and 
thence up the south bank of the American. At 
Sutter's Fort he found Samuel Brannan and another 
man bound for the same destination that he was, 
and the three journeyed together, going by the way 
of Mormon Island, where at that time but onu man 
had located. It was upon this trip that Brannan 
determined to establish himself at Mormon Island, 
and importuned Ghana to hire out to him and aid 
in constructing a house. But Ghana's mission 
was to see his friend Marshall, at Goloma, and 
learn about the gold discovery. Arriving at Sut- 
ler's Mill, he found the people there surely dig- 
ging for gold, and among the crowd were several 
of his countrymen, from whom he soon acquired the 
art of collecting it — then mostly done in tin and 
wooden jJans. After looking about for several days, 
Ghana returned, over the same route he had come, 
to Sigard's, for an outfit, intending to go immedi- 
ately back to the south fork of the American and 
dig for gold near the place of original discovery. 

At the ranch, upon his arrival there, he found 
Francois Gendron, an old voyageur who had been 
west of the Rocky Mountains since 1832; Philibert 
Gourteau, who had come into Galifornia with Fre- 
mont in 1843-44, and another Frenchman named Eu- 
gene. These men, with himself, formed a party who 
were to proceed to Goloma and dig for gold. Ghana 
cut down a tree near the banks of Bear River, out 
of which the party made hateas — wooden pans for 
washing the dirt. The party also persuaded about 
twenty-five Indians to accompany them, six of whom 
were from Oregon and the remainder were Galifor- 
nia Indians, and with their entire outfit mustered 
thirty-five horses. Francois Gendron, being the 
oldest mountaineer, was listened to when he in- 
formed the party that he could lead them across the 
country directly to the vicinity of Goloma, instead 
of traveling the circuitous route via Sinclair's and 
the Fort, and they determined to follow him. Under 
his leadership they camped the first night after leav- 
ing Sigard's upon the place afterwards known as 
Gox's Ranch, and the second night not far from 
where Ophir now is on Auburn Ravine. This was 
during the third week of May, 1848. Here Ghana 
thought he would try for gold before the party 
were ready to move on upon the following morning. 
Taking his batea he proceeded up the ravine to a 
point he now describes as located about half-way 
between Judge Mj'ers' house and the old " Dead- 
fall," and there washed out the virgin pan of 
the district. He was rewarded by the sight of 



three considerable sized pieces of yellow metal. 

There was, then, no necessity for them to proceed 
further ; gold was in the ravine upon which they 
camped — how much or how rich no one knew. They 
set at work in the main ravine at once. About the 
same time Sinclair had begun to work Indians upon 
the American River. He, through the Indians, 
learned that Ghana and party had discovered gold 
in the foot-hill ravines, and came up to see them, 
but came to the conclusion that though the gold 
on the American was very fine, while the ravine 
gold was coarse, that he could get a larger amount 
by remaining where he was, and so told Ghana's 
party, and wanted them to go to the American River 
with him. But they remained at work in the main 
ravine for two weeks, and then begun in what is 
now called Baltimore Ravine, and there dug one 
week longer, finding some quite large pieces. The 
ground, however, was not rich ; the f)arty were 
inexperienced, and had crude appliances for mining; 
the result of their three weeks' labor, all told, was 
but three pounds of gold, while from Sigard's came 
rumors of enormous strikes upon the Yuba, and to 
that stream did Ghana and his companions go. The 
next digging done upon Auburn Ravine was by 
Indians in the employ of Nicholas Algier, who went 
there soon after Ghana's party left, and who, it is 
said, took out a large amount of gold. One of the 
California Indians who first dug gold with Ghana is 
still living in the vicinity of Lincoln, and in Janu- 
ary, 1882, called at Wheatland to see his old em- 
ployer. 

Claude Ghana went upon the Yuba River and 
there was successful to that degree that in October, 
1849, he again returned to the Sigard Ranch the 
possessor of §25,000 in gold. 

RICH DRY DIGGINGS — AUBURN. 

The mines, or diggings, opened in Auburn Ravine 
by Claude Ghana, in May, were not likely to remain 
neglected. Mr. Samuel Seabough, in his sketches of 
the " Beginning of Placer Mining in Galifornia," 
says: " In the ' Dry Diggings,' near Auburn, during 
the month of August, 1848, one man got §16,000 out 
of five cart-loads of dirt. In the same diggings a 
good many were collecting from $800 to 81,500 a 
day." The region soon acquired the name of " The 
North Fork Dry Diggings," and in the summer or 
fall of 1849, when the settlement became more con- 
centrated and stores were established, was given the 
appellation it now bears — Auburn. 

PROGRESS OF THE EXCITEMENT. 

The statement of Mr. Spect shows the first stages 
of the gold excitement. He left Yerba Buena — 
San Francisco — on the Gth of April, with two com- 
panions, expecting to meet others at Johnson's Ranch, 
to make the journey overland to Missouri. Little 
could have been known of the mines at that time, 
or an emigration party would not have been thought 
of. The fact, however, was known that gold was 



08 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



mined at Slitter's Mill, because the ,Sfar, of San Fran- 
cisco, on the 25th of March, had stated that gold-dust 
had become an article of traffic at Xew Helvetia — 
Sutter's Fort, or now, Sacramento. Early in Api-il, 
Mr. E. C. Kemble, the editor of that journal, made a 
visit to the mines, and, returning, declared them a 
" sham !" He had scarcely printed his paper con- 
taining the condemnation before half a pound of the 
dust was offered for sale. More came, and before 
the end of April so many had left San Francisco for 
Coloma that the population was perceptibly reduced. 
On the 30th of April, Mr. Sjject says there was no' 
excitement, and that he paid very little attention to 
the gold mines. Still there evidently was excite- 
ment among some classes before that, as, he relates, 
some rich strikes had been made, and the Spaniards 
reported fabulously rich diggings. This gentleman 
had kept a diary, from which his account is written. 
Such records, together with the reports, corre- 
spondence, opinions and advertisements in the j)apers, 
of which there were two — the S/ar and the Callfor- 
nian — furnish indisputable facts of the spread of the 
news of the gold discovery, and of the rise of the 
excitement in California. In January the discovery 
is made and communicated to Captain Sutter at 
New Helvetia. Marshall appears to be the only 
man excited, or much interested about it. In 
March it is first told in San Francisco; in Ajn-il gold- 
dust becomes an article of traffic, and in the latter 
part of this month and in May the rush begins, and 
the excitement is intense. In June, Lieut. E. F. 
Beale reports the discovery in the East, but it is re- 
garded as nothing extraordinary, and little attention 
is paid to it; but in Se]>teraber he comes again with 
the confirmation of his tirst report, and bearing the 
gold as a proof, and from that date the news was 
known to the world. 

EXPLORING THE RIVERS. 

" In the summer of 1818," says the " Placer County 
Directory" of 18G1, "the principal tributaries of the 
American River were explored by a company of Ore- 
gonians, and rich prospects obtained upon almost 
every bar, as far ujj the Middle and North Forks as 
they proceeded. At this time the bars were gener- 
ally explored as high up the Middle Fork as Rector's 
Bar, which, proving as rich as any diggings the ex- 
plorers expected to find, and it being difficult to 
travel further up the river with horses, they ceased 
traveling, and worked the mines until the winter 
season set in, or their provisions gave out, when 
they returned to the settlements in the valley or to 
their homes in Oregon. 

"Early in lS-ti.1, the system of washing the aurif- 
erous dirt with the common rocker was introduced 
upon the middle fork of the American River, and 
was regarded as a great improvement in gold min- 
ing. During this year miners flocked to the bars on 
the rivers in large numbers from the " Old Dry Dig- 
gings " (Placorville), Sutter's Mill ((Joloraa'), the set- 
tlements in the valleys, and elsewhere ; wheresoever 



the news of the rich discoveries had reached con- 
tributed laborers for the gold-fields, and, during the 
summer, settlements were formed in man}- parts of 
Placer County, including Auburn and Ophir in the 
foot-hills; Rector's Bar, Stony Bar, Oregon Bar, and 
Poverty Bar, on the middle fork; and Barnes' Bar 
on the north fork of the American. The popula- 
tion upon the rivers was quite sparse, and depreda- 
tions were frequentlj- committed by the untamed 
savages upon the stock and camps of the whites." 

MINERS IN THE WINTER OP 1849-50. 

The region northeast of Auburn was included in 
Yuba County. Some miners had ascended the north 
and middle forks of the American River in 1849, and 
many of the overland immigrants of that year had 
settled on the I'idge as far up as Illinoistown. A 
few peof)le had settled upon the divide between the 
North and Middle Forks. 

The "Historical Sketch of Placer County," pub- 
lished in the Directory of 18(31, says: — 

During the winter of 1849-50, the population of 
the now rich and populous Townships five and six, 
consisted of Dr. Todd and three or four companions, 
at Todd's Ranch; Yankee Jim and his companions, 
six in number, at Yankee Jim's Dry Diggings, near 
where Forest Hill is situated: six j'oung men, one of 
whom was named Lewis, near the head of Mad 
Canon; two men at Birds' store, and about thirty 
persons at Stony and Rector's Bars. The whole 
white population amounted to not more than fifty 
persons. 

The hardships endured by the few individuals who 
remained upon the river at Stony and Rector's Bars 
during the memorable winter of 1849-50, can never 
be half told. The writer of this sketch, being one 
of the unfortunate individuals whose reduced fort- 
unes forced him to remain upon the river at Stony 
Bar, in order that he might eke out a scanty sub- 
sistence by working in the banks and on the high 
bars, when a temporary cessation of falling rain and 
snow permitted him to venture forth from the can- 
vas tent, which served him and his companions as a 
winter dwelling, cannot, at this day, aiter a lapse 
of more than ten years, repress a shudder, when 
revolving in his mind the many incidents attending 
his residence during the winter upon the Middle 
Fork. 

The rains, which had sot in towards the last of 
December, continued to fall almost constantly until 
the second week in February, covering the mount- 
ains on either side of the stream to the depth of four 
feet with snow, blocking up the trails, and so com- 
pletely destroying every trace of them, that none, 
except in the last extremity, could be prevailed upon 
to venture to break a trail to Georgetown or Coloma, 
the nearest points at which supplies could be ob- 
tained. To add to the hardships of the little settle- 
ment of pioneer river miners, they not only had not 
comfortable houses in which to live, but ere the 
winter was half gone, their supplies of pork, flour, 
coffee, sugar, salt, beans, etc, were totally exhausted, 
and they were reduced to the necessity of living 
u])on fresh venison, without salt or bread. But starv- 
ation was not the foe most to be dreaded by the 
unprotected settlement. The temporary shanties, 
or huts of the men, were scattered along the river 
for a distance of two miles; in each of which lived 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



69 



from two to five persons. No guard was kept at 
night, and in case of an attack by the Indians, the 
men scattered and poorly armed, as they were, could 
have offered but a feeble resistance. 

The heavy snows, higher up in the mountains, had 
forced a band of Indians to venturedown the caiions 
to the vicinity of the camp of the whites, in search 
of horses, mules, cattle, or anything else which could 
serve as food for their starving squaws and children. 
Thej' were discovered by the whites, and a meeting 
was called of all white men known to be upon the 
river, in reach, for the purpose of ascertaining the 
number and condition of the guns, and the amount 
of ammunition in the hands of the miners. The 
number of guns on hand amounted to one to evoiy 
three men, and among the whole number there were 
not more than three jjounds of powder. An organ- 
ization was immediately effected and men were 
started out with directions to proceed down the 
midtllo fork of the American River until they had 
reached a point where supplies could be purchased, 
and to procure all the arms and ammunition they 
could obtain and bring into the camp. The relief 
part}', after scrambling over the rocks for two days, 
reached the Big Bar, in El Dorado County, where 
they purchased some powder, lead, caps, salt, and 
tea, and one rifle gun, and returned to their com- 
panions. 

With these additions to the stock of arms and 
ammunition on hand, after making a show of strength 
by sending small parties out in search of the Indians, 
one of which came up with a partj' of the red skins, 
and attacked and killed some of their number, the 
whites felt quite secure from an attack and remained 
quiet the balance of the winter. 

Toward the last of February, 1850, the weather 
turning warm and the news of rich discoveries 
having been made the fall previous, between the 
head-waters of the middle and north forks of the 
American, having spread among the miners of Hang- 
town (Placervilie), Weaverville, Coloma, George- 
town, Kelsy's, and other thickly settled places in El 
Dorado, a general stampede took place, and the 
men came in hundreds, making Bird's store (Bird's 
Valley) their place of rendezvous, until the nu nber 
of men gathered there amounted to two or three 
thousand. Here they were compelled to remain 
until the snow settled sufticiently for them to pene- 
trate the mountainsand canons higher up on the slope 
of the Sierra. p]arly in the spring good prospects 
were obtained in El Dorado Canon, and companies 
were soon engaged in mining in the bed and banks 
of the creek from its junction with the North Fork 
to its head. 

ADVENTURES OP PIONEERS. 

Among the pioneers of Placer County in 1848 was 
Thomas M. Bucknei', now a resident of Spanish Dry 
Diggings, in El Dorado County, who emigrated to 
Oregon from Kentucky in 1845. When the news of 
the gold discovery in California reached Oregon, 
several parties immediately fitted out and left the 
latter Territory for the gold-fields;' and one of 
these — a company under the leadership of Captain 
Martin, numbering sixty-two men, nearly all of 
whom were young — Buckner joined, and, after vari- 
ous adventures en route overland, arrived at Sutter's 
Fort on the 2d day of August, 1848. Stopping 
at the fort a few days, a party of sailors arrived 
from the mines with a considerable quantity of gold- 



dust, and informed Mr. J. D. Hoppe, who was also 
there, and with whom they were acquainted, where 
they had obtained it, and of the probability of there 
being much more in the vicinity. Mr. Hoppe imme- 
diately engaged a party of seven men, besides him- 
self, of which Buckner was one, to go with him to 
the " Sailor's Diggings," having obtained unmistak- 
able directions as to the route and distance, and 
about the 10th of August left the fort. In those 
days there were circuitous trails, for though the 
objective point of the party afterward proved to be 
the place called, the following year. Rector's Bar, 
after an Oregonian of that name, on the middle 
fork of the American, they proceeded to Sutter's 
Mill; thence northerly to Long (now Greenwood) 
Valley; over the ridge by Spanish Dry Diggings and 
down into the caiion of the Middle Fork to what 
was afterward named Spanish Bar, across the river 
and up the hill to the top of the ridge, up which 
they traveled on the trail made by the sailors to the 
place now known as Bird's Valley, where they fixed 
their camp. One of the men, named Jonathan 
Keeney, was the first to go down into the canon of 
the river, where he creviced with good results, and 
returned at evening with his gold. Thenceforward 
the entire party followed Reeney's example — going 
down to the river in the morning, working during 
the day and returning to camp on the ridge in the 
little valley at night. The only tools used by these 
primitive miners were butcher knives, iron spoons, 
an occasional small steel bar, and a pan, as they 
sought for gold only upon and in the crevices of the 
bed-rock which the high waters of years had flowed 
over and denuded of all loose material. The gold 
was coarse, and while some of the crevices worked 
would j-ield many pounds of gold, others frequently 
contained nothing. This rendered the success of 
the party variable, and though generally lucky, 
when provisions began to get scarce toward the 
rainy season, a separation took place, Buckner, Rich- 
ard Finley and Jonathan Keeney (both of the latter 
now living in Oregon) starting over an unknown 
route, with no trail, hoping to reach Johnson's Ranch 
on Bear River. In this, however, they were disap- 
pointed, for the first evidences of civilization they 
saw were upon arrival at Sinclair's Ranch. 

Knowing nothing about dry or ravine diggings, 
and believing then the tales of trappers and others 
that it would be impossible to winter at the mines 
along the rivers, Buckner went to San Francisco and 
thence to the redwoods, known as the San Antonio, 
and Prince's Woods, in the hills back of the present 
city of Oakland, where he found employment making 
shakes, pickets, whip-sawing lumber, etc. At that 
time these redwoods contained scores of men of 
various nationalities and divers professions — run- 
away sailors, beach-combers, lawyers, doctors, etc., 
— all similarly occupied from present necessity. 

Among these homogeneous spirits who were tem- 
porarily inhabiting the redwoods was Capt. Ezekiel 



70 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Merritt, who had been a conspicuous character in 
the formation of the " Bear Flajj; " party at Sonoma 
in 1846, and who had loft South Carolina in 1832 and 
wandered into California. During the winter an 
intimate friendship sprang up between Buckner and 
Merritt, and they determined to blend their fortunes 
in a venture to the mines as soon as the proper season 
should arrive. Accordingly the two, accompanied 
by an Indian boy called Peg, whom Merritt had 
retained for a number of years as a servant, in April, 
1849, left the redwoods and went overland to 
Knight's Ranch, on Cache Creek — Knight and Goi-- 
don (another settler there) both being old aci|uaint- 
ances and friends of Merritt. 

Upon learning the destination of his friend, Mr. 
Knight, with the hospitality then so characteristic 
of the old California rancheros, insisted upon killing 
a number of bullocks and jerking the meat, that the 
Captain and his companions might be provided with 
a sufficient quantity of came xeca to ward off the 
chance of starvation while pursuing their search for 
diggings in an unknown region. Having prepared 
an ample supply of meat, Mr. Knight's generosity 
did not stop there; he loaded it upon one of his carts 
and sent it to the emharcaJero at Sacramento, so that 
the horses of the pros])ectors might be the fresher 
for their mountain journey. At this time a survey- 
ing party were laying out the streets of the future 
city of Sacramento. 

Merritt and Buckner, assisted by Peg, packed up 
their animals, and first went to Webber Creek; but, 
not liking the outlook there, took a northerly course 
and crossed the south fork of the American, a few 
miles below Sutter's Mill, and traveled across the 
divide, and descended into the canon of the Middle 
Pork, reaching the stream at a place where there 
was ([uite a fall, caused by an avalanche years before, 
which had changed the bed of the river. 

The month of April was not yet gone; thei-e were 
no evidences of any work having been done by white 
men; but while traveling, the little party had 
observed signs of Indians, and, deeming any they 
would there meet would be hostile on account of 
their small number, a sharp lookout was kept. They 
remained near the falls a daj' or two, endeavoring to 
get to the bottom of a deep hole which was just 
below them, where the crude gold diggers imagined 
all of the large chunks should be, if there were any 
at all in the locality, but, not succeeding, they broke 
camp and started down the stream. Captain Merritt, 
wlio was an experienced frontiersman, took the load. 
They had proceeded but a short distance when they 
reached the head of a large bar situated upon the 
south side of the river; and below them, some dis- 
tance down the bar, was a jutting point of rocks, 
be^'ond which they could not see. The Captain was a 
nervous, excitable man, and when excited stuttered 
badly. When a few yards down the bar, he suddenly 
sto])])ed short, bringing the train to a halt, and ex- 
claimed: '• J5-b-h3' G-g-god, he-he-r's wh-white ma- 



man's ha-ha-r ! Yeyes, a-and Injun's ha-har, too!" 
And sure enough, so it was; there upon the pebbly 
bar above high-water mark, among evidences of a 
plundered camp, was white man's hair, strewn 
around with that of the Indian — silent evidence 
that the life of the superior race had not gone out to 
the great Unknown unavenged and without a strug- 
gle. No bodies were found, but an ash heap close 
by, in which there were calcined bones, told the 
story of the cremation of the white and red men 
together. 

Upon this discovery, the point of rocks ahead 
became a barrier post beyond which the white men 
dared not go for fear of an ambuscade, and they 
accordingly retraced their steps to the head of the 
bar, where a large, smooth, deep stretch of water 
occurred above the ripple, while a small low bar 
showed itself upon the northern side. At the ex- 
treme head of the bar where they had found the 
evidences of death, they unpacked their animals in 
an open space of ground, and prepared for an attack. 
They remained in that position until the following 
morning, and, no Indians coming to molest them, nor 
none being seen. Captain Merritt armed the boy Peg, 
and sent him around the point of rocks to reconnoi- 
ter. He returned, and reported signs but no Indians 
in sight. Thereupon all three, with arms in readi- 
ness in case of necessity, sallied forth for further 
exploration down the river. Scarcely had they 
])assed the point before some sixty or seventy Indians 
appeared upon the bench, or higher bar, above them, 
yelling and gesticulating in a frightful manner, but 
as they were only armed with bows and arrows, 
dared not attack. Now that the enemy were in 
sight, all fear of ambush passed away, and, with 
Rachael (as Merritt called his old-fashioned rifle), 
poised for business, the white men watched the 
yelping savages until the latter apparently became 
convinced that they could do no harm to the former, 
and, in the course of a few hours, retreated up the 
mountain and disappeared from view. 

Upon the river bar that the whites were thus left 
the masters of were line groves of willows, some ash 
trees, and many smooth -barked, thrifty alders, and 
whle there it occurred to Buckner that, as the bars 
along the South Fork and other streams to the 
southward were all designated with names, he 
would also name the one they were then occupying. 
He accordingly took his pocket knife and cut upon 
the smooth and easily slipping bark of an alder tree 

" murderer's bar," 
By which the spot has ever since been known. But 
Merritt and Buckner did not deem it prudent to 
remain there. They must camp in some more open 
spot less liable to be approached by Indians under 
cover; and about this time they discerned a dug-out 
canoe on the banli of the opposite shore, where it 
had been left probably by some one of the party 
who had been in the camp of the massacred men, in 
escaping, or mayhap by the Indians after the kdling 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



n 



was done. The little bar they had seen on the 
opposite side above the head of the one they were on, 
was better located for defensive purposes," and there 
they determined to establish a camp. Peg was 
induced to swim the stream and bring over the canoe, 
which enabled the two white men before nightfall to 
establish themselves with animals and paraphernalia 
upon the Placer County side of the Middle Fork at 

buckner's bar, 
With the river between themselves and their danger- 
ous foe. \V ho the men killed were has never been sat- 
isfactorily determined. They probably met their fate 
late in the fall of 1848; and Mr. Buckner is of the 
opinion that there were three of them, and that two, 
named Wood and Graham, came into the country 
with him in Captain Martin's company of Oregon- 
ians. 

Buckner's Bar was shallow and paid well — one of 
the men digging, Peg packing the dirt, and the 
other washing in a rocker dug out of a log and 
rigged with a rawhide riddle. Merritt, near the end 
of May, concluded to go down to the settlements, 
intending to return in a short time, leaving Peg with 
Buckner. Captain Merritt, like many another gen- 
erous hearted, open-souled pioneer, when in the set- 
tlements after prolonged trips in the wilderness was 
much given to conviviality, and Buckner, knowing 
the weakness of his friend, exacted the promise from 
him at parting that he would touch the flowing 
bowl sparingly in his absence. But, alas, for the 
weakness of human nature; particularly that sort of 
human nature enveloped in the casket of a mount- 
aineer! Reaching the portals of civilization, he en- 
countered the subtle tempter, and was engulfed. He 
died a few weeks after leaving the mines; and poor 
Peg, becoming disconsolate at the nonreturn of his 
master, went to seek him, and Buckner was left alone 
upon the river. 

Toward the latter part of June, however, Tom 
Buckner's heart was gladdened by the appearance of 
other men, not hostile, at his camp, in the person of 
J. B. Chai-bonneau, Jim Beckwourth and Sam Myers, 
all noted mountaineers; and from that time onward 
came large crowds of gold-seekers, so that before 
the end of July, the river banks fairly swarmed with 
humanity above and below him for many miles. 

I'lONEER MINING EXPERIENCES. 

With the influx of population came some of the 
luxuries of civilization, and many of the crude the- 
ories and plans of inexperienced gold-gatherers. 
When the water in the river had fallen to a low 
stage, a plan was formed to cut a canal from the 
head of Buckner's Bar to a point below the lower 
end of Murderer's Bar, and one of the rules govern- 
ing the action of the company stated that, " Any 
shareholder getting drunk during the time he should 
be on duty, shall pay into the common treasury of 
the company a fine of one ounce of gold-dust, and 
shall also forfeit all dividends during such time." 



This was pretty binding, as the gold obtained 
during the day was divided among the shareholders 
every night, and, at the same time, the great Danite 
of the Mormon apostle. Porter Rockwell, was pack- 
ing into camp whisky by the mule load, which 
found ready sale. Upon arriving with his train, 
which he did once a week, at the top of the hill 
leading into the canon, Rockwell would sound a horn 
he carried with him, u])on hearing which a partner 
on the bar, named Jack Smith, would fire off a gun — 
a signal that " business " would soon begin, when the 
people would flock in from far up and down the 
stream for the purpose of getting gloriously drunk, 
and to have fun! So many of the shareholders in 
the canal thus becoming subject to fine and the for- 
feiture of dividends, soon caused grumbling and dis- 
satisfaction; the scheme collapsed, and the ground 
was parceled out in small claims to the difterent 
individuals. 

THE " (4LURI0US DAYS." 

The above is but a slight sketch of the "glorious" 
days of '49 upon the Middle Fork. Along in No- 
vember came the shortening days; and the south- 
easterly winds came soughing through the branches 
of the pines, bringing the winter storms. The pre- 
vailing opinion obtained that the proper place to 
spend the winter months was not in the canons of 
the rivers, but upon the ridges where the " dry dig- 
gings " were. This was the cause of the desertion 
of the bars along the various streams, and bj^ De- 
cember the throngs that had enlivened the echoing 
canon's sides had folded their tents, shouldered their 
blankets and climbed the adjacent heights, leaving 
upon the two bars — Buckner's and Murderer's — 
seven men, Tom Buckner and another man upon the 
Placer County side, and William Harris, Elisha Har- 
din, James Hardin, Freeman Eldridge, and James 
Lee on the southern side. These men had built 
cabins upon ground thought to be high above any 
floods that would ever come; had laid in winter sup- 
plies; expected to take out considerable gold during 
the hibernation, and supposed generally that they 
were well situated, and could, therefore, defy the 
mountain torrent's wrath. But on the 9th daj^ of 
January, 1850, the conceit was all taken out of them. 
The water in the river that day rose sixty feet, and 
swept off everything they had before they could 
hardly estimate the extent of the calamity — cabins, 
provisions, blankets, all and everything, leaving them 
homeless and without covering or food. But the 
men had tested the ground which they had located, 
and, as it was rich, they would not desert it. Going 
into the settlement at Greenwood Valley, tliey were 
enabled to procure another outfit and return to the 
river. An occasional grizzly bear would straggle 
down the hill near camp, and would he shot, which, 
with deer, which were numerous, supplied them with 

meat. 

jii.NiNt; IN 1850. 

With the spring of 1850 again came a rush of 



72 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



men upon the rivers. Many of those who had win- 
tered in the " dry diggings " had met with little 
or no success, while the frequent arrival of passen- 
ger ships from the Isthmus and the pjastern States 
had greatly augmented the throng who were seek- 
ing for gold, the great majority of whom sought 
for placers along the various streams. The middle 
fork of the American received its proportion of 
population, and by the middle of the summer thou- 
sands of men were working in close proximity from 
its junction with the North Fork to well up toward 
its source. The same crude ideas, incongruous 
notions, and absurd plans of the year before with rela- 
tion to the deposits of gold and the methods of 
extraction still prevailed, and many and wise were 
the grand projects of that day. A gigantic fluming 
operation was projected and begun upon that par- 
ticular porlion of the Middle Fork written of in the 
preceding pages. The falls in the stream just above 
Murderer's Bar at that time were about twenty -five 
feet high (since blasted away); and, as related above 
were caused by an immense land-slide, occurring 
many years pi-eviously, and, doubtless so dammed 
up the water as to have formed quite a lake, which, 
before the advent of the white man had disappeared 
by the gradual filling in of the basin, as well as the 
wearing away of the obstruction. By midsummer, 
1850, at least l,.50O men, working with rockers and 
pans, could be seen scattered along the banks and 
bars, up and down the stream from these falls, mak- 
ing varying sums, from a half-ounce to several 
pounds daih*. 

A MININi; CLAIM. 

A " claim " was a spot of ground fifteen feet wide, 
which, when there was a bar on the opposite side of 
the river, only extended to the center of the stream; 
but otherwise — when no bar — clear aei-oss, running 
back into the hill to an indefinite distance. The bed 
of the river had been tested in many places, and 
found to be extremely rich, frequently yielding sev- 
eral ounces of gold to the pan. Meetings were 
called, at which the subjects of consolidation and 
fl,uming were discussed. 

GRAND FLUMING OPEKATIOXS. 

These resulted in a final agreement between five 
companies, whose united membership was over 
400, to join flumes, covering a length of more 
than a mile of the river. These were named, re- 
spectively, Vermont, Buckner's Bar, Sailor Claim, 
Murderer's Bar, and New York Bar Companies. As 
there were then no saw-mills in the country, this 
was certainly- a vast undertaking under the circum- 
stances; but from the cosmopolitan crowd arose the 
inventive genius necessary for the occasion. Stephen 
Tyler and a man named Lefingwell, members of the 
Murderer's Bar Company, proposed to their asso- 
ciates that, for the sum of $6.00 per linear foot, 
they would construct a flume twelve feet wide and 



three feet high, provided the company would grade 
and prepare the way for laying it. This propcjsal 
was accepted. Tyler and Lefingwell, immediately 
after the contract was made, went down to Sacra- 
mento, where they obtained an ordinary horse-power, 
such as were in those days used upon threshing 
machines, a circular saw, and about 150 broncho 
horses, which, in a few days were all brought to 
the locality of the scene of this magnificent pi-oject. 

A MODEL SAW-MILL. 

A " saw-mill " was in time improvised, which for 
uniqueness, perhaps, was never surpassed. A log was 
placed upon the carriage way of the "mill;" an ad- 
jacent corral was levied upon for the " motor," and 
as many bi'oncho horses secm-ed to the levers of 
the machine as could find room, while yelling vaque- 
ros, with formidable whips, urged the frightened 
animals into their utmost efforts of strength and 
speed. The horses thus used could not endure a 
long term of service, and, as the exhausted ones 
were turned out to pick their subsistence upon the 
hillsides under the watchful eye of a herdsman, fresh 
relays were drawn from the corral. Some few 
thousand feet of lumber were sawed by this method; 
but it was rough and came slowly. The motive 
power which drove the machinery of the new-fan- 
gled mill daily became less eft'ective, until, at length, 
the hills were covered with, starved, spiritless, sore- 
necked, crippled and generally bunged-up frames 
of the equine race, instead of the trim, active little 
beasts fresh from a California cahaUada of a few 
weeks before. The contractors finding that they 
could not accomplish the job in the manner begun, 
and the men who were building such high hopes of 
wealth to come from the river's bed, getting anxious 
as the advancing season brought them nearer and 
nearer to the time when high water might be ex- 
pected, an agreement was made that T3-ler and 
Lefingwell would rive out puncheon from the sugar 
pine, and lay a flume with that, while the company 
would get canvas, sew it together and line it — as 
the puncheon flooring alone would contain large 
cracks, through which the water would escape, 
which the canvas would entirely cover up. 

Meanwhile the adjoining companies had been pro- 
gressing in about the same ratio, some whip-sawing 
lumber, others splitting out puncheon, and some of 
them cutting poles to lay down as the flooring of the 
flume upon which to lay canvas lining. By this 
time a general conclusion had been arrived at that 
the entire length of flume must be lined with canvas. 
As the distance was more than a mile, the flume, 
twelve feet wide, with sides three feet high, and 
canvas at that time not less than one dollar a .yard, 
and all required sewing together, this involved a 
great expenditure as well as much labor. Sailors 
and all others who could or would use the "palm" 
were set at work at a half-ounce a day wages sewing 
the canvas flume lining. 




X 
X o 

o < 






Z Q 
< O 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



73 



DOCTORS, LAWYERS AND DIVINES MINING. 

While these things were progressing, other neces- 
sary work was going on, delegations from each com- 
pany being assigned to the various duties. Gener- 
allj^ the flume bed was upon ground above water, 
but there was one deep hole, varying from twelve to 
twenty-four feet in water, in which posts had to be 
set up and stringers placed upon to receive the flume. 
Otis T. Nichols superintended that portion of the 
work, and with his crew comprised of doctors, law- 
yers, divines, and all others unequal to the task of 
sewing canvas, had a diflicult time in getting the 
posts in position. The dam by which the water 
was turned into the flume was at the falls. The con- 
struction of this was superintended by Major Harry 
Love, afterwards noted in connection with the cap- 
ture of the bandit Joaquin. 

THE GRAND FINALE. 

At length, one bright Saturday in September, at 
11 o'clock A. M., witnessed the completion of the 
structure, canvas-lined from head to foot, and the 
water flowing through it — the realization of months 
of arduous toil and anxious hopes. The water 
would require a little time to drain off, and what 
more proper thing to do could there be than to 
wait until Monday morning before beginning gen- 
eral work ? As high as 860 a pan had been obtained 
in digging a foundation to the bed-rock for some of 
the posts which held up the flume; two men owning 
interests had quietly slipped out of their blankets on 
Sunday morning, took a rocker and " prospected," 
returning before breakfast with nine pounds and a half 
of gold; and what could there be to prevent the real- 
ization of the golden dreams of a fortune won, in 
which all the participants of the scheme indulged? 
But a terrible disappointment was in store for them. 
Upon the mountain peaks to the eastward, where 
the river had its source, on Sunday evening gathered 
portentous clouds, and deluged the highlands with 
rain, all unknown to the hopeful men who were low 
down upon the stream. 

The locality written of in the foregoing was not 
an exceptional place with regard to population and 
plans for garnering up the gold. Above, for many 
miles, were wing-dams, races through which the 
water of the river was directed by dams thrown clear 
across the stream, and obstructions of various sorts, 
one in succession above another. The copious rain-fall 
striking the bare granite slopes ran of with great 
rapidity and soon swelled the stream beyond the 
carrying capacity of some of the races high up on 
the river, and as the dams were not made to with- 
stand great pressure, they soon gave way, not only 
letting down the resultant waters of the storm, but 
also that which had been held back. The carrying 
away of one precipitated upon the next below a 
mass of water and debris, which, in turn, added its 
own accumulations to the flood, which at length, as it 
swept on in its downward course, became in-esistible. 



All of the old miners who were upon the middle 
fork of the American in 1850 remember the Sep- 
tember flood. This swollen torrent reached the dam 
at Murderer's Bar early on the Monday morning 
when everybody were expecting to go to work in 
the bed of the river. The alarm was sounded and 
hundreds of men appeared upon the scene. Rapidly 
rose the seething waters, the flume running full, until 
it reached the top of the dam. Higher and higher 
it piled back of the rocky barrier that obstructed 
it, until a greater level was reached, when it began 
to pour over the dam and slowly fill up the bed of 
the stream that had been drained. The water 
reached the floor of the flume, which the fast disap- 
pearing dam was lightening of its burden of water, 
but little water now flowing through it. In a few 
moments more additional rocks are swept away from 
the crest of the dam, and the water speedilj- deepens 
under the flume, which is not solidly spiked to its 
foundation. Another moment the whole structure 
floats, breaks from its mooring, and moves down the 
river out of sight, like an enormous serpent, wrig- 
gling and twisting along the sinuous stream, held 
together by its lining of canvas. 

Thus, in an hour's time, was the labor of hundreds 
of men for months destroyed, their fond hopes dis- 
sipated, and their bright dreams of wealth and home 
rudely dispelled. Thousands of men witnessed the 
passage of the floating flume, which did not break up 
for several miles, and was the source for two or three 
years after whence miners along the river supplied 
themselves with canvas. 

MARSHALL PROSPEC.TING IN PLACER. 

Although James W. Marshall, the discoverer of 
gold, was located upon the south fork of the Ameri- 
can where a proper appreciation of the situation and 
the application of an ordinaiy amount of labor would 
have made any individual wealthy, it does not follow 
that this old pioneer, then quite a young man, was 
satisfied with his condition ; for, according to his own 
story, related in October, 1881, he, in company with 
Colonel Ritchie, his son, Richard Ritchie, and a man 
called Little Todd, in June, 1848, left Sutter's Mill 
in search of better diggings — a place in the unknown 
mountains where the large chunks were lying from 
which the little particles that were found scattered 
along the streams had been abraded. 

Colonel Ritchie had come into the country in 
18-16 via the head-waters of Bear River and thought, 
from his recollection of the mountains en route, that 
gold existed there. Striking northward across the 
country from their starting point, they encountered 
the limestone belt cropping out on the southern side 
of the Middle Fork, following it to that stream, 
thence upon the point which separates the North 
and Middle Foi'ks not far above the junction, and 
thence to the North Fork and across that stream 
to the dividing ridge between the latter and Bear 
River, the party meanwhile jjrospecting in thier 



74 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



travels with unsatisfactory results. A large ravine 
which ran into the North Fork from this divide was 
selected as a camp-ground for several days, in which 
gold was found, but not in such quantities as could 
be got at the rivers. From here they went to Steep 
Hollow on Bear River, and remained a week. 
Their search not being successful, they came down 
the emigrant trail on the north side of Bear River 
until they reached a little valley in which thej- 
stopped a few days to recruit their animals — the spot 
where a little more than a year afterward was located 
Colonel Finley's Camp, a halting place for invalid 
immigrants. Fi'om here they went north to Deer 
Creek, but did not stay long, for they had not found 
what they sought. Returning they crossed Bear River 
and accidentally wandered over the present site of 
Auburn and into the diggings where Claude Ghana 
and his companions had worked but a month before. 
Not upon the entire trip, which occupied some six 
weeks, were any satisfactory results obtained, and the 
party returned to the South Fork via Suttei^'s Fort. 
Marshall's subsequent journej-ings throughout the 
county now embraced within the limits of Placer 
County were mostly confined to the j-ear 1850, when 
he formed a portion of that human mass who car- 
ried the advancing ripple of civilization that year 
into the canons of the (California highlands, working 
during the summer with about twenty others, in 
Antoine Canon. 

OHIO PROSPECTORS. 

About the middle of September, 1850, four men 
from Delaware County, Ohio, came to a place upon 
the Divide north of Antoine Canon, called Burke's 
Station, having in their possession about seventy-five 
pounds of gold-dust, which they reported they had 
dug in a canon not far distant in a short space of 
time. The story of the success of the Obioans 
spread rapidly from camp to camp, and many per- 
sons started out to search for the •' Ohio Diggings," 
supposed to be somewhere upon the Divide. Among 
these was a party composed of J. W. Marshall. John 
Winters, Jonathan Favorite, and some five or six 
others, who prosecuted the search until late in the 
fall, being upon the trail fullj- two months. From 
time to time they would strike the tracks of ani- 
mals leading across the canons to the south; j)iir- 
suing which, Marshall and Favorite, who alone 
were all that remained of the original number start- 
ing out, at length found themselves at a large flat 
upon which were growing numerous big oak trees, 
on a park-like plateau, situated between the middle 
and north branches of the middle fork of the Amer- 
ican, where they found many evidences of former 
occupation. It was a beautiful spot, as it still is at 
the present time, its isolation having protected the fine 
old oak trees from the destructive ax of the wood- 
man. The place is now locally known as Big Oak 
Flat. Marshall and his companion camped near 
here at a spring in a small canon that sweeps around 
the base of the flat upon the northeast. 



A GHASTLY DISCOVERT. 

While exploring the surrounding thickets near 
camp, Marshall found a muchUla which led to a more 
extended search, during that and the succeeding 
day, by himself and Favorite, and resulted in the 
discovery of the bodies of four men and the car- 
casses of four horses — the latter having been shot 
through the head, as the skulls indicated — with sad- 
dles, blankets, and accouterments. The men had evi- 
dently been surprised in camp, and one or two of 
them killed before leaving it, while the position of 
the others tended to show that they were shot while 
running ofi' and trying to escape. It then occurred 
to Marshall that four Spanish-Americans, with con- 
siderable gold-dust, had that spring left Kelsey, in 
El Dorado County, for the mountains, and he subse- 
quently learned that they had, upon reaching Todd's 
Valley, deposited their treasure with a man named 
James Williams, who was then keeping a trading- 
post there, and with whom some of the Spaniards 
were acquainted; that Williams a few months later, 
desiring to leave and go to Santa Cruz, had notified 
the men of his intention, and requested them to take 
their dust away, which they had done, and packed 
it into the mountains whither they went. The mur- 
ders had been doubtless done about the first of Sep- 
tember, and as it was well toward the end of 
November when their remains were discovered, the 
skeletons of both men and animals were dismem- 
bered and scattered, and fleshless from the ravages 
of wild animals, and, therefore, not readilj' identified; 
but no doubts ever existed in the minds of the dis- 
covei-ers that thej- had unraveled the terrible secret 
of the locality of the " Ohio Diggings." 

IN MEMORY. 

Upon this memorable trip. Mr. Marshall, while on 
one of the little flats situated a short distance south 
of the old trail leading from the ridge to Sailor Bar, 
on the North Fork, near the point where it left the 
summit and began the descent into the canon, cut in 
a large rock Ij'ing there, with the chisel-point of a 
pick, the initials of his name — J. W. M. — in letters 
about six inches high. These must be there to the 
present time; and, though the lichens and ferns may 
have overgrown the rude tablet and hidden the in- 
scription, the curious prospector, as he wanders 
through that region, will some day doubtless find 
that autographic legend of the famous pioneer; per- 
hajis not until his form has long been entombed, for, 
even now, the grim old ferryman, standing by the 
other shore, is beckoning for him to cross. 

"YANKEE JIM." 

The first authentic account the writer ever had of 
the strange character whose synonym is perpetuated 
in the name of one of the most important mining 
sections of Placer County, was from a gentleman, 
now a resident of Georgetown, El Dorado County, 
named Benjamin C. Currier, who, with the writer, 
was mining in the fall of 1849 near Bai-nes' Bar, on 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



7o 



the north fork of the American. Late in the sum- 
mer of that eventful year, rumors came to Barnes' 
Bar of rich diggings having been found in the hills, 
somewhere up the ridge between the North and 
Middle Forks; and those rumors were sometimes 
accompanied by tangible evidence of their existence 
in the shape of large oblong pieces of gold, often 
weighing several ounces, brought into the camps 
by the character known as " Yankee Jim." No 
thought was that year entertained of wintering 
upon the river, and it therefore was an object of mo- 
ment to find some rich spot upon the uplands where 
men could profitably hibernate. With this laudable 
purpose in view, sometime during the month of 
November, ^Messrs. Currier, Smith, Steen, O'Hara, 
Spinks, and another man whose name is not remem- 
bered, fitted out and started from a place then 
known as Long Bar, in the first bend below Barnes' 
Bar, in search of Yankee Jim and his diggings. 
Ascending the hill on the south side of the river and 
reaching the summit of the Divide, they did not 
travel far before nightfixll overtook them, and they 
bivouacked under the tall pines with no other cover- 
ing but such as the branches of the trees afforded, a 
little way off from the trail, which by that time was 
quite plainly marked along the crest of the ridge. 
At that time it was a common custom for a party of 
men who imagined they were going to good diggings 
to start oft stealthily — frequently traveling by night — 
to evade pursuit. 

About midnight a brisk rain storm came on and 
aroused the slumbering men, some of whom got up 
for the purpose of replenishing the fire with wood. 
While doing this one of them discerned the glimmer 
of a light moving through the forest in the direction 
of their objective point, and the thought occurred 
that the light should be followed. A short consulta- 
tion was held, and two men, Mr. Currier and another, 
were detailed to do so. For several hours they 
groped onward through the gloomy forest, with the 
moving light in view, until at last, like an ignis fatutcs, 
it disappeared and was seen no more. Determining 
not to surrender the vantage ground, thus so labo- 
riously gained, the two men, upon hands and knees, 
in the rain and darkness, gathered what few rocks, 
sticks, and pine cones they could find and laid them 
up as well as they could in monumental form at the 
foot of a large tree, to mark the spot upon the 
approach of daj-light. Having done this they 
retraced their steps to camp as best they could, reach- 
ing there about daybreak. 

-Relating their adventure, breakfast was prepared, 
and the entire party started on the trail, having now 
no doubt whatever but they were close upon the 
haunt of the noted character whose diggings they 
coveted. They did not succeed in finding the rude 
monument that the two had piled under the tree 
until about three o'clock in the afternoon, so changed 
in appearance did the country seem by daylight, and 
the course so different than at night. Satisfied at 



last that they had found the place where the light 
disappeared, a careful reconnoisance was begun. 

A narrow backbone had diverged to the left from 
the main divide down which the tracks they were 
following led, and a distance along this of from 150 
to 200 yards brought the pursuing party to the head of 
a small ravine skirting the eastern border, the ravine 
leading into an apparently interminable canon. It was 
the descent of the party with the light the previous 
night into this gorge that caused its disappearance. 
The trailing party were barely enabled to reach the 
bottom of the chasm where the smaller joined the 
larger ravine, before night was upon them and they 
were forced to halt and make camp. Scarcely had 
they rolled into their blankets before rain again 
began to fall in torrents. The rainy season had in 
reality set in, for the storm did not abate until the 
expiration of the fifth day after the entrance of 
the party into the gorge. During this time they 
had not attempted to explore, devoting the time to 
improvising such shelter as they could, to procuring 
fuel for maintaining a large fire, and to cooking and 
eating their limited variety of food. They had noted 
that they were upon quite a large stream, made 
additionally so by the rain-fall, and that the canon 
was a rugged one. Meanwhile no sounds had been 
heard denoting the presence of others, nor had any- 
thing been seen of the mysterious nocturnal trav. 
elers who had preceded them into the dismal abyss. 

A PRl.MAL FOREST SCENE. 

On the sixth day, however, the morning sky was 
clear and the sun rose brightly upon a glorious 
autumnal mountain scene, which under more favor- 
able circumstances would have been highly enjoy- 
able. The dark green heather of the aromatic, 
delicate-leafed shrub so common in the uplands of 
California; the varying hues of the dogwood leaves, 
pink, crimson, and purple; the bright yellow of the 
broad-leafed maple; the somber brown of the leaves of 
the deciduous oaks, all lately touched and beautifully 
colored by the frost; together with the resplendent 
verdure of the yew, with their branches spangled 
with delicate pink, bead like berries; the huge tow- 
ering pines with long, pendant cones at which the 
chattering squirrels were at work; the firs and 
cedars; the live-oaks; and the bushes of hazel and 
chincapin, all spangled and glistening with myriads 
of raindrops sparkling in the sunshine; the precip- 
itous and rocky sides of the cailon rising upon all 
sides to an indefinite heighth; the mountain tor- 
rent, with water clear and unpolluted, in which were 
disporting the speckled trout, running along its 
stony bed, now leaping down in little cataracts, 
then swirling around in eddying pools, and again 
flowing in rapid ripples around great bowlders all 
encircled by the snake-like roots of the water-plant, 
whoso broad, round leaves covered their surface; the 
fern-lined banks; the little water-ousel fluttering 
from stone to stone, and occasionally plunging his 
tiny beak into the clear, limpid water to secure some 



76 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



aquatic insect or worm upon which to make its 
morning meal, combined in the formation of such a 
picture of extreme natural beauty as no easel can 
faithfully portray nor any pen accurately describe. 

OCCUPANTS OF THE CANONS. 

Amid this scene of grandeur there arose another 
object, the sight of which was more absorbing in 
interest to the little party than all else around them. 
Not far distant above, in the gorge, was seen the 
blue smoke curling up from some camp-fire. The 
first thought was of Indians, rather than the men 
whom they had followed, and a careful a^jproach 
under cover of the thickly-growing bushes to the 
vicinity of the strange camp was determined upon. 
Stealthily the reconnoitering party reached a point of 
favorable observation and halted to await develop- 
ments. The fire was on the opposite side of the 
stream, and they had waited but a few moments 
before the moving bushes over the creek gave evi- 
dence that a living form was there. A moment 
longer and the head of a man was seen to rise above 
the brush and peer cautiously down the canon in 
apparent anxiety, evidently having just discovered 
that there was a fire in close proximity. The head 
appeared to be that of a white man, but being 
encased in a skull-cap of gorgeous colors, it was hard 
to determine from the distance they stood. Shortly 
another head apperared which could not be mis- 
taken, and was that of a white man. Then the am- 
buscading party rose and hailed the strangers. One 
of the men proved to be a Mr. Tuttle, from Connec- 
ticut, who was wearing a silk smoking cap, and the 
other a Mr. Van Zandt, of Oregon. Mr. Currier, 
being a Yankee, was soon on excellent terms with 
Tuttle, while Spinks, who had traveled extensively 
in Oregon, soon ingratiated himself into favor with 
Van Zandt. They had been upon the stream for 
some time and were the two who had so suddenly 
surprised a lone miner en dishabille not long before, 
and which cireuiristance fastened the appellation 
" Shirt Tail " to the canon. The smaller one, at the 
junction of which was their camp, has since been 
known as Brushy Canon. Tuttle and Van Zandt 
had discovered fair diggings, which they had been 
working for several months, and were the ones 
who traveled by night, not for the purpose, however, 
of evading pursuit, but to reach their camp before 
the coming of the storm. The last party, also, set 
to prospecting, and had no difHeulty in making good 
wages by digging out the crevices of the bed-rock 
with knives and panning out the material taken 
therefrom. 

FINDINU OP YANKEE JIM. 

Not a great while after the circumstances oc- 
curred which are above related, Mr. Currier started 
out alone from camp to explore the country lying a 
short distance westerly from Brushy Canon. After 
traveling perhaps two miles he entered a little flat 
of comparatively smooth ground, and was aston- 
ished to see the legs and feet of a man, encased in 



breeches and boots, projecting from a temporary 
shelter made by standing large slabs of pine bark 
endwise against a tree, the latter being a big sugar 
pine, into the butt of which the fire had burned a 
good-sized cavity. There were also a few articles of 
camp equipage lying around. 

Without hesitation Currier approached and hailed 
the sleeping man, for such he appeared to be. 
Bousing himself, he got up and returned the saluta- 
tion, but apparently somewhat disconcerted and 
embarrassed at the sight of a stranger; and about 
the first inquiry he made was to ask from whence 
the intruder came and how long he expected to 
remain. Upon being told that there was quite a party 
near by, who came with the intention of remaining 
there all winter, he seemed more perplexed and 
annoyed than at first. His sole weapon, besides a 
knife, was an old-fashioned Government "yager," 
bullets for which he was anxious to get, as he had 
but a few and no lead to make more. It so hap- 
pened that Mr. Currier, among his effects at camp, 
had several pounds which he thought might fit the 
gun, and he offered to bring some over to him on 
the following day. At this he intimated to Currier 
that he would like to have the knowledge of his 
whereabouts kept a secret, and said that if he would 
not tell his companions that he had met with him 
and his lonely camp he could be of some service in 
the future. 

Currier left, kept his own counsel — for each man 
of the party belonged to separate companies who 
had been operating upon the Fiver, and therefore 
were not partners any further than in the discovery 
of a district over which all could locate — and the 
next day returned with the bullets, which secured 
the good will of the unknown man. He soon 
became quite communicative, and told Mr. Currier 
that if he would persuade his companions to return to 
the river and come back alone to that spot that he 
would show him where he could find the best dig- 
gings in the country. In proof of his assertion he 
took a hatea and went down to the bank of a small 
ravine and there washed out a number of pans of 
gravel, each time getting a good prosjject in coarse 
gold. 

He then told Mr. Cun-ier that he it was whom 
they called Yankee Jim, and said he was a native of 
the State of Maine. He also told his ucwly-formed 
acquaintance his proper name and the town of his 
nativity. These facts were all noted at that time in 
Mr. Currier's journal, which is now in Boston and 
are not remembered, else this work would be the 
first to rescue from obscurity and forever perpetuate 
the true name of that historical character, as well as 
locate his nationality. Common belief has obtained 
that he was an English convict, in early days called 
"Sydney Ducks," but Mr. Currier is of the firm 
opinion, from \x\& jMtois and knowledge of the New 
England States that he really was a Yankee, and 
that for a number of years before the discovery of 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



gold he had " combed the beach " along the Califor- 
nia Coast, having previously ran away from some 
ship. That he was a bad character and a criminal 
there is no doubt. 

After his disclosures, Mr. Currier became afraid of 
the man — that is, to associate with him and become 
an adjoining claim owner. Tuttle and Van Zandt 
had, a couple of months preceding this time, found 
the skeletons of a man and horse, supposed to have 
been shot not fiir from this camping place. Of course 
his presence became known to all of the men 
camped in the vicinity; but the storms began soon 
to occur very frequently, and were of great severity, 
which caused the abandonment for that winter of 
the diggings upon Shirt Tail Canon, the men return- 
ing to the river and other places. The following 
year that part of the country was well filled with 
people; extensive mines were discovered, and the 
new town started, the rise and progress of which will 
be detailed hereafter. As to the fate of Yankee Jim, 
there have been several accounts, the most probable 
of which is that he was hung by orders of an irregu- 
lar court at Los Angeles, September 18, 1852, for an 
attempt to steal, in the harbor at Wilmington, the 
pilot boat Flatus with the intention of putting to 
sea, with the probable intent of engaging in piratical 
acts. 

JOURNAL OF A PICNEER. 

The following extracts from the journal of a pio- 
neer of Placer County, John A. Marklo, now a resi- 
dent of Ivelsey Township, El Dorado County, will be 
of interest as it was written at a time when all of 
the localities spoken of were known by their primary 
names. On Sunday, September 2, 1849, Mr.Markleand 
party had arrived at Sacramento via the Truckee, 
Donner, Bear River and vSinclair Ranch route, where 
he had remained, suffering from poison oak until (we 
quote the journal) 

Wednesday, September 26, 1849. — By this time 1 ' 
am much better of the poison. Lorin Robbins and 
I agree to go to the mines together. 

Thursday, September 27th. — This morning we got 
some provisions, and about 4 o'clock p. m., loaded 
them on an ox wagon and started for the North 
Fork Dry Diggings. We traveled with the wagon 
awhile, but it being slow, we started ahead and got 
to the Blue Tent at 10 o'clock, where we waited 
until the wagon came up; we then got our bed and 
slept at the root of an oak. Distance to-day was 
thirteen miles. 

Friday, September 28th. — To-day we wandered 
along until we came to the Half-way House, where 
we got dinner. Four miles more brought us to the 
Oregon Tent, where we stayed all night with some 
New Yorkers who had come around the Horn. 

Saturday, September 29th. ^Seven miles this morn- 
ing brought us to the Miner's Hotel, where wo cooked 
dintier. We then started ahead of the wagon, and 
eight miles brought us to another boarding tent kept 
by a Mormon. Being lost from our wagon, and not 



knowing when it would come up, we called for 
supper, and got it by paying two dollars each. 

Sunday, September 30th. — We waited until 9 
o'clock this morning and the wagon did not come, 
so we started on. Four miles brought us to the Dry 
Diggings, our place of destination but no wagon 
there. It arrived, however, about 4 o'clock. We 
then selected an oak, cooked supper, made our bed 
and slept. 

Monday, October 1st. — To-day Robbins and Risher 
(a man who came with us) sold some articles they 
had left when they were up here before, and in the 
evening we moved ui)the left-hand ravine about one 
and a half miles to a spring, where we stayed all 
night. 

Tuesday, October 2d. — Robbins and I made a tent, 
and Risher went to the river to prospect. 

Wednesday, October 3d. — To-day Robbins and I 
went to the river. We prospected with our pans, 
but could get nothing. We then borrowed a rocker 
and washed out about five dollars worth of gold. 

Thursday, October 4th. — To-day Risher and I 
went prospecting further up the river, but did not 
succeed well. Robbins went to buy a mule to pack 
our things to the Middle Fork; like us, he was 
unsuccessful. 

Friday, October 5th. — To-day we all went to the 
river, and panned out about two dollars apiece; and 
rather than climb the mountain to our tent, we con- 
cluded to stay at the river. Our bed was on pebble- 
stones, and oh! such a sleep as we had! 

Saturday, October 6th. — To-day we washed awhile 
and then went to our tent, where we suppei-ed on 
flap-jacks, and then retired. 

Sundaj', October 7th. — To-day we were wandering 
around in the Dry Diggings, and I succeeded in pick- 
ing out a lump worth from three to four dollars; 1 
then gathered up about a gallon of dirt, carried it to 
the water and washed it, and found about two dol- 
lars more. 

Monday, October 8th. — To-day we dug in the Dry 
Diggings, and made about six dollars. 

Tuesday, October 9th. — To-day we did as yester- 
day. In the evening it rained enough to wet thi'ough 
a pei'son's clothing — ^the first rain I have seen fall for 
a long while. 

Wednesday, October 10th. — Still working at the 
same place. Robbins found a lump worth twelve 
dollars and a half It rained in the evening. 

Thursday, October 11th. — To-day we dug and 
threw up dirt to pack to the water. Robbins found 
another lump worth nineteen and a half dollars; clear 
in the evening and no rain. 

Friday, Oct 12th. — To-day we bought a horse and 
packed dirt to a well that wo dug; weather clear 
and cool. 

Saturday, October 13th. — To-day we packed six 
loads and got twenty dollars. Weather clear and 
warm. 

Saturday, October 2flth, — Since Monday, we have 



78 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



been packing dirt and washing it. Ttie weather was 
very warm all the week, as well as dry and clear. 

Saturday, October 27th. — Since Monday last, we 
have as usual, been packing dirt. The weather, as 
last week, without any rain. 

Monday, October 29th. — To-day we washed what 
dirt we had packed, and concluded to throw up dirt 
to wash, when the wet season sets in — as we have 
concluded to winter here. 

Tuesday, October SOth. — Throwing up dirt to-day. 
In the evening it began to rain. 

Wednesday, October 31st. — To-day it rained — 
coming by small showers. 

Thursday, November 1st. — To-day we commenced 
to build our cabin. The day clear, and a little cold. 

Friday, November 2d. — Still at work at the cabin. 
It rained some little through the day, and at night 
it poured down. The water came through our tent; 
our bed-clothes became wet, and our sleep was not 
as pleasant as might have been. 

Saturday, November 3d. — This morning the rain 
continued to pour down; the fire all out; our bed 
wet, and still getting wetter. Robbins, looking at 
these things, got the blues bad enough for both of 
us; 80 I laughed it off without much trouble. 

Sunday, November -tth. — This morning it was 
clear and we went to work on the cabin, as we 
thought it necessary to do so. In the evening it 
began to rain again and rained all night; but we 
were a little more comfortable than on the ])reviou8 
night. 

Mondajr, November 5th. — Rained all day. Messrs. 
VVilleckand Whigham arrived here from Sacramento 
City. This morning Sampson made arrangements 
to cabin with us. Daddy Blue, Dodge and Quinch 
in a sweat about the matter. 

Tuesday, November Gth. — To-day it was clear; 
Sampson, Robbins and myself went to work upon 
the cabin. 

Wednesday, November 7th. — To-day it rained by 
showers, and we worked at intervals. 

Thursday, November 8th. — To-day same as yester- 
day. 

Friday, November 9Lli. — Clear to-day and we get 
our cabin all ready for the roof 

Saturday, November 10th. — This morning I took 
two horses and started for Sacramento City in com- 
pany with Risher, who was going home. The day 
was somewhat wet, but not so much so as to stop us. 
We got to the Halfway House and stayed all night. 

Sunday, November 11th. — This morning my bill 
for breakfast, and for letting my horses stand on a 
pile of spoiled hay was three dolhirs and a half. The 
day was clear, the sun shone beautifully, and as we 
were going down the valley we could see the snow- 
clad peaks, of both the Sierra Nevada and Coast 
Range Mountains — one behind and the other before 
us. 

Monday, November 12th. — To-day it was clear and 
pleasant. I bought what things I wanted, and made 
ready for starting. 



Tuesday, November 13th. — To-day I waited until 
the steamer McKim came up, expecting to get letters. 
I was disappointed. Rained in showers during the 
day, but at night it came down in torrents. 

Wednesday, November 14th. — This morning it 
was clear, and I started for home with about fifty 
pounds on one horse and seventy-five on the other. 
By wading and floundering through the water from 
one to two feet deep, I got across the valley. My 
horses frequently mired down so that I had to unload 
them. About sunset one of them mired so that I 
had to unpack him, tie the bridle reins to his feet, 
and roll him over before I could get him out. By 
this time it was dark and I was unable to proceed 
any farther; so I wrapped myself in my blanket, 
and was lulled to sleep by the howling of the coyotes. 

Thursday, November 15th — This morning 1 found 
my horses with a drove of wild ones, and had 
trouble in catching them. After getting them, and 
shaking the lizards out of my blankets, in three 
miles the horses mired twice, so badlj' that I had to 
unpack. About 10 o'clock I got my breakfast — the 
first that I had eaten since yesterday morning. 
About 10 o'clock at night I got to Auburn, where I 
stayed all night. 

Friday, November 16th. — After sleeping in Ken- 
nedy's tent all night, I went up home and got my 
breakfast — the first since yesterday moi-ning. 

Saturday, November 17th. — By this time Robbins 
and Sampson had built the chimney and got the 
clapboards ready, and by noon we had part of the 
roof on. In the afternoon it rained. 

Sunday, November 18th. — To-day the weather 
was clear and cool; so we dried our bed-clothes and 
other things. 

Monday, November 19th.— To-day we worked at 
the cabin and finished the roof. It rained all day; 
but at night we felt as if we had a shelter. 

Tuesday, November 20th. — To-day was clear and 
warm, and we finished the cabin. 

Wednesday, November 21st. — To-day was clear 
and pleasant, and we built a large fire in the cabin 
and dried it thoroughly. 

Thursday, November 22d. — To-day we moved into 
the cabin and commenced to lead a bachelor's life. 

Tuesday, November 27th. — To-day we had a 
shower of rain; but since last Thursdaj' the weather 
was clear and warm. 

Sunday, December 2d. — Since Tuesday the weather 
has been clear and warm without any rain. To-day 
I tried to bake some ginger-bread, but made a mis- 
take and put in mustard in the place of ginger. 

Sunday, December 9th. — During the last week the 
weather has been beautifully clear, without any 
rain, and of nights there was a strong north wind, 
making the nights cold; but in the morning after 
sunrise, the wind would change and blow from the 
south, which made the days warm and pleasant. 

Sunday, December 16th. — The weather for the 
last week has been variable. Monday and Tuesday 
were clear and cold. On Tuesday night it commenced 



EARLY MINING HISTORY. 



79 



raining and continued until Friday, occasionally 
ceasing a few hours. On Friday morning it com- 
monced snowing, and continued to snow until night, 
when it ceased. Con.siderable snow fell, but the 
ground was so wet from the rain that it melted 
away. 

Sunday, December 23d. — It rained all of last week 
with the exception of one day, when it was beautiful 
and clear, giving us a chance to get out of the cabin 
where we were pent up to our dissatisfaction. 

Tuesday, December 25th. — Since Saturday the 
weather has been fine. To-day being Christmas, 
we did not work. O! glorious Christmas! Hall, 
Robbing and I got a quarter of venison and a bottle 
of old Monongahela, and retired to the cabin. We 
then made a pot-pie. After it was cooked we ate, 
drank, and were merry until evening; wo then topped 
off with a taffy-pulling, which was quite amusing 
when we got our fingers mixed among the sticky 
molasses. 

Monday, December Slst. — Since Tuesday there 
has been no rain except a little that fell on Thurs- 
day. 

Tuesday, January 1, 1850. — To-day it rained mod- 
erately. About 11 o'clock Eobbins and I took our 
plates, knives and forks, and went to Hall and Mar- 
tin's tent, to partake of a pot-pie made of beef and 
potatoes, for the occasion. The feast was glorious 
and good, and was not without a little of that stuff 
which makes a person happy for a short time. At 
night we went to Auburn where we spent the even- 
ing. 

The above, copied almost verbafim, is given for 
several purposes. First, as showing the vicissitudes 
of the early pioneers in the days of their green inex- 
perience; secondly, as being valuable for reference 
as to the rain-fall in the vicinity of Auburn during 
the time it was written; thirdly, it records the time, 
nearly, when the name was given to the place, for 
thus he relates that on September 27th, he started 
from Sacramento for the " North Fork Dry Diggings," 
the only name by which the locality was then 
known; and that in returning from Sacramento upon 
a subsequent trip, November 15th, he speaks of 
arriving at Auburn^circumstances which tend to 
prove that the nomenclature was applied between 
those dates; and fourthly, it designates several of 
the old wayside stopping places en route whose iden- 
tity is now correctly recorded and preserved from 
oblivion. 

SOLDIERS AND PROSPECTORS IN 1849. 

The next party, after that of Claude Chana, who 
visited Auburn Ravine for mining purposes of which 
any authentic data can be obtained, wore a squad of 
soldiers, who came early in the spring of 1849. They 
formerly belonged to Colonel Stevenson's Regiment, 
and, arriving in the country too late for active pai'- 
ticipation in the War with Mexico, had tired of gar- 
rison duty, and either absented themselves from the 
command by furlough or desertion, congi-egated at 



the embarcadero on the way to the mines, and 
arrived at the diggings together. There wore not 
less than a dozen of these men, who made their first 
camp on Auburn Ravine at the bend of the stream 
about a half-mile below the present site of Auburn, 
where a fountain of cool water gushes out from the 
rocky hillside bordering the southern side. This was 
thereafter, and to the present time is, called Soldier's 
Spring. The party, however, did not remain there 
long, but went to Barnes' Bar, on the North Fork, 
whore the most of them remained until late in the 
fall. 

At Barnes' Bar they established two camps under 
the following circumstances: The regiment had come 
to California in thi-oe ships — the Thomas H. Perkins, 
Loo Choo and Susan Drew. Most of the men of the 
party had arrived in the two latter-named vessels, 
and were about evenly divided in number. A camp 
of a dozen was too unwieldly, while half the number 
would be better. Therefore the Loo Choo passengers 
formed a mess by themselves, as also did those of 
the Susan Drew, and after that time were known 
respectively by the name of their ships, and the 
members contra-distinguished as a Loo Choo or a 
Susan Drew boy. 

One of the men who first came to Soldier's Spring 
was a deserter from the regular service, and, from 
fear of capture, left his companions and went some 
twenty miles up the country, where he became 
insane, and, during the month of August, was fre- 
quently seen by the writer skulking among the rocks 
along Bear River, not far from where the Rising Sun 
quartz mine now is, an emaciated, diseased lunatic, 
hiding from imaginary pursuers, whom, he fancied, 
were upon his trail for the purpose of bringing him 
before a court-martial — a pitiable object of misery 
and fear. Another, who had belonged to Stevenson's 
Regiment, was "Doc" Osborne, from Cortland 
County, New York, who, previous to enlisting, had 
studied medicine, and may have practiced the pro- 
fession some. Hence his title of Doctor Osborne. 
That same fall he went to Los Angeles, where in 
after years he was afflicted with some paralytic affec- 
tion, and, being a very singular genius, became 
widely known, dying there but a few years ago. 
John Allen was another; a powerful, robust- young 
man of about twenty-five, with a magnificent phy- 
sique, and when drunk, which was quite often, a 
terror to the sober citizen. " Jack," as he called 
himself, did not last long; he was killed at Grass 
Valley in 1851, by a man whom he had threatened 
and abused. 

PRICES OF 1849. 

The following are extracts from an account book, 
kept in the pioneer days of 1849, at Barnes' Store, on 
the north fork of the American River, by P. M. Back- 
us. A perusal of the entries therein is most interest- 
ing as showing the prices of articles in those jolly 
days, and the character of the eatables and drinkables 
which miners then thought to be necessary for the 



80 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



preservation of life, and for the comforts of the 

inner man. We give below some extracts from the 

aforesaid account book, which looks for all the 
world like a modern pass-book, save a somewhat 

dilapidated appearance. The accounts ai-e all for 
the months of June, July and August, 1849. 

"Doctor" One bottle gin -.. $ 6 00 

Two lbs biscuit, SI 25 ^ lb. 2 50 

" One lb figs .- .... 1 50 

" To one pair socks 3 00 

D. T. Crabtree, One ft sugar. 2 00 

" Uncle Ben," To one pair socks. ... 3 00 

L. Battaile, J. fS. Dillahunty, M. Godbury. 

" To 19 pounds pork, SI. 50 per ft.. 28 50 

" 25fts flour @ i;2Ac f ft 15 62 

" 36 fts pork and ham 54 00 

" 1 cotton handkerchief. 50 

" To hire of one pack-horse . . . 10 00 

" 1 ham, 16 fts . 24 00 

" 1 bottle molasses. . . . . 2 00 

" 1 quart beans. 2 00 

L. Battaile, 1 B. knife 2 50 

Captain Slade& Co., 30 fts flour, 62Jc.. . 18 75 

Mr. Maynard, 2 bottles ale, 12 50. 5 00 

Josf', the Chillano, 1 ft chocolate . 2 50 

" " 1 day's board. _ 3 00 

Mr. Bower, To one day's board for self and 

young Smith ... . . 5 00 

Mr. Lennox, 25 fts sugar . . , 18 00 

" 5 fts figs. 7 50 

" 12 fts dried apples... 25 00 

'' 4 fathoms rope ... 5 00 

Dr. Fruit, 3 fts bread . . 3 75 

Robt. H. McPherson, 1 caddy tea . 10 00 

" 2 bottles pickles 14 00 

" 1 bottle gin. 6 00 

" 1 bottle brandy 8 00 

" 2 drinks 1 00 

Johannes Ohissen, To 1 pair linen pants. . 5 00 

Mr. Rodgers, To 1 blank book 1 00 

" To 1 pair scales.- 12 00 

Wadieigh, To 1 scrape 8 00 

" i ft tobacco 63 

Griswold & Co, 12 fts pork 18 00 

" ^ ft soap . . 75 

" 1ft bread 1 25 

Major Briggs, 10 di inks . 5 00 

" 1 box matches .... 50 

" 3 drinks 1 50 

" drinks 6 00 

" i bottle brandy 4 00 

" 1 bottle wine ... . 5 00 

I' i doz cigars. 2 25 

" provisions. . . . 2 00 

" 8 cigars ... . . , 1 00 

" 1 handkerchief _ 75 

" watermelon 4 00 

" 8 drinks 4 00 

" 1 doz cigars .... 1 50 

" i bottle brandy 4 00 

" pants 23 00 

Benj. Ogden, 1 box salt. 1 50 

" 1 butcher knife . 2 00 

•' 1 kettle.. 14 00 

" 1 ax and handle 10 00 

" 2 pipes . . . 50 

" 1 bottle pepper sauce 3 00 

" 1 stew pan _ 8 00 

J. C. Fruit, 1 ft saleratus 10 00 

James Foi-t, 1 tin pan 16 GO 



James Fort, 1 cup. 
1 plua 



tobacco 

" 1 purse . 

" 1ft nails . . 

1 bag 

" 1 pail ... 

" 1 bottle pickles 

A. B. Harding, 1 box cigars 

John Piper, 1 frying pan _ ..... 

G. Gautz, 1 ft potatoes . . 

F. A. Boughton, 1 ft cofl:ee. 

" 1ft crackers 

" 4 fts rice 

" 1 tin pan. 

1 bag ... 

" 1 shovel. .... 

" 1 pick 

" 1 box yeast powders 

" 1 paper tobacco. . . 

James Ewers, 1 magnet . 

Robert Johnson, 1 bottle porter. 

Thomas Gautz, 2 meals . 

" 2 sodas . . 

Mr. Hall, 3 boxes sardines . . . . . .... 

Feri'is & Co, 17* fts bacon 

Geo. Rogers, 2 apples 

A. B. Kellog, 1 paper pepper. 

Jas. A. Cunningham, 1 shirt . 

— Placer Herald, January S5, 



PRICES IN .\UBURN IN 1849. 

The following is a copy of a bill of goods pur- 
chased in Auburn by Mr. M. D. Fairchild, and pre- 
served by him as a memento of olden time: — 

Auburn, December 12, 1849. 
Mr. Fairchild bought of Wetzler & Co. 

12 ftsrice, @ 75 cts .. $ 9 00 

9 fts meal, (5) 75 cts . .... 6 75 

1 1 fts sugar, («; 80 cts. . . 8 80 

10 fts cherries (driedj. @ 80 cts. . 8 00 

10 fts peaches (dried), @ $1 00.. 10 00 

2 fts tea, @ Si 50 3 00 

77 fts pork, @ 80 cts ... 61 60 

85 fts beef (corned), (S) 50 cts 42 50 

10 fts raisins, @ 60 cts 6 00 

1 ft candles, (o) $2 00. .. 2 00 

150 fts flour, 60 cts . . . . 90 00 



2 


00 


1 


50 


2 


00 




75 


2 


00 


5 


00 


6 


00 


15 


00 


7 


00 


1 


00 




75 


1 


50 


2 


00 


16 


00 


1 


50 


8 


00 


12 


00 


3 


00 


1 


00 


12 


00 


5 


00 


3 


00 


1 


00 


9 


00 


41 


75 


3 


00 


1 


00 


4 


00 


1873. 



S247 65 
Paid, Wetzler k Co. 

The payment was in gold-dust at $16 per ounce, 
the usual currency of the time. This bill could be 
supplied at Auburn in 1881 at about S33.50. The 
purchase was made at quite a favorable time, as 
prices were much higher when the severity of the 
winter of 1849-50 developed itself, flooding Sacra- 
mento City and rendering the roads difticult to 
travel. 




A. /. Soule. 



P:Mir,HATI()N TO CALIFORNIA. 



81 



CHAPTER XVI 1. 

EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA. 

Preparations for Emigration — The Rfiute.s to California — The 
Pacific Mail Steamship Company — Arrivals at San Fran- 
ci"co in 1S49 — The Expectant Argonaut — On the Isthmu.s — 
A lesson in Maritime Law — Sailing to San Francisco — 
Crossing the Plains — An Overland Journal — Population at 
the Close of IS-lit — Domestic Habits of the Pioneers — The 
Miner's Cabin — Housekeeping anil Cooking — Thrifty Char- 
acters — Meanness and its Reward — First Duel in Placer — A 
Homicide. 

Thk exhibition of gold by Lieutenant Beale; the 
reports to the State Department by Thomas O. Lar- 
kin, and to the War Department by Colonel E. B. 
Mason, Military Governor, and Capt. .1. L. Folsom, 
were officially made public, and created a greater 
and more general excitement throughout the civil- 
ized world than ever before known. 

Letters and gold-dust from people in California 
soon came, telling of the wonderful richness of the 
mines and their extent, and advising friends to 
migrate to the new gold regions without delay. 
Such news and such appeals were irresistible. 
The newly-acquired Spanish territory upon the 
distant Pacific Coast, of which Dana had so 
pleasantly written in his "Two Years Before 
the Mast;" the great bay and rivers described in 
Wilkes' Exploring Expedition; the graphic records 
of Fremont's explorations, and the stories told by 
returned whalers had charmed the youth of the 
land with the enthusiasm of romance, and now that 
this land was filled with gold where all could help 
themselves without great capital or obedience to 
masters, showing a brighter opportunity for inde- 
pendence and success than the older countries 
oifered, fired the imagination and aroused the spirit 
of emigration in all. 

PHEPARATION FOR E.MIGRATION . 

Preparation for the flight began in all parts of the 
country. The fall of 1848 was well advanced when 
the facts of the discovery became generally known. 
The winter season was approaching and forbade an 
immediate movement, but gave opportunity for the 
excitement to spread and for preparations to be 
made. The period was opportune. The war with 
Mexico had just closed, and the volunteers were 
returning covered with the glory of their brilliant 
exploits, ready themselves, and inciting all the ener- 
getic and courageous young men of the country, for 
new adventure. Meager reports had been heard of 
the pleasant climate, the great rivers, the broad val- 
leys and the snowy mountains of distant California, 
and there was the attractive field for the young 
adventurers. Very little, however, was really known 
of the new country, and this faint knowledge gave 
enchantment to the distant land. 

THE ROUTES TO CALIFORNIA. 

Several routes afforded the way to the Pacific 
Coast: By sea around Cape Horn; by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama; across Mexico to one of the 



Pacific ports of that country, and by land the entire 
distance across the plains through New Mexico and 
Sonora; or following the route of Fremont through 
the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, and directly 
to the gold region in the Sierra Nevada. All the 
routes were taken by large numbers of emigrants. 
To the people of the East the sea was most conven- 
ient, and to those chosing that route it was not nec- 
essary to wait for spring. Every class of sailing 
craft available were at once put in readiness for the 
voyage, and, receiving their cargoes of living freight, 
were soon breasting the seas for the desired haven. 

THE PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY. 

Congress, as early as March, 1847, had proposed a 
mail route via the Isthmus of Panama, from New 
York to Astoria, with semi-monthly trips on the 
Altantie side, and monthly on the Pacific, with San 
Francisco as one of the way ports; but not until 
April, 1848, did a responsible party dare undertake 
the contract. Then the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
pany was formed, Messrs. Howland and Aspinwall 
being the principal capitalists, and the construction 
of three steamers was begun for the Pacific side, 
named the California, 0/'e(/o?tand the Fanaina. Their 
construction was commenced before the news of the 
gold discovery was known in the East, and their 
plans were drawn simply for mail and freight boats 
of the cheapest character. There was the slimmest 
possible chance for profit, even with the annual sub- 
sidy of $200,000 offered by Congress. 

Fortunately for the enterprise. Lieutenant Beale 
arrived with the news of the finding of gold, and, 
with a sailor's knowledge of shipping, urged upon 
Aspinwall the necessity of changing the plan of his 
steamers, as they would be needed for carrj-ing pas- 
sengers. Aspinwall was about the only one who had 
faith in Beale's report, and altered Lis steamers in 
accordance with the advice given. These steamers, 
each of about 1,000 tons burden, were soon com- 
pleted, and sailed on their voyage via the Straits of 
Magellan for San Francisco, the California arriving 
February 28th, the Oreijon, March 31st, and the Fan- 
aina, June 4, 1849. 

The establishment of this line diverted large num- 
bers to the Isthmus route, hojiing to get passage on 
the steamers, but so great was the rush that not 
half of the number could be accommodated. Vessels 
of all kinds that could be obtained at Panama were 
turned into passenger carriers, and with inadequate 
supplies and inadequate knowledge of the winds of 
the coast, mu(^h suffering and loss ensued. Thus the 
Isthmus route, which had seemed the easiest and 
quickest proved to manj', one of hardship, danger 
and delay. 

THE EXPECTANT ARGONAUT. 

California, in 1848, was supposed, b}- the ardent 
adventurers who were preparing to seek her shores, 
to bo unprovided with any of the needed imple- 
ments for prosecuting the work to be engaged in; 



82 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



to have no places at which clothing, boots, blankets, 
etc., could be obtained, and that the utmost to be 
expected there in the line of provisions was the 
beef they had learned was abundant. Nobody, 
therefore, must think of going into this wilderness 
without an expensive outfit embracing every conceiv- 
able article of utility and comfort. The seaport cities 
and the frontier posts, early in 1849, became the 
rendezvous where thousands of people congregated 
to fit out for the journey, and their assemblage at 
these places gave growth to many hitherto unknown 
industries. 

Ingenious mechanics invented all sorts of ma- 
chines for gold washing; the sail lofts were kept 
active in the manufacture of tents, hammocks, and 
canvas bags; provision dealers drove brisk trades in 
supplying the throng with stocks intended to last 
for many months; old hulks that had been rotting 
for years at their moorings were re-coppered, 
re-painted and provisioned and advertised as staunch, 
fast-sailing and A 1, and speedily filled up with 
passengers; old mules and broncho mules and horses 
of every grade, and cows and oxen, wagons and 
carts were crowded in the markets of the outfitting 
posts bordering the great plains. 

Buoyantly, hopefully, and without misgiving, in 
the early spring of 1849, did the multitude set forth 
from every frontier post and every seajiort of 
the country for California, as the argonauts, for 
Colchis, with Jason, in search of the golden fleece. 
Those who left the Eastern seaports in good vessels 
perhaps were the best off, and as a rule landed at 
San Francisco in the best circumstances, having 
their outfit with them in the hold of the ships. 
Those at that time who went to the Isthmus of Pan- 
ama unprovided with tickets upon some connecting 
steamer on the Pacific side (of which only two had 
reached that coast), were probably in a worse pre- 
dicament than all. The overland travelers, that 
year, had no lack of provision, having started with 
so much generally as to be burdensome. Flour, 
bacon, and other articles of food in many places 
along the different overland routes were piled up in 
cords, and hundreds of wagons were abandoned from 
sheer inability of the animals to draw them, while 
the road lay open and the vvay before them to the goal 
they were hastening to. They could travel onward, 
at least, and reach their place of destination even 
though they should arrive at the mines destitute. 
^Vith those upon the Isthmus, however, affairs were 
different. Those people were cooped up in a foreign 
country, where malaria to an alarming degree existed; 
they could neither get up the Pacific Coast without 
extraordinary intervention; nor back to the ports 
whence they had come, as the steamers landing pas- 
sengers there did not wish to break up their profita- 
ble business by taking those back, if any there were, 
who would turn the tide of travel into some other 
channel, and therefore upon landing their load at 
Ghagres would immediately steam over to Navy 



Bay and out of reach of any who might wish to 
return. 

ON THE ISTHMUS. 

The months of April, May and June. 1849, was a 
time when the Isthmus of Panama contained from 
4,000 to 8,000 American immigrants who wereinrol- 
untary residents. Cholera and other diseases inci- 
dent to a tropical climate attacked them, and as the 
majority were from the Northern States, made 
fearful havoc. Meantime all reports from Cali- 
fornia were of the most extravagant character, 
which fact kept the minds of those who had ven- 
tured upon the journey in the main steadfastly fixed 
in the determination to reach the land so promising. 
This state of affairs kept the rate of passage from 
Panama to San Francisco high, and fabulous sums 
were paid for steamer tickets. Masters of whale 
and other ships who happened to be in any of the 
Pacific ports, hearing of this extraordinary condi- 
tion, unloaded cargo, took on extra provisions when 
necessary, then crowded sail for Panama, and 
announced their readiness to cany passengers to 
San Francisco. Little coasting vessels from the 
South American ports, and in fact craft of all descrip- 
tions came into the port of Panama and were either 
speedily chartered or sold. 

Several journals kept by these early pioneers of 
California are lying before the writer, and as the 
most natural and truthful record of these eventful 
times an occasional extract from them is given below. 
The first is that of a member of the " Ganargwa 
Mining Company, of Newark, Wayne County, New 
York, for San Francisco, via Chagres and Panama," 
as stated upon a printed card used for marking their 
innumerable articles. This company numbered 
twelve — two of whom arrived at the " Dry Dig- 
gings," soon atter called Auburn, on the second day 
of August, 1849, and were bound by articles to each 
other as " stron ij as holy writ." Beginning their 
organization in December, 1848, and not sailing 
from New York until the following March, they had 
ample time to equip, not as the " law directed " quite, 
but as the inclination dictated. Some of the mem- 
bers had elaborate arms manufactured to order — 
bright steel tomahawks, heavy and with long taper- 
ing poles, that by a blow could be made to sink up 
to the eye in a block of wood; knives of enormous 
size formed in the most savage-looking "Bowie" 
st3'le from the blades of ancient scythes, with guns 
of antique pattern and Allen's " pepperboxes " — for 
were there not Indians and half civilized Mexicans 
who must be intimidated in the new land to which 
they were going? Red shirts, blue shirts, corduroy 
pants and stogy boots were necessary, for were they 
not all g<iing to the mines to dig for gold? And 
after the gold was dug how could it be used without 
first being coined? So this company ordered and 
had made, at a machine shop, a coining press with 
steel dies, with which to coin five and ten-dollar gold 
pieces. Besides these things they had other name- 



EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA. 



S3 



less cumbersome traps, of which no idea can be con- 
ceived- by one not " in- the same boat" upon that 
historic ocea»sion, and of which it would be useless 
to attempt any description. With these this com- 
pany sailed from New York on the steamer Crescent 
City, March 15, 1849, and the short extracts from 
the journal spoken of will give an idea of the trials 
of the trip at that time: 

March 24, 1849. — Landed at Chagres about noon 
and camped. Remained until the 26lh, when about 
dark took canoes manned by negroes — lour in each — 
and proceeded up the river (Chagres). Went six 
miles that night and bundled down uj)on the floor 
of a miserable negro shanty. « 

March 27th. — Started up the river early in the 
morning; stopped about three miles up and got 
breakfast. Started again in the afternoon and trav- 
eled about three miles further, where we pitched 
our tent among three or four negro huts, got supper 
and rolled in our blankets. 

March 28lh. — Struck our tent this morning and 
started up the river again; stopped for dinner after 
traveling five or six miles; alter which proceeded 
on our journey and traveled until dark, when we 
camped in a negro hut about fourteen miles from our 
camp of the previous night. Passed two American 
graves to-day. 

March 29lh. — Left the boat here and tramped 
four miles through a thick Ibrest to Gorgona, pre- 
ferring this mode ol locomotion to accompanying 
the natives, who go on with the goods and camp 
equipage. Arriving at Gorgona, find 200 or more 
American immigrants here bound for the El Dorado. 
Pitched our tent just back of the town on a rise of 
ground which had been occupied not long siuce by a 
corps of American engineers who were survej'ing a 
route I'or a railroad. 

Remained in camp at Gorgona until the 11th of 
April, when we packed our traps upon the backs of 
natives and started for Panama, arriving there at 
noon on the 12th. Did not camp out here, but hired 
a house to live in. While at Panama the company 
purchased a brigantine of thirty-two tons, called the 
JUdalina, and on the 30th of April all of the comjtany 
(except two membei's), together with twenty-five 
others taken as passengers, sailed for San Francisco. 

A LESSON IN MARITIME LAW. 

Now, as to the fate of the Edalina, which was 
a New Granadan vessel purchased at a cost of §1,500, 
and fitted up and provisioned at an additional ex- 
pense of $4,000. She took, besides captain, crew and 
owners, twenty-five passengers at the rate of $200 a 
head. The owners and captain were not posted in 
maritime law; passengers and all were Americans; 
why should she not hoist the American flag? She 
did, and cleared from Panama as an American vessel, 
and all went smooth enough, except that the little 
vessel was much ovei'crowded and had but little 
promenading way on her only deck, which was 
occupied by water casks, until to replenish these 
with a fresh supply of water, she sailed by a British 
sloop-of-war into the harbor of Eealejo, boldly flaunt- 
ing the stars and stripes. For this act the Nicara- 
guan authorities, aided by the British ship, seized 
and condemned her, and she was lost to her owners, 



while those who came on her were lelt to get into 
California as best they could. All, however, suc- 
ceeded in reaching San Francisco during that j'ear, 
each experiencing many vicissitudes. The journal 
says of the two members who did not sail in the 
Edalina:^ 

SAILING TO SAN FRANCISCO. 

Remained at Panama until the 9th of May, 1849, 
when we set sail for San Francisco in the American 
whale-ship Sylph captain, Francis Gardner, of 
Fairhaven. Our course for fourteen days was south- 
erly, when on the 23d we made the port of Tacamas 
in South America, fifty-five miles north ot the equator 
in the Republic of Ecuador. On the 24lh went 
ashore; found the town, or village, contained about 
150 or 200 inhabitants, who were descendants, 
mostly, of the Indians. Found also an English 
resident, who had married and raised quite 
a family; found likewise an American who 
had left a whaleship some seven years pre- 
viously and remained here. The houses are built of 
bamboo with thatched roofs, and are set upon posts 
nine or ten feet high. Soil sandy near the ocean, 
but back in the interior as far as we went, found it 
loamy and very rich, being rankly overgrown with 
the indigenous vegetation peculiar to the country, 
sugar cane, plantain, banana, oranges, lemons, cocoa- 
nuts, pine-apples, etc., etc, all of which grow spon- 
taneously without cultivation. The only article 
cukivated by the inhabitants, appears to be tobacco, 
of which they produce very fine crops. The inhabi- 
tants of this portion of South America, like those of 
the Isthmus of Darien are very indolent, caring for 
but little else than barely enough to supply the de- 
mands of nature; and that can be had at all times 
by merely gathering it. The proverbial unthrift and 
laziness of the people is illustrated by ibis incident: 
Seeing all over the country immediately adjoining 
the town, that the coftee-bush grew profusely, and 
was in full fruitage, thought that a cup of the bever- 
age might be obtained; but upon proceeding to the 
public places and inquiring for a drink, none could 
be had. Under many of the houses were mills for 
grinding sugar-cane, but there was not sugar enough 
in the whole town to sweeten a cup of tea. 

The ship Sylph finally left her anchorage at Taca- 
mas, and landed her passengers at San Francisco on 
the 26th of July, 1849, among whom were many of 
the future prominent citizens of California — one, 
John Conness, a United States Senator. 

CROSSING THE PLAINS. 

The route via the great plains and deserts which 
then stretched an unbroken wilderness from the 
Missouri to the Pacific, oft'ered itself as the most 
available to the people of the West, and the winter 
and early months of spring were passed in prepara- 
tions for the journey. The Mississippi and its 
branches opened a channel of commerce to the ex- 
treme verge of civilization on the western border of 
Missouri, and the frontier towns of that State were 
the rendezvous and starting points of the greater 
part of the emigration. Iowa, Arkansas and Texas 
also had their gathering places, and sent forth their 
trains. In the months of April, May and June — 
chiefly in May — the vast army set out in many col- 



&4 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



urans on its march to the westward, numbering from 
50,000 to 80,000 people. So generally was this 
great mass composed of men in the prime of early 
manhood, that the emigration was considered as 
composed of men only, but there were many women 
and children accompanying their husbands and 
fathers to the new country. 

Such a movement had never before been seen. 
An army of freemen, setting out on a journey of 
nearly 3,000 miles through a wilderness, without 
the protection of Government, and without organi- 
zation, severing themselves from all civilization, and 
threading the regions where roamed and skulked the 
most implacably savage men known in the history 
of the human race. Many organized in companies 
of varying numbers, from a few friends to several 
hundred, and elected captains, lieutenants and wagon- 
masters. The authority of the officers, however, was 
but little regarded. The usual conveyance was by 
wagon, drawn by oxen, mules or horses, but com- 
paratively few going with pack mules. The wagons 
were drawn bj- from three to five 3-oke of oxen, or 
four to eight mules, and three to eight men accom- 
panied each wagon. Nearly all bore arms. Revolvers 
were rare, the invention being recent, but rifles 
abundant. The wagons were heavily laden with 
baggage, mining implements, tents, blankets, cooking 
utensils and provisions, the latter being greatly com- 
posed of flour, bacon, beans, coffee, tea and sugar, 
the necessary condiments, and a few luxuries. Gen- 
erally they were over-laden, and much was thrown 
away during the journey. 

The great mass of the emigrants knew nothing of 
the country thej' were to traverse, nor of the necessi- 
ties or methods of conducting or maintaining them- 
selves and teams on such an expedition. Delaj^s, 
losses and suffering consequently attended such inex- 
periences, but nevertheless the passage was success- 
fully made, and many of those who crossed the plains 
n 1849, in after years referred to the journey with 
pleasure, rejoicing in its adventures, hardships, dan- 
gers and triumphs. 

The greater part of that emigration took the route 
oia the valley of the Platte River, the South Pass of 
the Rocky Mountains and the valley of the Humboldt, 
entering California by the Pit River route, or Las- 
sen's Cut-off, the valley of the Truckee and the Bear 
River Ridge, and a stream poured through the 
Carson Pass into the central mining region. Many 
thousands took the old Santa Fe Trail via the valley 
of the Arkansas to the Rio Grande, thence by the 
road followed by Colonel Cooke and the Mormon 
Battalion, through northern Sonora to the (rila 
River, crossing the Colorado into California, reach- 
ing the southern mining region of the Mariposa and 
Tuolumne Rivers several months later than those 
who followed the Northern route. 

AN OVERLAND .JOURNAL. 

Having given a sketch of travel by the Isthmus 
route from a diary of the time — which was the 



recorded experience of one, but the actual experience 
of many — a glance at the pages of another diary will 
show the dangers, the toil and the incidents encoun- 
tered in the "Travels of a Gold Digger en route to 
California," overland. This diary is by one of Placer's 
pioneer citizens, and the following extracts are the 
first ever published from it: — 

Wednesday, April 18, 1849. — Leave St. Joseph, 
Missouri, at 1 o'clock p. m., with one wagon, eight 
mules and one pony, with about 3,200 pounds of bag- 
gage; travel about five miles towards Fort Childs; 
camped, cooked supper and ate; about 9 o'clock 
retired and slept very comfortably, although it was 
very cold in the morning. 

April 19th. — Started about 1 o'clock p. m., and 
traveled over one and a half miles of rough and hilly 
roads, and stuck fast three times. The third time 
we unloaded part of our baggage, got our wagon out 
of the mud and encamped for the night. * * * 

May 15th. — This morning our mules' shoulders 
were very sore from the hard drawing yesterday. 
We started at half past 8 o'clock, and found the road 
much better and more level than yesterday, but there 
was no water except in small ponds here and there. 
About 11 o'clock several of us had a fine chase after 
a wolf, but did not catch it. In returning I found 
several sticks of wood, and as it is precious stuff, 1 
shouldered it and trailed it to the wagon, for fear we 
could not get to where there was any, and we would 
have to supper on a cold cheek. But fortune favored 
us; after traveling twenty-one miles we came to a 
beautiful place between two ravines, in which there 
were both wood and water. 

May Kith. — Started this morning at 8 o'clock. 
Three of our mules' shoulders were so sore that we 
had to take them out of the team, and put in the 
pony. The road was very good and the day cool, so 
we got along very well, although the mules suffered 
considerably for want of water, there being none for 
twenty-five miles. This was a day of considerable 
fun; the mules we took out of the team were not 
broken to ride, but as the whole country around was 
a level prairie, we thought we would ride them. 
Mounting one, I rode ahead of the train, and after 
going several miles, stopped to graze. When the 

train came up, E was limping along slowly; his 

mule had thrown him, and he could not be induced 

to mount again. Whereupon T , who had tired 

of walking, thought he would ride the mule I had 
ridden. So getting upon him, the mule started, and 
in about 200 yards the rider lay sprawling upon the 
ground. Then S took the mule E had rid- 
den, and got along with it very well for a while, 
when he was thrown oft". We came to the Platte 
River about 3 o'clock, having traveled about twenty- 
eight miles. There was a little disaffection in the 
company, which resulted in three different encamp- 
ments, some refusing to go to the ground picked out 
by the captain. * * * 

May 18th. — Traveled eighteen miles up the Platte. 
About four miles from our camping-place was Pawnee- 
town, an Indian village. Just before arriving there, 
we met a Pawnee Indian, with whom we had some 

sport. S talked Dutch to him. We then got 

him to shoot at a dime fixed at a stake, and he 
knocked down two in three shots with his arrow. 
We then went up to the village. On the way we 
saw the grave of a chief which was all encircled by 
dead horses' heads — sixtj'-nine in number. We found 
no one at the village, the people all having gone down 



EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA. 



to Council Bluffs. The town was regularly laid out, 
and oonsisted of about 120 houses built of mud, all 
round, with a lorig entrance, which was like that into 
a coal-bank. Four miles above the town we camped. 
At night it I'ained very hard, with thunder and 
lightning. I stood guard from 10 to 12, and it was so 
dark that 1 could not see a mule until I was jam 
against it. 

May 19th. — Road very muddy in places; sandy 
portion, however, is better. After traveling about 
six miles came upon a wounded Pawnee Indian, who 
had been shot with three bullets in the thigh. He 
told us he had been shot by the Sioux. We gave 
him something to eat and traveled on twenty miles. 
May 20th. — To-day we lay by. In the morning 
sixty Sioux Indians came down the river, and from 
what we could understand they were in pursuit of 
the Pawnees, the two tribes then being at war. 
They came to our camp, were very friendly, and 
wanted something to eat, when we gave them biscuit. 
They then crossed the river, and continued on their 
way. A short time after they had left, an old Sioux 
Indian came up the river and showed us a fresh 
Indian scalp, which we supposed was taken from the 
head of the wounded Pawnee we saw yesterday. 
Traded twelve biscuits for a buffalo robe. 

;\Iay 21st. — This morning we started at 6 o'clock, 
and traveled sixteen miles, the road being very miry 
in some places and very sandy in others, which made 
our mules very tired. Grazing better to-day than at 
anj' time since starting out; a great many deer, elk, 
antelope, and wolves were seen, but as it was all 
prairie land we could not get close enough to shoot 

any. In the evening B and S ■ fought, and 

there was great confusion in camp. A great 
many of the company think that we will never get 
the wagons through, and some were for abandoning 
them and packing the mules, or of leaving part of 
the wagons, and doubling the teams on the others. 

May 22d. — Traveled fifteen miles. To-day my feet 
got very sore, and about 2 o'clock 1 pulled off my 
boots and traveled the remainder of the da}' bare- 
footed, but the change did not help me. * * * 

May 2-lth. — Passed Fort Kearney yesterday, and 
camped about one mile above it. To-day there is a 
general ridding up; we all concluded that we had 
too much of a load, and go to work and take half of 
our wagon bed off, and unload every box and trunk, 
and throw away every unnecessary thing, besides 
other things we should have very much liked to keep. 

Captain A said he would resign, as the company 

were divided into half a dozen squads, and would 
unite upon nothing. At night it rained very hard, 
and the wind blew fearfully. A bucket standing 
outside of the tent had water in it to the depth of 

ten inches. F^ and I went down to the fort and 

traded a pair of pants, a trunk and two shirts for 
two large buffalo robes, which were very comfortable 
at night. 

May 25th. — To-day we hitched up eight mules, and, 
as usual, started by ourselves; passed about 100 
ox-teams, and camped on the river, after having tra- 
veled ten miles. There being no wood here, we 
cooked our supper with grass. This morning there 
had 2,200 teamspassed the fort. The Star Company 
this morning was all divided, and every team started 
when it pleased. * * * 

August 20th. — To-day we traveled about ten 
miles, and encamped in a valley at the base of a 
mountain about three-fourths of a mile east of 
Truekee (Donner) Lake; two miles brought us to 
the valley where Donner encamped; one mile more 



brought us opposite to where his cabins wei-e, their 
situation being about one and a half or two miles 
from tbe road, on the right-hand side. There were 
a number of fragments left, but more human bones 
than anything else. Six miles further and we came 
to where the Graves' family wintered. One mile 
more and we arrived at the cabins of Foster and 
Breen, where wo encamped. The road now leaves 
there to the right, but the old road ran just by them, 
leaving them on the left. Graves' and Foster's cab- 
ins are the only ones that are now standing, and 
they present a gloomy appearance. In Foster's 
there wei-e old clothes which had been worn- by 
females; and also long female hair which appeared 
as if it had fallen from the head, and any quantity 
of bones in and around the cabin. * * * 

August 23d. — To-day we traveled fifteen miles. 

The road is indescribable, but it was the d , 

roughest and rockiest road I ever saw. About three 
miles from our camp we had to take our mules from 
the wagon and let it down with ropes, and it was off 
of one rock and on to another alldaj', except a short 
distance after we started and a few places in the 
bottom of the river. We also ascended some very 
steep mountains. After traveling about nine miles 
in the morning, we left the head-waters of the Yuba 
River and crossed a mountain which was not as 
rough as I expected it might be, and the additional 
six miles has brought us to our present encampment, 
a valley on Bear River, where the grass is very 
good. In crossing from the Yuba to Bear River 
there are a few oak bushes, and on the divide are two 
small lakes. During the day we passed another 
cabin where some of the suft'ering Donner party got to. 

August 2J:th. — To-day we traveled seven miles. 
Five miles from our last camp brought us to a large 
valley on the main branch of Bear River. In 
descending to the valley there is a very steep hill, 
where we let the wagon down with ropes for about 
three-fourths of a mile; the trees were worn very 
much where the rope ran around; two miles more 
brought us to the lower end of the valley, where 
we encamped and mowed grass. * * * 

August 26th. — To-day we traveled fourteen miles, 
eleven of which bi'ought us to another branch of 
Bear River, where there were some of the gold- 
diggers operating, but not with much success. The 
road from our last camp to the branch ran along a 
ridge, and was very hilly, as there were a great 
many gaps in it. The descent to the branch was so 
steep and long that we had to cut down trees and 
tic them to the wagons. * * * 

Having thus seen some of the pioneers of the 
State safely landed, and in the present boundary of 
Placer County, too, via the great plains, the reader 
can form some idea from reading the above extracts 
of the trials and difficulties encountered in reaching 
the land of promise over that route. All that is now 
lacking to illustrate the phases of the three principal 
ways of reaching California in the year IStt), are 
extracts from a passenger's journal upon one of the 
old vessels which came around Cape Horn, and 
which would read something after this style : 

" , 1849. — Left Boston in the bark Bisimj Sun, 

for California, as one of the members of the Piymonth 
Rock Mining and Trading Company. Crossed the 
equator the — th; landed at Rio Janeiro the — th, and 
remained in port two weeks. Left Kio Janeiro the 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



S4 

a bled Cape Horn the — th, with cold, 

iirans on its i\ther, during which the vessel lost spars 

50,000 to ' th, buried at sea. Lati- 

great m^ south, longitude — ° west, becalmed ten 

manhc th, arrived at Valparaiso, and sail 

ooiiviin on the — th. Arrive at San Francisco 

ar-th." And the story of the arrival of the argo- 
nauts is told. 

Gray hairs begin now to creep in among the 
dark ones of those who were youngest then; and 
bald polls are now seen where then hung luxuriant 
locks, while thousands of those brave hearts have 
ceased to pulsate. Soon they will all be gone. Here 
upon the Pacific Coast have they established an 
empire, whose products have revolutionized the com- 
merce of the civilized world. In a personal sense 
not all of them have realized those bright anticipa- 
tions which were the ideal of youthful aspirations; 
but the fact that they aided in breaking down the 
brush, and in marking out the trails which have 
since been followed by great commercial highways 
of steel banding together the Orient and the Occi- 
dent, should commend them to the respect of man- 
kind, and the recollections of their deeds should 
ever cause their memory to remain green wherever 
civilization has erected its standard and enterprise 
is acknowledged. 

ARRIVALS IN lS4i}. 

The flood of immigration which had set toward 
the Bay of San Francisco soon after the announce- 
ment of the M'onderful discovery and development 
of the gold placers, did not reach the land until the 
spring of 1849. On the 28th of February of that 
year the steamship Californiu arrived, the first of 
that line so intimately connected with the history 
of California. The arrival was hailed with welcom- 
ing cheers, as establishing a new era in California 
commerce. She was the first great steamer entering 
the hai'bor of San Francisco, or ever upon the coast, 
and seemed a connecting, living link between the 
people of the Pacific, and their distant kindred on 
the Atlantic Coast. The steamer had left New 
York when little was known of the gold dis- 
covery, and preparations had not been made for so 
extraordinary a state of affairs as was found to exist 
on arrival, and she was left destitute of a crew in 
the harbor of San Francisco. March 31st the Oregon, 
the second steamer of the line arrived, and from 
that date regular trips were made. In June the 
Fanama came and the line was established, each 
vessel bringing from 1,000 to 1,500 passengers each 
trip. 

A few thousand people had arrived previous to 
March, 1849, in whalers and small vessels from the 
" Pacific Islands and the coast, and even at that date 
the harbor presented a lively appearance from the 
unusual number of vessels at anchor, a slight indica- 
tion of the great fleet that was soon to appear. 
Between March and December, 1849, 549 vessels 
arrived in Sun Francisco bringing 35,000 passengers. 



and 3,000 sailors who deserted their ships either 
permanently or temporarily, some by agreement 
going with the otlicers to the mines, and afterwards 
returning to their duties on the vessel. The un- 
manned and deserted ships swung idly to their 
anchors in the harbor; some ascended the rivers to 
Benicia, Stockton and Sacramento, and several square 
rigged vessels marked the sites of " cities " at " heads 
of navigation," at Yernon, Nicolaus, Eliza, near 
Marysville and other points on Feather, and other 
rivers, landings and estuaries about the Bay of San 
Francisco. Of the 40,000 or more arrivals by sea 
during the year, less than 1,000 were females. The 
great majority were Americans direct from the 
Atlantic States by way of Cape Horn or by Panama, 
and nearly all rushing to the mines, there met the 
tide jjouring over the Sierra Nevada from the toilsome 
overland journey from the Missouri liiver. The mines 
were then the objective point, all seeking them to 
try their luck. Many homesick and unnerved by 
the adventure, the toil, privations, and hardships, 
their separation from friends, their loneliness and 
strange surroundings, succumbed to death almost 
without disease, or hastily returned to their former 
homes; the sharp tradesman and thespeculatorsought 
the large cities, and tho.-ie who loved the freedom of 
the country, the self-reliant manhood to labor in the 
free and rich estate of his own possession, where he 
could " lay claim " to undisputed lands, untrammeleJ 
by the conventionalities of aisthetic civilization, sur- 
rounded by the grand scenery of deep canons 
watered by the clear, cold and sparkling mountain 
stream and clad in forests of towering pines or 
shaded by the broad spreading oak, remained to toil, 
to enjoy their bright hopes, perhaps to realize their 
bright dreams, and many yet remain in the country 
and the county where first they dug for the shining 
gold, honored and self-reliant in their age as when 
in youth as argonauts they sought the western 
shore. 

POPULATION AT THE CLOSE OF 1849. 

There were many estimates of the number of peo- 
ple crossing the plains in 1849, some placing the 
number as high as 100,000, but later investigations 
greatly reduced the estimate. Many returned to the 
Fast by steamer before the close of the year, some 
with small fortunes acquired in the mines or by 
speculation, others disheartened and homesick, and 
death claimed its portion. 

At the commencement of the j^ear the population 
was stated as follows: Native Californians, 13,000; 
Americans, 8,000; Foreigners, 5,000; total 26,000. 
At the close of the year it was, Native, 13,000; Ameri- 
cans, 76,000; Foreigners, 18,000, showing an increase 
of 08,000 Americans, and 13,000 foreigners, a total 
of 81,000 increase, and a total population of 107,000. 
This large increase of which so large a majority was 
Americans, redeemed California from a wilderness 
and made it a State of the Union. This immigra- 
tion siiread itself over the mines and built cities in 



EMIGRATION TO CALIFORNIA. 



the valleys; made a constitution guaranteeing free- 
dom, with laws of justice and equality, and impressed 
a character upon it which will never be obliterated. 

DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE PIONEERS. 

For the satisfaction of curious women who wi.sh 
to know how their fathers and brothers managed 
housekeeping, and for men who never tried pioneer 
life, and have no prospect or necessity of trying it, 
this is written. Many exaggerated stories are in 
circulation concerning the habits and characters of 
our early settlers. Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, and 
a score of other writers, have taken some odd sample 
of humanity, added some impossible qualities, and 
set him up to be laughed at, or perhaps admired; 
when the fact is, the caricature is about as near the 
original as the Indian maiden of romance is to the 
filthy squaw of reality. The '-lOer is represented as 
having pounds of dust loose in his pockets, which he 
passed out by the handful for whisky or whatever 
struck his fancy; as carrying an arsenal of knives 
and revolvers which he was wont to use on the 
slightest provocation — " rough but generous, brave, 
and kind." ^\^hile it is true that an ideal '49er occa- 
sion all j^ made an ap])earance in those days— for it 
is almost impossible to draw a monster, physical, 
moral, or intellectual, that has not some familiar 
features — the fact is. that the mass of the people had 
no resemblance to the ideals of Bret Harte or Joaquin 
Miller. They were sober, industrious, and energetic 
men, who toiled as men with ambition and strength 
can toil. The labor these men performed in dam- 
ming and turning rivers, or tunneling mountains, 
was not the spurt of enthusiasm born of whisky. 
Many of the men had families at home whose letters 
were looked for with the most eager interest. The 
younger men, who had not families, had ties perhaps 
equally as strong. The exceptions, which have 
given such a false character to the '49er, were un- 
principled adventurers from every State and nation, 
gamblers in bad repute, even among their own kind, 
frontiersmen who acknowledged no law, and fugi- 
tives from justice everywhere. This was the class 
that made a vigilance committee necessary in San 
Francisco in 1850 and 1856; which occasionally 
aroused the wrath of the mass of miners by robbing 
or killing a peaceable citizen. The description of 
this class is not the object of this chapter; they have 
already, in the hundred books which have been 
written of them, had more notice than they deserved. 
The substantial, honorable, and industrious must 
now claim our attention. 

THE miners' CABIN. 

When the lucky prospecter had found a paying 
claim, the next thing was to set up his household. 
From two to four was the usual number of the mess. 
The summers were long and dry, and there was no 
discomfort in sleeping out of doors. But even in 
summer a house, though humble it might be, had 
many advantages over a tent for comfort and secu- 



rity. A stray horse or ox would sometimes get into 
the flour-sack or bread sack, upset the sugar, or 
make a mess of the table-ware. Wandering Indians 
would pilfer small things, or take away clothing 
which might be left within reach; but in a cabin 
things were tolerably secure from depredation. A 
site for a cabin was selected where wood and water 
were abundant. These things, as well as the pres- 
ence of gold, often determined the location of a 
future town. Bottle Spring, Double Springs, Mud 
Springs, Diamond Springs, Cold Springs, and Soldier 
Springs, at once suggest their origin, as places of 
encampment, as Ophir, Secret Ravine and Dry Dig- 
gings did jjlaces of gold. In the earlier days, log- 
cabins were soon put up, for suitable logs were found 
everywhere. Though these cabins are in the dust — 
passed into history — there is no need of describing 
them, as the books are full of the " settlers' log- 
cabin," and no boy of the present generation, who 
has arrived at the age of ten, would need instruc- 
tion in building one. 

In the western settlements a floor made of hewn 
timbers (puncheons) was usual, but the ground 
served for a floor, and was considered good enough 
for a man. The sleeping jjlaces were as various as 
the minds of men. Sometimes a kind of dais, or 
elevation of two or three feet, was made on one side 
of the cabin, where the men, wrapped in their blank- 
ets, slept with their feet to the fire. Generally 
hunks were made by putting a second log in the 
cabin at a proper elevation and distance from the 
sides, and nailing potato or gunny sacks across from 
one to the other, making in the same way a second 
tier of bunks, if necessary. Some fern leaves or 
coarse hay on these sacks, with blankets, made a 
comfortable bod. A good fire-place was necessary. 
Most of the mining was in water, necessarily involv- 
ing wet clothes. A rousing fire, especially in winter, 
was necessary to " get dried out." Some of these 
fire-places would be six feet across, and built of 
granite or slate rocks, as each abounded. There was 
not much hewing done to make them fit. When the 
structure had been carried up four or five feet, an 
oak log was laid across as a mantel-piece, and on 
this the chimney, generally made of sticks or small 
poles plastered with mud, was built. A couple of 
rocks served for rests for the backlog and fores/ick. 
A shelf or two of shakes, or sometimes an open box 
in which pickles or candles had come around the 
Horn, would serve for a cupboard to keep a few tin 
plates, and cups, and two or three cans containing 
salt, pepper, and soda. A table of moderate size was 
also made of shakes, sometimes movable, but oftener 
nailed fast to the side of the house. Those who 
crossed the plains would often take the tail-gate of 
the wagon for this purpose. A frving-pan, coff'ee- 
pot, Dutch-oven, and water-bucket completed the 
list of household utensils. As the miners became 
prosperous, a soup-kettle for boiling potatoes, and 
also for heating water to wa^h their clothes on a 



88 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Sunday, was added. Somewhere in a cornel" was a 
roll of paper, with pen and ink, with which to cor- 
respond with the folks at home. 

HOUSEKEEPING AND C()OKIN(i. 

Cooking was sometimes done turn about for a 
week, and sometimes seemed to fall to the lot of the 
best-natured one of the crowd, the others bringing 
wood and water by way of offset. Not much attempt 
was made at neatness, and oftentimes one had to 
console himself with eating only his own dirt, for 
there were camps where the dishes were not washed 
for months. Sometimes a little hot coffee turned on 
a plate would take off the last-formed dirt; but 
washing dishes — the everlasting bane of woman's 
housekeeping — was, if possible, more repugnant to 
man, an was frequently omitted; it made the gold- 
pan greasy (the miners prospecting- pan served for 
washing dishes as well as gold, also as a bread-pan, 
and wash-tub on Sunday); there was no time to stop 
after breakfast, and thoy worked so late that they 
could not delay supper for the dishes to be washed, 
and so they were left from day to day. The cooking 
was a simple matter, boiling potatoes, making coffee, 
frying slap-jacks and meat being the usual i-outine. 
Bread? — yes, I am going to tellj-ou about that. All 
sorts of bread but good bread were made at first. 
The miners knew that their wives and mothers put 
in soda, so they put in soda. Some of them brought 
dried yeast across the plains, and imdertookto make 
raised bread, but as a general thing miners' bread 
was but sorry, sad stuff. The most successful plan 
was to keep a can of sour batter (flour and water 
mixed), with which to mix the bread, neutralizing 
the excess of acid with soda. Some of the miner.-; 
became quite expert with this, judging to a nicetj- 
the exact amount of soda required. Dough mixed 
in this way and set in the sun would soon raise, 
and, if the soda was rightly proportioned, was 
))alatable and wholesome. The sour batter was 
splendid for ship-jacks. The old story that a Cali- 
fornia miner could toss his slap-jack up a chimney, 
run out doors and catch it as it came down, right 
side u]), is too old to be repeated; but it is a fact 
that they would turn the slap-jacks with a dexterous 
flip-flap of the frying-pan, though when the batter 
was made stiff" enough to stand this kind of usage 
the cake would answer for half-soling a boot. The 
better way was to have two frying-pans, and turn 
the cakes by gently upsetting the contents of one 
into the other. Thirty years' experience and observ- 
ation suggest no improvement on this method. 

Practice made many of the miners expert cooks. 
New methods of cooking wore sought out, and new 
dishes invented. Think of using a dry-goods box 
for an oven, and baking a pig, or shoulder of mutton 
ill it! No trick at all. Drive down a stake or two, 
iiiid on them make a small scaft'old, on which to 
]ilacc your roast; now build a very small fire of 
hard wood, at such a distance away that a moderate 



sized dry-goods box will cover it all, and your 
arrangements are complete. The fire will need 
replenishing once or twice, and in two or three hours, 
according to the size of the roast, you may take it 
out, done in a rich gold color, with a flavor unat- 
tainable by any other method. Steaks were roasted 
before a fire, or smothered, when sufficiently fried 
by the ordinary process, in a stiff batter, and the 
whole baked like a batch of biscuit, making a kind 
of meat pie. Game sometimes entered into the 
miner's bill of fare. Quails, rabbits, hares, coons, 
squirrels, and hawks, were all converted into food) 
as well as deer and bear. 

THRIFTY CHARACTERS. 

Among the heterogeneous elements who thronged 
the golden regions, there were odd characters among 
the men ; and incidents comic and otherwise were con- 
stantly occurring. Tools of various kinds were 
very scarce, at Murderer's and Buckner's Bars in 
1849, but the Vermont Company, comprising many 
mechanics, was the best supplied, and the thrifty 
habits acquired in the State whence they came fol- 
lowed them into the land of gold — more so in small 
details than in the lai-ger transactions of the period. 
Thus they would rent to a neighbor on the bar a 
two-inch auger, or a cross-cut saw, for the paltry 
sum of onlj' $2.00 a day; and other tools proportion- 
ately. Following their example, a Campbellite 
preacher named Parker, from Missouri, rented out a 
sledge hammer for $L00 a daj', and, having a dimin- 
utive-sized grindstone, would only charge a half- 
dollar for its use in shaping any kind of a tool; and as 
Sunday was the time which many set apart to do their 
tool shar|)ening, and the old gentleman would give 
the miners a preach in the forenoon, one of his sons 
— of whom there weretwo^and a son-in-law named 
Green, then young men, would stay by the grindstone 
and collect tolls. Many people were irreverent 
enough to think that the old man had in his time 
been " up to snuftV for, as he would occasionally 
])ass by the tent, where betting at monte was pretty 
lively, while pretending to not know the cards, 
would watch them as the dealer turned them up and 
involuntarilj' utter a suppressed "oh! ah!" from 
time to time till the deal was out. By his thrift he 
got very well off that fall and went back to Missouri. 

MEANNESS AND ITS REWARD. 

A c(>m])aiiy of eleven men located upon the river, 
and according to rule each one took turn-about at 
cooking a week, the usual diet being bacon, beans 
and slap-jacks or bread. Some of these men turned 
out to be the champion mean ones of the region; for, 
when it came to the week of one of their number 
for cooking, he thought he would vaiy the bill of 
faro and have something good. By way of aston- 
i.shing his companions, he laid low, and at sup])er 
time brought on to the table biscuit sweetbnod with 
molasses. A gi'owl was started at the extravagance 
of the cook; some of the party would not eat at all. 



ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT. 



89 



and the upshot of the affair was that it culminated 
in the collapse of the company, nine out of the 
eleven leaving, and abandoning the claims they were 
working, which naturally fell into the possession of 
the two men who remained — a Mr. Stacy, from Mac- 
edon, Wayne County, New York, and the cook who 
had unwittingly caused the trouble. This ground, 
thus abandoned, was worth tens of thousands of dol- 
lars, as was afterwards proven. Mr. Stacy left it in 
the fall of 1851, after having made with a rocker 
■ST, 000, and it was then comparatively untouched. 

FIRST DUEL IN PLACER. 

It was here, during the same summer of 1850, that 
the first duel was fought in Placer County, Colonel 
Potter, who was subsequently a clerk in the Califor- 
nia Legislature during several sessions, and an Eng- 
lish sailor named George Melville, a well-bred and 
companionable man, got into a dispute relative to 
mining operations, and a challenge passed. This 
was on Saturday evening upon Murderer's Bar. 
Early on Sunday morning the combatants, with sec- 
onds, and perhaps twenty friends of each party, 
crossed the river and took position at twenty paces 
apart on the mining ground just back of Buckner's 
Bar. The weapons were pistols. One shot was 
fired, and neither of the men were hit. Potter, see- 
ing that his opponent was unhurt, threw down his 
weapon, and cried out " Load again;" but seconds 
and friends intervened, explanations were given and 
apologies made, when the two men shook hands, 
recrossed the stream, and passed the remainder of 
the day in conviviality. 

A HOMICIDE. 

About this time a homicide occurred — the only one 
that summer in that immediate locality — arising from 
the disputed ownership to a mining claim. A man, 
designated Black Walker (which appellation he bore 
to distinguish him from three other residents of the 
same surname, and who were called respectively Ken- 
tuck Walker, Long Walker, and Scotch Walker), 
kept a few articles on sale in a tent upon Murderer's 
Bar, and a " claim" had fallen to him in the way of 
trade which would be drained by the flume. The 
Saturday upon which the water was turned into the 
flume, Walker went upon the ground and found that 
it was claimed by two young men named Beck and 
Rice, who were there ahead of him. A few harsh 
words followed, when Beck, who was an athletic 
young lawyer from the State of Kentucky, pushed 
Walker into a pool of water, from which he scram- 
bled, remarking as he did so that he was no match 
for them in a contest of that kind, but would soon be 
back prepared for " business," and, in the meantime, 
the)^ could "fix" themselves. 

Going to his tent he soon emerged therefrom 
with a double-barreled shot-gun, and hallooed to the 
men who were thickly interspersed over the ground, 
to " look out!" Beck, in the interim, had obtained 
a Colt's navy revolver, and, seeing Walker approach 



in a hostile attitude, drew it and calmly waited the 
coming of his foe. When at close range, both fired 
simultaneously. Beck falling. He immediately 
jumped up, however, and endeavored to fire again, 
but could not raise his arm. Rice, seeing that his 
partner was struck, immediately went to him, when 
Beck said, " 1 can't shoot, you use the pistol," and 
fell upon his back a dead man. He had been struck 
by a dozen buckshot. Rice's impulse was to use 
the pistol; but the determined aspect and words of 
Walker, backed by the formidable shotgun, deterred 
him. The act was witnessed by several hundred 
men, and might have been prevented. 

Beck was quite a favorite with the populace, and 
a fine agreeable young fellow. As soon as they real- 
ized the extent of the transaction and beheld the 
body of one of their number lying prostrate in death, 
cut off at the dawn of manhood, many men became 
excited, and the cry of " hang him! hang him!" rang 
from one to another of the fast gathering multitude. 

Walker bravely stood his ground, and, informing 
the crowd that he did not intend to attempt an 
escape, by his bearing soon found advocates, who 
began the counter cries of " give him a chance!" 
" let him have a fair trial!" etc., until the excitement 
somewhat abated. Though the homicide was com- 
mitted outside of the jurisdiction of El Dorado 
County, it was much more convenient to go to 
Coloma than to Nicolaus, and thither went Rico 
for an officer, who subsequently came and took 
Walker away. Nothing was done to him by way of 
punishment, however, but he thought best to dispose 
of his few goods on the bar as soon as possible, 
which he did, and left. 



CHAPTER X V 1 11 . 
ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT. 

The Government Before the Conquest — Colonial Ooveruors of 
California — The Government Ad Interim — The Military 
Governors of California — Calling a Constitutional Conven- 
tion — Meeting of the Convention — Delegates from .Sacra- 
mento District — First State Election — Organization of Coun- 
ties — .Sutter County — .Story of a Navigable Streiim — Elec- 
tion of County Officers — The First Se.'ssion of Court — The 
Court House at Oro — Election for Countj' .Seat — Story by 
Judge Keyser — Permanent Homes Appear — The (Jovern- 
mental Organization. 

The population of California in the fall of 1849 
was believed to considerably exceed 100,000, mostly 
composed of the arrivals during the year, and a still 
larger immigration was expected the succeeding 
year. This placed the countrj- above the rank of 
a Territory, as then established by the relative sys- 
tem of Congressional representation, and entitled it 
to the full dignity of Statehood. With such a popu- 
lation, far removed from the central power, the organ- 
ization of a Government was a duty and a necessity. 

Following the conquest the country had been 
under a Military Government, with such laws as 



90 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



could be adopted from the Spanish Codes and Amer- 
ican customs in vogue among the people. With 
the new immigration local governmental organiza- 
tions were effected, laws made and courts held. Jus- 
tice, rather than technicalities, formed the basis of 
their jurisprudence, and by prompt execution of 
sentences, whether by formal courts, courts impro- 
vised for the occasion, or general expression of the 
people present, order was maintained and the rights 
of individuals observed. 

THE GOVERNMENT BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 

Law may be said to have been introduced into 
Alta California in 1769, when the Franciscan Padres, 
under the leadership of Father Junipero Serra, 
founded the Mission of San Diego. The Padres had 
full control of the Mission settlements, and admin- 
istered justice in the manner best calculated to 
further the interests of their religion and govern- 
ment. Later, when pueblos were established, justice 
was administered by an Alcalde, whose authority 
and that of the other civil officers gradually 
encroached upon the jurisdiction of the Padres, 
until tinall)', when the Missions were secularized, the 
civil power obtained supreme control, its authority 
extending along the whole coast, and as far inland 
as the military arm had strength to carry it. 

Under the Mexican laws of 1837 the courts of 
Alta California were established under the following 
form: The highest court, having an appellate juris- 
diction and corresponding in character to our 
Supreme Court, consisted of four Judges and an 
Attorney-General, and was divided into first and 
second benches, the three senior Judges composing 
the first, and the junior the second. The first bench 
was called the Court of the Third Instance, and its 
decisions were final. Appeals lay to this court from 
the second bench, or Court of Second Instance. The 
latter court had first jurisdiction ©f appeals from 
the Court of the First Instance, the highest local 
court then existing, and having somewhat the 
powers of our Superior Court. It became customary 
for the First Alcalde to exercise the duties of Judge 
of the Court of the First Instance. The lesser mag- 
istrates consisted of the Alcaldes and Justices of 
the Peace, whose duties very closely corresponded 
to those of our justices. 

California was denominated a Department and 
divided into districts and partidos. There was a 
Governor appointed by the President of Mexico, who 
also was commander of the military forces, a Secre- 
tary, Departmental, or Territorial Legislature, a 
Fiscal Prefect, and Sub-Prefects to execute the laws, 
and for town governments an Alcalde, who was 
Mayor and Magistrate, and Ayuntamientos, or Town 
Councils. The Legislature, or Departmental Assem- 
bly, consisted of seven members and held their 
sessions at Monterej^, the Capital. The next highest 
political officers to Governor were the Prefects, the 
jurisdiction of each, respectively, was a district. 



The Sub-Prefects had jurisdiction over partidos. The 
Department of California was divided into three 
districts, the third comprising the Sacramento 
Valley, or entire northern part of the Department. 
Capt. John A. Sutter was appointed Alcalde and 
Commandant of the district by Governor Michelto- 
rena. The Mexican Congress had decreed, in 1843, 
that there should be no Courts of Second and Third 
Instance in California, and the Governor was ordered 
:'to take care that justice is punctually and com- 
pletely administered in First Instance, by Judges of 
that grade, if there be such, or by Alcaldes or Jus- 
tices of the Peace." This arbitrary order compli- 
cated matters very much, when, under American 
rule, the acts of Alcaldes, acting as Judges, came 
under the review of the United States Courts. 

COLONIAL GOVERNORS OP CALIFORNIA. 

L'pon the first colonization of California by the 
Franciscan Fathers, under Junipero Serra, in 1767, 
Spain ruled in Mexico, being represented by a 
Viceroy, and through him appointed the Governors. 
The first Governor of Alta California was Gasper 
de Portala, appointed in 1767 and held office until 
1771. 

Felipe Barri, from 1771 to December, 1774. 

Felipe de Neve, from December, 1774, to Septem- 
ber, 1782. 

Pedro Pages, from September, 1782, to September 
1790. 

Jose Antonio Eomen, from September, 1790, to 
April, 1792. 

Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, from April, 1792, to 
May, 1794. 

Diego de Borica, from May, 1794, to 1800. 

Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, from 1800 to 1814. 

Jose Arguello, from 1814 to 1815. 

Pablo Vincente de Sola, from 1815 to November. 
1822. 

The Mexican Revolution in 1822 severed the coun- 
try from Spain, and after that date the Governors 
of California held their office by Mexican appoint- 
ment. 

Pablo Vincente de Sola continued in office until 
1823. 

Luis Arguello, from 1823 to June, 1825. 

Jose Maria Echeandia, from June, 1825, to Janu- 
ary, 1831. 

Manuel Victoria, from January, 1831, to January, 
1832. 

Pio Pico, from January, 1832, to January, 1833. 

Jose Figueroa, from January, 1833, to August, 
1835. 

Jose Castro, from August, 1835, to January, 1836. 

Nicolas Gutierrez, from January-, 1836, to May, 
1836. 

Mariano Chico, 1836. 

Nicolas Gutierrez, 1836. 

Juan B. Alvarado, from 1836 to December, 1842. 



ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT. 



91 



Manuel Micheltoi'ena, from December, 1842, to 
February, 1845. 

Pio Pico, from 1845 to the conquest in 1846. 

THE GOVERNMENT AD INTERIM. 

The Military Governors after the American con- 
quest endeavored to establish courts under the Mex- 
ican system, and they answered the temporary 
purpose, where good sense and honest intent 
rather than the technicalities of legal forms or the 
inapplicable doctrine of stare decisis governed the 
officers, judge or jury. 

The first Magistrate, as has been stated, of t*^® 
Sacramento District, was Captain Sutter. After the 
conquest John Sinclair was appointed Alcalde, and 
held the office until the fall of 1848, when Franklin 
Bates was elected First Alcalde and John S. Fowler 
Second Alcalde. Their jurisdiction extenled from 
the Cosumnes River to the northern extreme of the 
State, including the valley of the Sacramento and 
the mountains sloping to it. The code of laws they 
were acting under, or by what form or authority, 
they hardly knew, but mixed the Spanish and Amer- 
ican as they deemed fit; certainly there was a form 
of law, and it was generally respected as such. The 
district was populated almost exclusively by Ameri- 
cans, who are too strongly attached to law and order, 
to continue long under an indefinite sj^stem. To 
supply a partial remedy, a Board of (Commissioners 
was selected early in the spring of 1849, at Sutter's 
Fort, to frame a code of laws lor the district. This 
was the first step to American government in the 
Sacramento Valley. The following-named gentle- 
men were chosen : Samuel Brannan, Jacob R. Snyder, 

Slater, Samuel J. Hensley, James King. W. B. 

Cheever, M. M. Carver, John McDougal, Barton Lee, 
A. P. Petit, Dr. Carpenter, J. B. Southard and John 
S. Fowler. This commisssion met under a largo oak 
tree on the bank of the Sacramento River, where 
now terminates I Street, Sacramento City, and pre- 
sented their plan and form of government. This 
provided for the election of one Alcalde and a Sheriff, 
to have jurisdiction throughout the district, embrac- 
ing an area of about 36,000 square miles.. The elec- 
tion was held, and Henry A. Schoolcraft was elected 
Alcalde and A. M. Turner, Sheriff — this constituting 
the first American judiciary in northern California, 
continuing in authority until the fall of 1849. 

THE MILITARY OOVERNORS OF CALIFORNIA. 

The organization of a government for California 
had been a theme of animated discussion during the 
session of Congress of 1848-9, but no Territorial bill 
was passed, and it was left under military authority, 
the commanding officer being ex officio Governor, 
the first being Com. John D. Sloat, who hoisted 
the flag at Monterey, July 7, 1846. Commodore 
Stockton, who had succeeded Commodore Sloat in 
July, issued his proclamation as Governor at Los An- 
geles, August 17, 1846. When the conquest was con- 



sidered as complete, in January, 1847, he appointed 
John C. Fremont Military Governor of the country. 
After the aiu-ival of General Stephen Kearny, a 
dispute arose between him and Stockton as to 
the right to command, but on the 1st of March, 
1847, General Kearny assumed command and with 
it the Governorship. He, leaving soon after, ap- 
pointed Col. Richard B. Mason to the position on the 
Slst of May, and he held the office until the arrival 
of Gen. Pensifer F. Smith, February 28, 1849. Smith 
was succeeded on the 13th of April following by Gen. 
Bennett Riley. 

CALLING A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

June 3, 1849, General Riley, as Governor of fJaii- 
fornia, issued a proclamation " recommending the 
formation of a State or Territorial government." 
The first day of August was set for the election of 
delegates to the proposed Convention, and for filling 
any vacancies existing in the offices. One Judge for 
the Superior Court was to be voted for in the Dis- 
tricts of Sonoma, Sacramento and San Joaquin, and 
the persons chosen, if qualified, were to be appointed 
by the Governor, the office, by law, being filled by 
gubernatorial appointment. The District of Sacra- 
mento included that part of the State east of the 
Sacramento River and north of the Cosumnes. To 
this district four delegates were attached, but Gov- 
ernor Riley, in his proclamation, had given permis- 
sion for any district to elect supernumeraries, if it 
thought itself entitled to more representatives, and 
left the question of admitting these gentlemen to the 
decision of the Convention. The delegates chosen 
from this district were John A. Sutter, Jacob R. 
Snyder, VVinfield Scott Sherwood, and W. E. Shan- 
non, and as supernumeraries, John. S. Fowler, L. \V. 
Hastings, John McDougal, E. O. Crosby, M. M. Mc- 
Carver, John Bidwell, W. Blackburn, James Queen, 
R. M. Jones, W. Lacy and C. E. Picket. 

MEETING OF THE CONVENTION. 

The Convention was called to meet at Monterey, 
September 1, 1849, which being on Saturday, and 
the requisite number not present, an adjournment 
was made until the following Monday — September 
3d. Of the fifteen delegates elected, only eight were 
present and partook of the duties and honors of 
forming the Constitution. 

DELEGATES FROM SACRAMENTO DISTRICT. 

The following homographic chart shows the rep- 
resentation of the Sacramento District in the Consti- 
tutional Convention, assembled at Monterey in 1849: 



NAME. 

Jacob R. Snvdbr 

WlNFIRLD S. SHK.RWOOD. 

L. W. HASTlSGa 

John A. SurrER 

John McDougal 

E. O. Crosby 

M. M. McCarvbr.. -- 

VV. E. SUA.NNOS 



> 




LA8T 


TOWN 




M 








Philadelphia 


I'enn... Sac 


4 years 


X:< 


.Sandv Hill.. 


N. Y..,. 


Mor. Is. 


4 mos. 


an 


Knox CO. .. 


Ohio... 


Sutter . . 


6 years 


4T 


Switzerland 


Missouri 


Sutter . . 


10 years 


3S 


Ohio... ... 


Indiana. 


•Sutter . 


7 mus. 


34 


Tomp's Co. . . 


N. Y... 


Vernon 


7 mos 


i-/ 


Kentucky... 


Oregon.. 


Sacto. .. 


3 years 


27 


Ireland 


N. Y... 


Coloma . 


3 years 



Mirv r. 
Lawyer. 
Lawyer . 
Fanner. 
MerchL 



02 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The Coiiv^ention was composed of forty-seven 
members. Robert Semple was President, William G. 
Marcy, Secretary, Caleb Lyons, of Lyonsdale, Assis- 
tant Secretary and designer of the seal, and J. Ross 
Browne wasshort-hanJ reporter. After an industrious 
and harmonious session of six weeks, the Convention 
completed its labors, and adjourned on the 13th of 
October. The Constitution was mostly made up by 
selections from the Constitutions of other States, 
that of the recently organized State of Iowa furnish- 
ing the model. Notwithstanding a majority of the 
Convention were from the South, or slave-holding 
States, they unanimously voted to prohibit the intro- 
duction of slavery in California. There were, how- 
ever, heavy restrictions upon the liberty and progress 
of the colored i-ace. This was, then, a " wiiite man's 
government." The principal question creating dis- 
cussion was the subject of taxation. The two great 
interests were mining and stock-raising; giving rise 
to the appellations of" Mining Counties " and " Cow 
Counties." The stock-raisers carried their points 
by inserting the clause that" all property shall be 
taxed according to its value." This proved a most 
important and comprehensive clause, preventing the 
exemption of any property not protected from taxa- 
tion bv the Constitution and Laws of the United 
States. San Jose was made the capital. 

The Constitution was regarded as one of the best 
of the United States at that time, but the judicial sys- 
tem was cumbersome and expensive, and it allowed 
great latitude to the Legislature, which, it was after- 
wards found, generally went to the extremes of their 
Constitutional permits, and a more binding instru- 
ment was demanded. The Constitution was sub- 
mitted to a vote of the people on the 13th of Novem- 
ber, 18-19, and adopted by an almost unanimous 
vote, being 12,064 for and 811 against it. 

FIRST STATE ELECTION. 

At the same election the officers provided by the 
Constitution were voted for. The candidates for 
Governor were Peter H. Burnett and John A. Sutter, 
the first receiving 6,710 votes and the latter 2,201. 
John McDougal was elected Lieutenant-Governor; 
William Van Voorhies, Secretary of State; Richard 
Roman, Treasurer; J. S. Houston, Controller; Ed. J. 
C. Kewen, Attoriiej--General; Charles J. Whiting, 
Surveyor-General; S. C. Hastings, Chief Justice; J. 

A. Lyon and Nathaniel Bennett, Associate Justices. 
Edward Gilbert and George W. Wright were elected 
to Congress. Sacramento District elected John Bid- 
well, Elisha O. Crosby, Thomas J. Green and Henry 
E. Robinson, Senators, and John Bigler, P. B. Corn- 
wall, E. W. McKinstry, Madison Walthall, John F. 
Williams, H. C. Cardwell, John T. Hughes, George 

B. Tingley, Thomas J. White, W. G. Deal and Thos. 
J. Henley to the Assembly, the latter elected in 
March, 1850, in place of Cornwall, who had resigned 
January 28th. The Constitution provided that in 
case of its adoption the officers chosen should enter 
upon their duties on the fifteenth of December, 



without waiting for the action of Congress. On the 
20th Governor Riley issued an order relinquishing 
the administration of civil aifairs; and thus Califor- 
nia took upon herself the character of a State with- 
out having passed through thepreparatory condition 
of a Territory. The Legislature consisted of sixteen 
Senators and thirty-seven Assemblymen. This Leg- 
islature elected Wm. M. Gwin and John C. Fremont 
United States Senators. 

ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES. 

The Legislature passed an Act, approved February 
18, 1850, segregating the State into twenty-seven 
counties, the names of which were as follows: San 
Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, 
Monterey, Braneiforte (Santa Cruz), Santa Clara, 
San Francisco, Marin, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Solano, 
Yolo, Napa, Mendocino, Sacramento, El Dorado, 
Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Colusa (attached to Butte for 
judicial purposes), Shasta, Trinity, Calaveras, San 
Joaquin, Tuolumne and Mariposa. 

SUTTER COUNTY. 

Sutter County included within its limits that por- 
tion of territory, subsequently organized into Placer 
County, as was southwest of a line running from a 
point on Bear River, six miles from its mouth, in a 
direct course to the junction of the north and middle 
forks of the American River. All the region east 
of that line belonged to Yuba County. That portion 
containing the principal population, including 
Auburn, was in Sutter County, and a place called 
Oro, on Bear River, two miles from the junction of 
Bear and Feather Rivers, was the county seat. This 
was a town on paper. At that time there were 
many grand "cities" of the same class on all the 
streams of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, 
with their broad streets, plazas, Court House and 
Capitol squares, school and university blocks, and 
all the plans of a great metropolis. This city was 
the property of Gen. Thomas Jeff'erson Green, who 
was one of the Senators representing the district, 
who by his ability and tact induced the Legislature 
to declare Oro the county seat. Auburn was then a 
busy town, and with Nicolaus, Vernon and Yuba 
City, was a candidate for the county seat. 

STOBV OF A NAVIGABLE STREAM. 

A pleasant story, illustrative of Senator Green's 
modus operandi, in connection with the history of 
that contest, was related by Judge P. W. Kej-ser in 
his centennial address at Nicolaus July 4, 1876: — 

Bear Creek — or river, as it was sometimes called — 
was, in those days, a small but prettj- stream, quietly 
and lazily wandering through the foot-hills and down 
to the plains where it meandered between well- 
defined and well-wooded banks, its calm flow dis- 
turbed and impeded by trees and underbrush growing 
thickly in the midst of its clear waters, to Feather 
River, with which it formed a junction at a mile 
or two above Nicolaus. Of course it was un nav- 
igable, except to light row boats, and not to them in 
low water, while the large river steamers, of which 
the largest and finest at that time was named the 



ORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT. 



93 



Seriator, could, even at the highest water, scarcely 
approach the mouth. Green, however, in describ- 
ing, during the discussion of the county seat ques- 
tion, tlie advantages of his town of Oro, spoke of 
the splendid river on which it was situated, the 
waters of which (he asserted), when at the lowest 
stage of a long and dry summer, could be easily 
navigated. A brother Senator, who knew Green's 
weakness for hyperbole, interrupted by asking him 
if he meant to say that the river steamers could nav- 
igate Bear River at its lowest stage of water. '■ I 
mean to say," replied Green, " that the Senator can 
navigate itat any timeof the year." After adjourn- 
ment some one accused him of having, to put it 
mildly, stretched the truth in saying that a steamer 
like the Senator could navigate Bear River. " I 
never said,'' answered Green, " that the steamer >S'<;n- 
ator could. I said the Senator could, but I meant 
the Senator who had asked the impertinent ques- 
tion." 

ELECTION OP COUNTY OFFICERS. 

The Legislature named the first Monday in April, 
1850, for the election of county officers. The records 
of this election are very meager, but from various 
minute-books, dockets, assessment rolls, etc., it is 
made known that the following-named pei'sons held 
the various offices: County Judge, Gordon N. Mott, 
County Attorney, \V. Fisher; County Clerk, T. B. 
Reardan; Sheriff, John Pole; Recorder, George Pier- 
son; Treasurer, Willard Post; Assessor, William H. 
Monroe. 

P. W. Thomas and Tallman H. Rolfe were Jus- 
tices of the Peace and Associate Judges of the Court 
of Sessions. 

THE FIRST SESSION OF COURT. 

The first meeting of the Court of Sessions was 
held June 10, 1850, at Oro, the county seat, with 
County Judge Gordon N. Mott i>residing; P. W. 
Thomas and T. H. Rolfe, Associate Justices, and T. 
B. Reardan, Cierk. The first entry of proceedings 
on that day was as follows; — 

Upon it appearing to the Court that thei-e were 
not proper and necessary accommodations and build- 
ings at Oro, the county seat, for the offices of the 
several county officers who are by law required to 
keep their offices open, it is ordered that, for the 
future, and until such buildings can be procured at 
the county seat, the courts and county offices shall 
be held and kept open at Nicolaus, being the next 
nearest point where such buildings can be procured; 
and the Clerk of said court is ordered to give notice 
of the above order. 

There being no more business before the court 
to-day. it is adijourned to meet at Nicolaus to-morrow 
at 10 o'clock A. M. 

At a special meeting of the court, held at Nicolaus 
the next day, it was ordered "that a poll-tax of three 
dollars be levied upon each male inhabitant over 
twenty-one and under fifty years of age; and that 
a tax of twenty-five cents upon each $100 worth of 
real or personal property in the county — this tax to 
be levied and raised for county expenditures." 

THE COURT HOUSE AT ORO. 

Whether the order of adjournment was formally 
made and recorded in the Court House at Oro, or 



after the meeting in more comfortable quarters at 
Nicolaus, is a doubtful question. The following 
description of that famous county seat and the 
adjournment of the court are from the address of 
Judge Keyser, from which quotations have been 
previously made: 

Oro, however, enjoyed the honor — if it enjoyed it 
at all — but a short time. There was not a house nor 
a building in the town for any purpose, much less 
for holding court, the transaction of county business, 
and the preservation of public records. Some pre- 
parations must be made by the owners of the town 
to enable the first term, at least, of court to be held 
at the county seat, and to this end they erected, or 
rather placed upon the ground, a zinc building about 
20x20 feet in size, with a floor of rough boards, a 
roof of zinc, and holes cut for the Court, the litigants, 
the witnesses, the jurors and the air to enter, but 
without glass or shutters for the windows, or doors 
for the entrances. Not a tree or bush or shrub grew 
near enough to give its shade to the building. A 
June sun poui'cd its rays upon that zinc building, 
until, outside and inside, it became almost as hot as 
the furnace of Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. 
Law and equity, lawyers and litigants, jurors and 
witnesses, with a spontaneity of action that would 
astonish nothing but a salamander, rushed out of 
and fled that building, never again to return. 

ELECTION FOR COUNTY SEAL. 

The mass of the population of the county was in 
the vicinity of Auburn, upon the north fork of the 
American River, and among the various dry diggings 
adjacent. These demanded the removal of the 
county seat, and an order was obtained for the elec- 
tion, submitting the question to a vote of the people. 
Four ambitious places entered the lists for the prize 
Auburn, Nicolaus, Ophir, and Miners' Hotel. A 
comprehensive and comprehensible history of that 
election it would be difficult, at this day, to write. 

In the preceding year elections had been held for 
delegates to the Constitutional Convention, for the 
adoption of the Constitution, and for State and 
county officers. The elections were conducted in the 
simplest and most primitive forms. Party divisions 
were almost unknown, there was a general fraterni- 
zation of the people, digging gold and trading in 
merchandise and town lots were more profitable than 
office-holding, and no eflibrts were made to influence 
or excite voters. Polling places were held whei'e 
convenient, and it is reported that boxes were fast- 
ened to trees convenient to the roadside and passing 
trails, where citizens could deposit their vote or 
examine those which had preceded theirs. Even 
with this freedom from restraint, the total vote was 
far less than the voting population, and the elections 
were satisfiictoiy to all classes. 

But a different feeling prevailed in the election to 
decide the location of the county seat. It was in 
1850, the population had increased, and the glamor 
of gold mining had worn off. All were ripe for fun 
or excitement. The question was not a serious one 
of national honor or great political principle, but a 
rivalry between towns, and it was contested on the 



94 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



policj' of '• devil take the hindmost." Each place 
voted to the utmost stretch of its population and 
conscience, probably equalling the Mormon system 
of the present day. The result was the selection of 
Auburn as the county seat of Sutter County, " by a 
large majority," or as Mr. Steele, the historian of 
1861, puts it: — 

The favorable location of Auburn, its preponder- 
ance of population, and the inexhaustible powers of 
voting possessed by its citizens and partisans decided 
the contest in its favor by a majority considerably 
exceeding the entire population of the county. 

Such a vote it would be useless to contend against, 
and Auburn became the county seat. A Court House 
of slight frame and canvas covering and a substan- 
tial jail of logs were constructed. These were rude 
structures, but answered the temporary purpose. 

STORY BY JUDGE KEYSER. 

Among the incidents attending the removal of the 
county seat is the following related by Judge Philip 
Keyser, in his Centennial address at Nicolaus in 
1876, which appears as characteristic of the times: — 

I wish 1 could remember the scenes and incidents 
that accompanied the removal of the county officers, 
county records, together with the resident lawyers, 
who felt it to be their interest to migrate with the 
first two, and to dwell within the sound of the musi- 
cal voice of the Sheriff, as he cried " Hear, yea ! 
Hear, j-ea ! " from the Court House door. One cir- 
cumstance I do remember, and that is, that the 
county officials, the members of the Bar, and others 
who followed the removal of the county seat, were 
received with open arms and a hearty welcome by 
the citizens of Auburn. A great dinner was given 
to the new-comers by the leading business men of 
the town. Fifty or sixty, comprising merchants, 
mechanics, miners, lawyers, and doctors sat down to 
a generously 8U])plied table, around which, after the 
inner man had been satisfied, wine and wit, mirth 
and laughter, circulated as freely and unembai-rassed 
as if in their native homes. * * * I can recall 
the name of one. now several years dead, who was 
at that time a resident of Auburn, and a " character " 
in that vicinity. It was Jim Crawford. He was a 
great mimic and full of rough humor. 1 remember 
that on the occasion of which 1 have been speaking 
•Tim was called on for a song. He said he would 
comply if time was given him to send for his fiddle. 
This was done, and when that universally popular 
instrument was brought, Jim rose from his seat at 
the table, and standing on one foot, and placing the 
other upon his chair, began to play in inimitable 
style the "Ai'kansas Traveler." For more than 
half an hour, alternately playing the tune, and telling, 
in their order, the stories connected with it, he kept 
the table in a roar. I shall scarce forget his features, 
especially his eyes, when he told the story of the 
cross-eyed man. That those orbs could resunie their 
natural position in his head seemed miraculous. 

PERMANENT HOMES APPEAR. 

The first historical sketch of this region was pub- 
lished in 1861, in a "Directory of Placer County," 
written by one who had passed the winter of 1849 
on the American River at Stony Bar, and continued 
a resident of the county during the intervening 
years. He says: — 



From the spring of 1850, may we date the begin- 
ning of permanent improvements and permanent 
settlements in Placer, for from that time men com- 
menced to have settled habitations, and some even 
then commenced preparations for building permanent 
homes for themselves and families. During the sum- 
mer and fall of that year, the county became blessed 
with the presence of a number of families, some of 
whom came to the country overland from the 
States; others from foreign countries; and others 
again from El Dorado and other counties, where 
they had become too thickly settled to thrive well, 
or, at least, where there were not as good induce- 
ments offered for permanent settlements as this 
county afforded. 

THE GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION. 

The Constitution that had been adopted in 1849 
provided for a cumbrous and expensive system of 
government, particularly in the Judicial Depart- 
ment. The courts were divided into Supreme, Dis- 
trict, County, Probate, Court of Sessions, Justices 
Courts, Recorder or Police Courts, and such munici- 
pal courts as the Legislature might determine. 
Three Justices comprised the Supreme Courts, the one 
having the shortest term to be Chief Justice. The 
State was divided into districts for each of which 
a District Judge was elected for terms of six years. 
The jurisdiction of this court was very large, 
including civil, chancery and criminal causes, and 
original cognizance in all cases in equity, and in 
civil cases where the amount exceeded ?200, causes 
involving the title to real property, or the validity 
of any tax, and issues of fact joined in the Probate 
Court. Originally it had power to inquire into all 
criminal offenses by means of a Grand Jury, and try 
indictments found by that body. In 18.31 the Leg- 
islature took from the court its criminal jurisdiction 
and conferred it upon the Court of Sessions, leaving 
it the power to hear appeals from that court in 
criminal matters, and the power to try all indict- 
ments for murder, manslaughter, arson, and other 
cases that could not be tried in the Court of Sessions. 

A County Judge was elected in each county for a 
term of four years. He presided over the County 
Court, Probate Court, and the Court of Sessions, 
with two Justices of the Peace as Associate Judges. 
The Associate Judges were chosen annually by the 
Justices of the Peace of the county from the body 
of Justices. The County Court heard appeals from 
the court of a Justice of the Peace. The Court of Ses- 
sions had jurisdiction of criminal cases, and was 
given power, as the financial agent of the county, 
which power was subsequently declared extra-judi- 
cial by the Supreme Court; and Boards of Super- 
visors were created for that purpose. The County 
Judge presided over the Probate Court and had 
charge of all probate matters. 

By an Amendment to the Constitution in 1863, the 
Supreme Court was made to consist of five Justices, 
and the Court of Sessions was abolished, and by the 
Constitution adopted in 1879, the judicial system was 
entirely remodeled, the Supreme Court being 



ORGANIZATION OF PLACER COUNTY. 



enlarged to a Chief Justice and six Associate Jus- 
tices, and the term made twelve years. District and 
County Courts were abolished, and Superior Courts 
established, there being one for each county, and one 
or more Judges for each, as business demanded. 

Under the Constitution of 18-19, much was left to 
the discretion of the Legislature in providing officers 
for counties, and many changes were made from time 
to time as the representatives of each county 
demanded, adjoining counties having diffei'ent sys- 
tems of county governments, as will be shown in the 
chapter devoted to the political history of Placer. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
ORGANIZATION OF PLACER COUNTY 

Increase of Population — The Foot-hill Towns — Placer County 
Bounflaries — Placer and Sutter Dividing Line — Geography 
of the County — Election of Offijers — Contesting the Elec- 
tion — Election of Legislative Officers — Attempt to Divide 
the County — Opposition Aroused — Dutch i'lat Opposition — 
The Washington County Advocates — Meeting at Yankee 
Jim's — Conventionat Wisconsin Hill — The Bmndary Line — 
A Bear River Growl — Revival of the Washington County 
Scheme — Granite County — Donner County, 

The population of the mining region rapidly 
increased during the summer and fall of 1850, extend- 
ing farther into the mountains, and occupying the 
ravines and deep canons of the Sierra. The county 
of Yuba embraced all the upper country from El 
Dorado to Butte, and the county seat, Marysville, 
was distant and off the usual routes of travel from 
this section, while Auburn, the county seat of Sutter 
must be passed through in reaching it. The towns 
of Todd's Valley, Forest Hill, Yankee Jim's, Bath, 
Elizabethtown, Bird's Valley, "Wisconsin Hill, lUi- 
noistown, and others in the canons and on the bars 
of the American and Bear Rivers, were prosperous 
and populous in 1850 and 1851, and were all in Yuba 
County. From the isolation of these localities, and 
distance from the county seat, the citizens had little 
to do with county matters, seldom seeing any other 
officer than the Assessor and Tax Collector. 

THE FOOT-HILL TOWNS. 

The Sutter County portion, the county seat in 
1850 being at Auburn, had political recognition in 
the appointment of election precincts at Auburn, 
Spanish Corral, Miners' Hotel, Mormon Bar, Horse- 
shoe Bar, Half-way House and Beal's Bar. Elisha 
O. Crosby was elected iSenator from Sutter and Yuba, 
and Joseph AV. McCorkle was Assemblyman. The 
necessitj' for the reorganization of the counties as 
made by the Legislature of 1849 and '50 was appar- 
ent, and on April 25, 1851, an Act was passed 
dividing the State into counties, and repealing the 
Act of the previous year. By this Act the counties 
of Placer, Nevada and Klamath were created. 

PLACER COUNTY BOUNDARIES. 

The boundaries of Placer were described as fol- 
lows: — 



" Beginning on the Sacramento River at the north- 
west corner of Sacramento County, and running 
thence up the middle of said river, to a point ten 
miles below the junction of Sacramento and Feather 
Rivers; thence in a northerly direction in a straight 
line, to a point in the middle of Bear Creek opposite 
Camp Far West, thence up the middle of said creek 
to its source; thence due east to the State line; 
thence southerly on the State line to the northeast- 
erly corner of El Dorado County; thence westerly 
on the northerly line of El Dorado County, to the 
junction of the north and south forks of the Ameri- 
can River; thence westerly on the northerly line of 
Sacramento County to the place of beginning." The 
county seat was fixed by the same Act at Auburn, 

PLACER AND SDTTEE DIVIDING LINE. 

The dividing line between Placer and Sutter 
Counties was for a number of years a subject of con- 
troversy and uncertainty. The western line " from 
Sacramento County, and running thence up the 
middle of the Sacramento River, to a point ten miles 
below the junction of Feather and Sacramento 
Rivers," was reported by a county Surveyor as 
impossible, as the northwest corner of Sacramento 
County was of itself, nearer than ten miles of the 
junction of those rivers, so the county had no start- 
ing point, or merely coming to the river at a point, 
thence in a straight line to Camp Far West. When 
the countiy became settled, this indefinite line gave 
great trouble to the Assessors and other county 
officers, and several Acts were passed to remedy the 
difficulty, but it was not until after the lines of the 
United States Land Survey were adopted by the 
Act approved March 13, 1866, that the question was 
satisfactorily settled. This Act was adopted by the 
Codes, taking effect January 1. 1873, making the 
boundaries as follows: — 

"Beginning on the southwest corner at a point 
where the west line of range 5 east, Mount Diablo 
meridian, intersects the northern line of Sacramento 
County, as established in Section 3,928; thence 
north to the northwest corner of township 12 north, 
range 5 east, thence east to the southwest corner of 
section 34, township 13 north, range 5 east; thence 
north to Bear River; thence on the southerly line 
of Nevada County, up said river to its source; thence 
east in a direct line to the eastern line of the State 
of California, forming the northeast corner; thence 
southerly along said line to the northeast corner of 
El Dorado County, as established in section 3,927 
(said northeast corner of El Dorado being a point 
on the State line directly east of Sugar Pine Point 
on Lake Tahoe); thence westerly on the northern 
lines of El Dorado and Sacramento, as established 
in sections 3,927 and 3,928, to place of beginning." 

GEOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTY. 

Geographically it is bounded on the north by Yuba 
and Nevada, east by the State of Nevada, south by 
El Dorado and Sacramento, and west by Sutter; 



96 



HISTORY OF PLA.CER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



although its irregular shape makes Nevada a west- 
ern boundary, and El Dorado an eastern boundarj' 
to a large portion. The county has a northeast and 
southwest trend, with an exti-eme length of about 
eight3'-five miles, and a width var^'ing from eight 
miles in its central portion to twenty-three at either 
end, giving it an area of 1,386 square miles. The 
territory includes every variety of climate, soil, and 
productions. Altitude and not latitude govern its 
isothermal lines, and with the climate every change 
occurs, from the semi-troj^ic plains, to the everlasting 
snow and ice of the mountain peaks. 

In its topography the country is as irregular as 
in its outline. From the valley of the Sacramento, 
thirty feet above the sea, where perennial verdure 
and semi-tropic fruits gladden the eye, it rises in 
one grand swell to the summit of the Sierra Nevada, 
embracing Twin, Granite Chief, Tinker, Lincoln, and 
Donner Peaks, which stud the crest of the lofty 
range, glistening in their white mantle of snow 
9,000 feet in the sky. East of the great dividing 
chain the county extends sixteen miles, including in 
the section the source and fourteen miles of the 
valley of the Truckee River, and three-sevenths of 
the area of Lake Tahoe. In the valley of the Sac- 
ramento the county covers about 216 square miles; 
in the foot-hills and mountain valleys adapted to 
tillage and horticulture, 200 more; in Lake Tahoe, 
!tO, and the remainder, 880 square miles, includes 
the mountain ridges, deep caiions, snowy peaks, 
rivers, and mountain lakes. The area susceptible of 
profitable viticulture, horticulture, or tillage of some 
character, can be estimated only after an industri- 
ous and thrifty people have, with judgment and 
experiment, essayed the task. The valley portion 
is an open plain, bordered by white oaks along the 
foot-hills and the streams, and as the elevation 
increases the nut pine is interspersed with the oak, 
while the loftier mountains and the canons are 
densely clad with black oak, pines of many classes, 
fir, spruce, nutmeg, cedar, tamarack, madrona, yew, 
alder, cottonwood, aspen, birch, manzanita, and 
other trees and shrubs in great varietj', constituting 
one of the grandest forest regions of America. 

The mountain region is seamed with deep gorges, 
through which flow rapid torrents, some bearing 
the name of rivers. The principal of these are: — 

Bear River, rising in Bear Yalley, about twelve 
miles west of the summit of the Sierra, and forming, 
from its source, the northern boundary of the county, 
dividing it from Nevada Uountj-. having a length of 
about seventy-five miles, emptying into Feather 
River. The first thirty miles of its course is south- 
west, thence nearly west to its embouchure. The 
volume of water varies with the season, at times of 
flood carrying the volume of a navigable river in 
a mad, raging torrent; and in seasons of drought 
dying away in the valley without force to reach its 
mouth. Such, at least, was the condition of Bear 
River before the mining debris filled its bed and 



mining ditches swelled its summer waters from other 
streams. 

The north fork of the American River, with its 
branches, the Middle Fork and the Rubicon, consti- 
tute the southern boundaiy of the county from the 
junction of the South Fork to where the Rubicon 
crosses the line extending east from Sugar Pine 
Point on the shore of Lake Tahoe. The Rubicon 
has its source among the rugged gi-anite peaks and 
snow-clad gorges of the mountain ridge that divides 
the western flow from Lake Tahoe, and gathers 
from many picturesque lakes and babbling brooks 
a large volume of water before it joins with Greeley 
Creek, Five-Lake Creek, Little South Fork, Long 
Canon Creek, Pilot Creek, middle fork of the Middle 
Fork, and north fork of the Middle Fork, to make 
the Middle Fork at Junction Bar. Thence it bears 
the descriptive name until it loses itself in the main 
North Fork. From its source to Junction Bar, 
near Michigan Bluff, the course of the stream, or 
that branch constituting the boundary line, is nearly 
west, and from the latter point to where the water 
joins with the South Fork and makes the American 
River the course is southwest. The North Fork has 
its source in the high Sierra, from the slopes of the 
Granite Chief and Donner Peaks, and in Soda Spring 
Valley, gathering in its course the streams of Granite 
Canon, Big Yalley, and its several forks, flows south- 
westerly to its junction with the mountain stream 
and to the Sacramento, a total course of about 100 
miles, including its sinuosities. 

Shirt Tail Canon flows a considerable stream 
through a long, deep gorge in the center of the 
county, westerly into the North Fork, receiving 
Brushy and Devil's Caiion Creeks in its course. 

El Dorado Canon Creek flows south into the north 
fork of the Middle Fork. 

Humbug Creek rises near the head of El Dorado 
Caiion and flows northerly into the south fork of 
the North Fork. 

Indian Creek flows into a caiion of the same name 
between Iowa Hill and Wisconsin Hill, westerly 
into the North Fork a few miles northwest of Shirt 
Tail Canon. 

Lady's Caiion, Yolcano Caiion, Black Caiion, Blue 
Canon, and Canon Creek are names of mountain 
caiions and streams in the upper part of the county. 

In the foot-hills are Auburn, Dutch, Baltimore, 
Secret, Buckeye, and Indian Ravines, Dry and 
Coon Creeks and other depressions carrying water, 
once noted for their wealth of gold, and now the 
field of agricultural enterprise and homes of pros- 
perous content. Such is the region of which the 
Legislature of 1851 created the county of Placer. 

ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 

With the creation of the county an Act was 
passed, approved April 28, 1851, to provide for its 
organization. In the Act were included the organ- 
ization of Nevada, Trinity and Klamath Counties. 



%.^ 




/ E. Hale. 



ORGANIZATION OF PLACER COUNTY. 



97 



This Act ordered an election to bo held in Placer and 
Nevada Counties, for county and township officers, 
on the fourth Monday- of May of the same j'ear, 
and appointing J. D. Fry, Joseph Walkup, William 
Gwynn, H M. House, and Jonathan Roberts, of 
Auburn, in Placer County, a Board of Commission- 
ers to designate election precincts, to receive and 
count the votes, and to issue commissions to the offi- 
cers elected. 

The election occurred on the 2Gth of May, two 
da3-s before the approval of the bill by the Governor, 
resulting in the choice of the following gentlemen 
to fill the various offices; Hugh Fitzsimmons, Count}' 
Judge; Samuel C. Astin, Sheriff; R. D. Hopkins, 
District Attorney; James T. Stewart, Clerk; Alfred 
Lewis, Assessor; Douglas Bingham, Treasurer; 
Abram Bronk, Public Administrator; John C. Mont- 
gomeiy. Coroner. The total number of votes cast, 
or allowed, was 2,792. 

CONTESTING THE ELECTION. 

The vote at some of the camps and towns was 
surprisingly large; especiallj' at precincts where 
resided some favorite candidate who aspired to offi- 
cial honors. The loose system of voting established 
in 1849, when, trusting in every man's honesty, bal- 
lot-boxes were suspended to trees by the roadside as 
most convenient to the passing voter, had invited 
dishonest men to take advantage of the confidence 
reposed in all, and the ballot-box was no longer held 
sacred nor strictly guarded. Some precincts with 
hardly a score of citizens would cast several hundred 
votes, and send in the returns as a good joke. The 
first election in Placer was contested by some of the 
defeated candidates, tradition says, on the strength 
of these abnormally large votes, but there are no 
records extant showing such to be the case. Hiram 
R. Hawkins was a resident of Deadman's Bar, and 
wished to be County Clerk. The records show that 
he received 9(51 votes, while Stewart had 1,118, these 
being the highest two of the four candidates, lu 
all probability the dead men of that bar arose en 
masse and voted for the popular candidate strong 
enough to have given him a large majority over all 
the others. Horace Davenport of Rattlesnake Bar 
has recorded in his favor 763 votes for County 
Judge, and he contested the election of Fitzsim- 
mons, who had received 1,261; and Abram Bronk, of 
Horseshoe Bar, having received 818 votes for County 
Treasurer, contested the right of Bingham with 
1,151 votes to the office on the ground of fraud in 
the returns, and upon a rehearing by the Commis- 
sioners, fraud was shown and the contestants were 
declared entitled to their respective offices. 

The proceedings of the Commissioners were, how- 
ever, declared void by the District Court, and Fitz- 
simmons held his seat as Judge, while Stewart 
appointed Hawkins his deputj', and Bingham's death 
occurring on the very day of the trial, Bronk was 
appointed Treasurer by the Court of Sessions. 



These officers were elected to hold until succeeded by 
those elected at the general election of September, 
1852, excepting the County Judge who held office 
for four years. 

ELECTION OF LEGISLATIVE OFFICERS. 

The general election of 1851 was held on the 
3d of September, at which Gen. Jacob Frj- was 
elected Senator; Patrick Canney and J. H. Gibson, 
Assemblymen; Abram Bronk, Treasurer; Jona- 
than Roberts, Public Administrator, and S. B. Far- 
well, District Judge, for the Eleventh Judicial Dis- 
trict, comprising the counties of Placer, Yolo and Fl 
Dorado. 

In the election for the first officers in the organi- 
zation of the county no party lines wei"e drawn. 
The two great parties of the Nation were then 
styled Democrat and Whig, and members of either 
party were elected to the offices. In the fall election 
for members of the Legislature, conventions were 
held and party nominations made. The Democratic 
ticket was successful by majorities ranging from 400 
to 500, in a total vote of 1,968. The Whig ticket 
bore the names of W. Kennister, for Senator; T. 
Bradley and D. H. Stickney, for Assemblymen; J. 
Lagdenby, for Treasurer; E. Hogan, Public Admin- 
istrator, and E. L. Sanderson, for District Judge. 
On another page will be found the names of candi- 
dates, and the votes received from the organization 
of the county to the present time. 

The Court House was the same cloth and wood 
structure that had served the purpose for Sutter 
County, and the log jail in the rear of the Court 
House still continued the countj' prison. 

The euphonious and appropriate name of "Placer" 
was given the new county from the Spanish word 
placer, meaning a place where gold is found in the 
gravel or sand, as distinct from a mine, where it is 
found in quartz veins. Placer was, in 1851, as it is 
at the present time, distinguished for its great extent 
of placer mining. 

ATTEMPT TO DIVIDE THE COUNTT. 

As previously stated, the county is very irregular 
in outline, narrowing in its central part to a width ot 
eight miles, while its extremes attain a width of over 
twenty miles. East of the junction of the north and 
middle forks of the American River and embraced be- 
tween these streams is a large and rich area of mining 
ground, where, early in the history of the county, 
gathered a numerous and active population, among 
whom were many who aspired to official honors, and 
organized for a strong effort to divide the county. 
Of the prosperous towns of this region, called the 
"Divide," Iowa Hill was the most prominent, and, 
in 1855, contained an energetic and ably-conducted 
newspaper, the Iowa Hill Sews. In the fall of 1855 
this paper began the agitation of the question of a 
division of the county. This was argued pro and 
con. through the pajjcrs for several weeks, there 
being at this time two pajters published at Auburn, 



1)8 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



the Herald and the Press. The Legislature convened 
in January of each year, and it was desired to get 
that body to act upon the subject, or, if that failed 
to do 80, to mold the public mind so as to elect, in 
1856, Legislators favorable to the division. 

OPPOSITION AROUSED. 

The Placer Press, of December 15, 1855, comment- 
ing on the subject gave statistics showing which 
portion of the county furnished the most revenue. 
From which it was shown that the lower portion of 
the county had ^506,989 more taxable property than 
the upper portion. The lower portion paid on tax- 
able property 819,066.39, while the proposed new 
county paid only §10,701.07. Total assessed valua- 
tion in 1855 was about Sl,800,000. 

The Placer //era^c?, of December 22d, says: "Now 
then, what are the prospects for the next twelve 
months? Is there any prospect for the proposed 
new county increasing in taxable property in the 
same ratio as the older portion of Placer? There is 
not! Already is the railroad from Sacramento to the 
American Kiver within a few miles of completion, 
and then the company will commence constructing 
the road from Negro Bar across Placer County to 
Bear River, which will necessarily cause an outlay of 
nearly a million of dollars, all in the lower portion 
of the county, while the increase of taxable property 
in the upper portion will not amount to 8100,000. 
Under these circumstances it is, beyond a doubt, the 
interest of the citizens of the " Divide " to remain 
as they aie." * * * 

A correspondent of the Herald, writing from Mich- 
igan Bluff, December 22, 1855, says: "Placer County 
is now in debt over §80,000, a part of which must, in 
justice, bo paid by the new county, together with 
the expense of providing new county buildings, and 
supporting an entire county organization. Now, 
who is prepared, with but a few small mining pre- 
cincts, to assume the burden and bear it, when at the 
same time it is so clearly impolitic and unneces- 
sary ? " * * * 

At that date the principal towns to be embraced 
in the new county were Iowa Hill, Todd's Valley. 
Forest Hill, Yankee Jim's, Michigan Bluff, Bath, 
Damascus and Wisconsin Hill, on the Divide, and 
Illinoistown and Dutch Flat, north of the American. 

DUTCH FLAT OPPOSITION. 

A correspondent from Dutch Flat in the Herald of 
December 15th, says: " I have noticed a communica- 
tion in the Iowa Hill Newso^ December 1st advocat- 
ing a division of Placer County. The subject had 
been spoken of here, but no one supposed it was 
seriously entertained. I referred to the report of the 
Supervisors of the county at the September term 
last, and find that the indebtedness of the county 
is $99,557 and some cents. Now, if the county is in 
debt near §100,000, how are we to relieve ourselves 
from that debt? Answer: by one of three ways, to 
wit: by an increase of the taxes, the increase of the 



amount of taxable property and population, or by 
insolvency and repudiation. The orders upon the 
treasury of the county are now worth from forty-five 
to sixty cents on the dollar. If Placer County has 
made such a debt in four years, what will be the debt 
of the new county, starting into existence with half 
this hanging over them and all the expenses of their 
organization, and with less than half the taxable 
property ? " * * * 

THE WASHINGTON COUNTY ADVOCATES. 

The Iowa Hill News, which had begun the agita- 
tion, was iti no ways discouraged b}' the arguments 
or the ridicule brought against its favorite proposi- 
tion. The editor, Mr. J. P. Olmstead, continued his 
appeals, and was supported by able correspondence. 
He was charged with originating the scheme for the 
purpose of getting the county patronage, and build- 
ing up his paper. With the confidence and energy 
with which he advocated the measure, he appeared 
to regard it as an easy proceeding to create a furor 
forthe new county among the people of the" Divide," 
wherein each localitj^ would have the opportunity 
and the possible chance of becoming the county seat. 
The region for many miles around Iowa Hill was 
thronged with miners, and the villages were popu- 
lous and prosperous. No place was mentioned as 
the future capital; therefore, each might aspire to it, 
with all the glory, the increase of business, the 
advance in town property, and the better chance of 
being elected to ofHcc. 

This was the bait held out to win advocates, and 
naturallj'- many of the poople favored the scheme. 
The argument was that the county was large and 
unwieldy, and that the county seat was distant and 
of difficult access, imposing great expense upon 
jurymen and witnesses, litigants and taxpayers, and 
that the great mileage bills of the county ofiieers 
visiting that section in the performance of their 
duties imposed a burden on the people, which would 
be removed if the county seat were more conveni- 
ently located. The iVews gave the matter more 
positive shape by calling a meeting of the citizens of 
the upper end of the county, to be held at Yankee 
Jim's on the 29th of December, 1855, to take into 
consideration the subject of the division of the 
county. 

MEETING AT YANKEE JIJl's. 

The meeting was held at Yankee Jim's on the 29th, 
as advertised, and was attended by delegates from 
Iowa Hill and Wiscon.sin Hill, and by citizens of 
Yankee Jim's. Samuel Todd, of Yankee Jim's, a 
gentleman favorable to the division, was elected 
Chairman. The people of the latter place were gen- 
erally opposed to the division, or were piqued because 
they had not been consulted in the early stage of the 
proceedings, and taking advantage of their numbers 
in the Convention, carried a motion to adjourn it 
sine die. 

This was very inhospitable treatment to the dele- 



ORGANIZATION OV PLACER COUNTY. 



no 



gates from other towns, and they expressed their 
indignation in resounding words. But this trick of 
the Yaaliee Jitn'sites did not crush ont the movement 
for the division, nor did it convince the projectors of 
aay impropriety in their course. They expressed 
to the people of the town that they had come in 
good faith, as the duly elected representatives of 
their fellow-citizens, and wished to discuss, not so 
much the expediencj^ of the division (as that they 
deemed settled), as where the dividing line should 
be, and they could not understand why the citizens 
of Yankee Jim's should oppose a division, inasmuch 
as the line which they would advocate and agree to 
would be likely to secure to that place the location 
of the county seat. 

Col. William McClure and William Duck, E^q., 
citizens of Yankee Jim's, were the active opponents 
of the scheme, and carried the day at the first meet- 
ing. Colonel McClure said the people of that place 
had not been consulted upon the subject, and more- 
over were opposed to the measure as inopportune 
and inexpedient. An agreement was concluded that 
a convention of the citizens of the " Divide " should 
be held at Wisconsin Hill on the 12th of January, 
1856, of delegates from each election precinct, there 
being one delegate from each precinct, and one for 
every 100 votes cast at the last general election. 
This Convention was to discuss the expediency of a 
division as well as to recommend the boundary. 

CONVENTION AT WISCONSIN HILL. 

The Convention met on the 12th of Januarj^ 1856, 
pursuant to the agreement made at Yankee Jim's. 
Thomas P. Slade was appointed Chairman and M. M. 
Robinson, Secretary. 3Ies8rs. Rowell, Duck, Good- 
win, Colgan, and Bird were appointed a committee 
to examine the credentials of delegates and report 
upon the number each place was entitled to. Iowa 
Hill was allowed 9 votes; Wisconsin Hill, 3; Yankee 
Jim's, 4; Todd's Valley, 3; Forest Hill, 2; Smith's 
Ranch, 1; Mineral Bar, 1; Ford's Bar, 2; and Green 
Valley, 2; a total of 27 votes. 

The Convention was numerous!}- attended, and 
great interest was taken in it by the people. The 
question of the expediency of the division was dis- 
cussed, and a resolution was offered by R. C. Poland, 
Esq., that the county should bo divided. Upon this 
a vote was taken, as follows — the delegates voting 
by precincts: aye — Iowa Hill, Wisconsin Hill, Min- 
eral Bar, Ford's Bar, and Green Valley; 17 votes; 
nays — Yankee Jim's, Todd's Valley, Forest Hill and 
Smith's Ranch — 10 votes; leaving a majority of 7 in 
favor of a division. 

THE BOUNDARY LINE. 

The question of the dividing line next arose, and 
a committee, consisting of Messrs. Robinson, Allen, 
Warden, Hamlin and Lawrence, were appointed to 
consider and decide upon the matter. On the 2t)th 
of January, the report is published that the com- 
mittee appointed for the purpose had decided that 



the boundary line between Washington and Placer 
counties should commence at a point on the middle 
fork of American River, on Poverty Bar, running 
westerly to Kelly's Bar, on the north fork, and thence 
to Digger Point, on Bear River. 

This lino ran across the narrowest part of the 
county, there about eight miles in width, the line 
being between Townships No. 3 and No. 4, in the 
vicinity of Clipper Gap, and leaving a small portion, 
about seven square miles, of the Divide between the 
Middle and North Forks in Placer County. 

A BEAR RIVER GROWL. 

A correspondent of the Herald writing from the 
Bear River portion of the proposed county, on the 
30th of January, 1856, says: " 1 had occasion last 
week to visit Iowa Hill, and then for the first time 
learned how anxiously a division is hoped for by an 
interesting band of aspiring spirits, who have already 
singled out the eminent men (themselves) who are 
to fill the high positions in the new county." * * * 

"A pity tbat our county, the third or fourth in 
political importance in the State, and with an 
influence which is now felt in all departments, should 
not be dismembered and all but obliterated for the 
purpose of creating offices to be filled by a set of 
senseless drones! The thing is ridiculous. The 
divisionists consider that their stock has gone up 750 
per cent, since Senator Hawthorne introduced his 
bill to fund the debt of the county. * * * They 
say that this bill postpones the payment of the pres- 
ent debt for a term of years, and when the time 
comes for payment of their portion, they are willing 
to take the chances. So far as I can learn, all of 
this section of the county from the North Fork to 
Bear River, and from Christian Valley to Dutch 
Flat, are opposed to both the division and the fund- 
ing of the county debt." 

REVIVAL OP WASHINGTON COUNTY. 

The defeat of the project to divide the county 
which originated at Iowa Hill in 1855, and was so 
strongly urged by the Xews, did not end Placer's 
troubles in that quarter. In the winter of 1858, the 
scheme was again revived, and petitions were circu- 
lated through the upper part of the county, to 
present to the Legislature then in session, praj-ing 
for a division of the county. At this time the divid- 
ing line was to be left to the decision of the Board 
of Supervisors. The attempt followed the fate of its 
predecessors. 

OR.\NITE COUNTY. 

The defeat of the attempt to bisect the county in 
the creation of Washington County in 1855-56-57- 
58, did not end the troubles of those who contended 
to maintain Placer's integrity. The desire of a 
newspaper publisher at Iowa Hill to create for him 
self a county seat, was repeated again at Folsom. 
There, Mr. Peter J. Hopper was the proprietor and 
editor of a paper, and in 1866 represented Sacramento 



100 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



County in the Assembly. He had a good oppor- 
tunity to raise a county division excitement, and to 
bring the subject forward in the Legislature. For 
this purpose, early in March, 1866, he introduced a 
bill in the Assembly to create Granite County out 
of portions of Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer. 
The proposed county would have taken a strip of 
country from the southwestern part of Placer, of 
nine miles in length, and of an average width of three 
miles, equal to 17,280 acres, or that part of the 
county south of a line running west from Carrollton, 
through Roseville to section four of township 10 
north, range 6 east, according to the United States 
Land Survey. The reports at the time said " the 
people living on the territory proposed to be trans- 
ferred, have neither expressed dissatisfaction with 
the present situation, or have had any part in 
the new movement. The whole scheme was gotten 
up by a few ambitious gentlemen of Folsom." The 
bill failed to become a law, and Placer retained her 
territory. 

DONNER COUNTY. 

An effort was made before the Legislature of 1869- 
1870 to create the county of Donner out of portions 
of Placer, Nevada and Sierra. During the time of 
its agitation, much was said of dividing the debts of 
the different counties, and of the loss of territory to 
each. The Grass Valley Union, edited by Charles 
H. Mitchell who had long been publisher and editor 
of the Flacer Herald said: If Donner County is 
created, Placer County will lose several well-known 
places, and the glorj^ of much of her history. 
" Ground Hog's Glory," " Hell's Delight," '' Miller's 
Defeat," " Ladies' Canon," "Devil's Basin," ■' Hell's 
Half Acre," and a few other places of like signifi- 
cance will be in the new count}*. " Shirt Tail Canon," 
however, will be retained in Placer County. Placer 
should fight the new county, in order to retain her 
glorious nomenclature in towns. 



CHAPTER XX. 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 

Composition of Parties — How to Tax the Mines — Organization 
of Placer County — Abram Bronk — Campaign of 1852 — 
Patrick Canuey — Campaign of 185.'? — Political Duels — The 
Slavery Question in California — Campaign of 1854— A 
Stormy State Convention — Conventions and Nominations — 
First and only Whig Administration — Campaign of 1S55 — 
Native Americans, or " Know-Nothings "— Efforts to Elect 
a Senator — Campaign of 1856 — The Republicans — Sketches 
of Candidates — \V. W. Carperton — Samuel B. Wyman — A. 
P. K. Safford — James O'Neil — Charles King — Philip Stoner 
—Philip W. Thomas— .J. W. Spann— Eugene A. Phelps- 
James M. Gaunt — Hudson M. House — Percival C. Millette — 
Election of Senators — Triumph of Broderick — Acts for 
Placer. 

The political history of the county blends with 
every event and movement of the State, making it 
difficult to segregate, but the plan of this work is to 
collect under distinct and appropriate heads the 



several questions comprising the general history, in 
some cases necessitating slight repetitions. The 
organization of the State and County Governments 
has been given in the preceding chapters. The 
dominance of the Democratic party has been shown. 
California had been annexed to the Union as the 
result of a war with Mexico, declared by the latter 
Government in consequence of the annexation of 
Texas to the United States. These annexations and 
the war were measures of the Democratic pai'ty, 
and had been opposed by the Whigs, these being 
the great political parties of the nation at that 
period. 

The American army having achieved the grandest 
triumphs known to military history had inspired a 
spirit of adventure among the people, particularly 
the returned volunteers, and the speedy following of 
the discovery of gold in California, a trophy of the 
war, found many thou-sands with attachments to 
home severed, ready for the fire of excitement, and 
prompt to occupy the newlj^ found gold-fields of the 
conquered land. This having been a Democratic 
war, the volunteers were mostlj' of that party, and 
these, moving in great numbers to California, gave 
a decided impress to its politics. Moreover, it being 
a Democratic acquisition, that party seemed to 
claim a vested right to rule. This was so lightly 
disputed, that many who had left the organized 
States as Whigs, became active Democrats upon 
their arrival in California. 

HOW TO TAX THE .MINES. 

Questions of national polity subsequently arose 
which still more strengthened the Democratic party 
of California. The National election of 1848 had 
resulted in the success of the Whig party, raising 
General Zachary Taj'lor to the Presidency, and 
Millard Fillmore to the Vice-Presidency; and in 
March, 1849, the Whig Administration went into 
power. The principles of that party were greatly 
that of a paternal government, protection to home 
industry, developing the resources of the country by 
National aid, and partaking of the profits of labor, 
or of enterprise. With these principles, the gold 
mines of California were regarded as the rightful 
property of the Government, from which, it was its 
duty to raise a large revenue. The mediieval prin- 
ciple prevailed of the Nation — or the King — being 
the exclusive owner of the royal metals, as gold and 
silver were designated, and that no hardship could 
be supposed to attend the assertion of that owner- 
ship. Manj- plans were urged to obtain the Govern- 
ment's dues from the miners, who were regarded as 
trespassers, and the subject formed important 
featuresin the messages of Presidents Taylorand Fill- 
more. Superintendents were suggested, to be sent 
from the East with corps of Surveyors, all under 
large salaries to place them above temptation of 
corruption; these to mark the claims into plots, to 
grant leases, receive the gold and superintend min- 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



101 



ing.* The theory was that the Nation had bought 
of, or taken from, Mexico a gold mine, of which the 
people were the stockholders, and the Cabinet at 
Washington the Directors, and all were to be made 
wealthy by its development. 

Hon John M. Clayton, Secretaiy of State, in April, 
1849, dispatched Col. T. Butler King, a prominent 
Whig politician, to California as agent of the United 
States, to inquire into the state of affairs and report 
to the Government. This investigation was intended 
as a basis of action regarding California. In accord- 
ance with the views of the Wbig party, the report 
of Colonel King was based on the idea of National 
ownership, and occupancy of all lands producing the 
" royal " metals, and a partnership in mining. 

The Democratic party opposed this policy, and 
thus added to its popularity in California. There 
was much " splitting of hairs," a contention upon 
narrow lines, and much demagoguery, more in 
accordance with the modern political tactics of 
" fillibustering," than a settled lino of policy that 
prevented the adoption of the Whig policy, until at 
last, the miners of California had passed beyond 
governmental interference, and a new American 
policy was adopted which dethroned gold and silver 
from their " royal " seat. In addition, the Demo- 
cratic apothegm, " the people who are the least 
governed are the best governed," was very accept- 
able to the manly and self-reliant class who took 
possession of California and organized its govern- 
ment. 

Such are the apparent reasons why California in 
the first years of American occupation was pre- 
eminently Democratic. 

ORGANIZATION OF PLACER COUNTY. 

Placer County formed no exception. This was 
par excellence a mining county, and miners thi'onged 
the foot-hills, the river bars, the deep canons, and 
the mountain ridges, constituting a large popu- 
lation at the date of the county's organization. At 
that date the ]wpulation was about 10,000, of which 
8,000 were whites, largely composed of men. The 
State census of 1852 showed a total population of 
10,784. 

The county was organized under Act of the Legis- 
lature approved April 28, 1851. The California 
Statutes as published of that year contain the names 
of Douglas Fry, Joseph Walkup, William Gwynn, 
H. M. Honn and Jonathan Roberts as a Board of 
Commissioners, to designate election precincts, to 
receive and count the votes. The names of Douglas 
Fry and H. M. Honn should have been printed J. D. 
Fi-y and H. M. House. The election for countj' 
officers was held on the fourth Monday of May, 1851, 
being the 2t)th of that month. 

At this election no party lines were drawn nor 
convention held. Friends of aspirants, and the aspir- 
ants themselves presented names in which the two 



"Colonel R. B. Ma 



epiiit, June, ISl.b. 



parlies were represented and voted for indiscrimi- 
nately. The following list embraces the names and 
votes, as returned by the Board of Commissioners: — 

County Judge — Hugh Fitzsimmons, 1,261; James 
S. Christy, 722; Horace Davenport, 763. 

District Attorney— R, D. Hopkins, 1,474; W. B. 
Greer, 889; Peter J. Hopper, 292. 

County Clerk — James T. Stewart, 1,118; Hiram 
R, Hawkins, 961; Wm. M. Jordan, 395; John Mc- 
Nally, 219. 

Sheriff— Samuel C. Astin, 1,280; A. B. Hall, 1,059; 
Wm. Kenniston, 453. 

County Surveyor — Samuel B. Wyman, 1,624; Lis- 
bon Applegate, 129. 

County Assessor — Alfred Lewis, 1,073; Wm. E. 
Miller, 587; E. T. Mendenhall, 139. 

County Treasurer — Douglass Bingham, 1,151; 
Abram Bronk, 818; Hiram Jacobs, 679. 

County Coroner — John C. Montgomery, 811; Enos 
Fenn, 706. Total number of votes cast, 2,792. 

The history of this campaign and its results is 
given in the chapter on the organization ofthecountj'. 
Bingham died, as is there stated, and the Court of 
Sessions appointed Abram Bronk to the vacancy. 
The vote as allowed, 2,792, cannot be taken as the 
full vote of the county, as many of the returns were 
rejected, and in many localities but little attention 
was paid to the election. The officers held until 
their successors, elected in September, 1852, should 
qualify, excepting such as were appointed, and the 
County Judge whose term was made four years by 
the Constitution. 

The State Constitution provided for annual elec- 
tions for Members of the Assembly, and biennial for 
State officers and Senators. The statutes gave Placer 
two Senatoi's and four Assemblymen; one Senator 
to be elected each year. The State was not divided 
into Congressional Districts. The counties of Placer, 
Yolo and El Dorado formed the Eleventh Judicial 
District, the District Judge holding for six years. 

At the election of September 3, 1851, partisan 
tickets were for the first time presented to the people 
of Placer. The returns were as follows: — 

State Senator— Jacob Fry (D), 1,204; \V. Ken- 
niston (W), 764. 

Assembly— Patrick Canney (D), 135; J. H. Gibson 
(D), 1.198; F. Bradley (W), 803; D. H. Stickney 
(W), 729. 

County Treasurer — Abram Bronk (D), 447; J. 
Lagdenby (W), 216. 

Public Administrator— Jonathan Roberts (D), 233; 
J. Coffyn (W), 38; E. Hogan, 23. 

District Judge— Seth B. Farwell, 1,110; E. L. ' 
Sanderson, 732. 

John Bigler, Democrat, was elected Governor over 
Pearson B. Reading, the Whig candidate. 

Total number of votes cast, 1,068. 

Joseph W. McCorkle and K. C. Alarshall were 
Members of Congress, having been elected in 1850, 
before the organization of Placer County. 



10: 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ABRAM BRONK, 

One of the 'pioneers of California, and one of the 
first and most respected officers, politicians, and 
public-spirited men of Placer County, died at Man- 
chester, Ontario County, New York, May 17, 1870. 
Mr. Bronk was a native of Rotterdam, New York, 
and spent the most of his life in that State, with the 
exception of about six years' residence in Placer 
County. On arrival in Placer, in the summer of 
1849, Mr. Bronk settled at Lower Horseshoe Bar, on 
the north fork of the American River, where he 
engaged in mining, which pursuit he followed until 
May, 1851, when he was elected Treasurer of the 
county, and held the position until June, 1853. 
During his official term he performed much of the 
work of Recorder and Auditor, in aid of the Clerk 
who then filled these positions ex officio. In 1854 he 
became the candidate of the Gwin faction of the 
Democratic party for County Judge, but the division 
of that party, and the nomination of a ticket by the 
Broderick wing, caused the election of the Whig 
ticket, and James E. Hale was the successful candi- 
date. The following year, 1855, Mr. Bronk was the 
Democratic candidate for State Senator, but the 
Know-Nothing furor then prevailing, he was de- 
feated by Charles Westmoreland. After his retire- 
ment from office he still continued mining at Horse- 
shoe, but subsequently became a member of the 
company which constructed the Whisl^y Bar Turn- 
pike road and wire suspension bridge — a work costing 
§50,000. He superintended the construction of the 
bridge, which was the first wire suspension bridge 
erected in Placer County. After the completion of 
this work, he erected the first suspension bridge 
across the main American River at Folsom, either as 
superintendent or by contract. Returning to his 
native State late in 1855, he there purchased a farm, 
married and settled down; but several years later 
he again thought of returning to Placer, and but a 
few months before his death, corresponded with his 
acquaintances in this county, making inquiry as 
to prices, etc., of certain foot-hill lands he desired to 
make his future home upon, with which he had been 
familiar in former years. At the time of his death, 
he still owned a considerable interest in the North 
Fork bridge and toll-road. Abram Bronk was 
possessed of a mind far above ordinary, stored with 
information and acquired knowledge rarely to be 
found among men in common walks of life, to which 
were added pure moral courage, rectitude of daily 
life, an honest heart and a conscience void of oft'ense. 
Those who knew him best in Placer County, appre- 
ciated the honest, intellectual man most, with his 
modest, retiring worth. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1852. 

This being the year for the election of a Presi- 
dent and Yice President of the United States, 
the time set for the election was the 2d day of 
November. A newspaper had been established in 



tte county, and parties fully organized, brought 
greater attention to the political contest. The 
National Conventions had nominated Franklin Pierce 
of New Hampshire, for President, and William R. 
King, of South Carolina, for Vice-President, on the 
part of the Democracy, and Gen. W^infield Scott, of 
New Jersey, for President, and William A. Graham, 
of North Carolina, for Vice-President, on the part of 
the Whigs. 

In the State were to be elected two members of 
Congress, two Judges of the Supreme Court, and one 
Clerk of the Supreme Court. For the Eleventh Judi- 
cial District, comprising the counties of Placer, El 
Dorado, and Yolo, one District Judge; for the county, 
one Senator, two Assemblyman, a District Attorney, 
Sheriff, County Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Coroner, 
Surveyor, and Public Administrator, and township 
officers in the several townships. 

The Democratic State Convention had placed in 
nomination James A. McDougall and Milton S. 
Latham for Congress, Hugh C. Murray and Alex- 
ander Wells for Justices of the Supreme Court, and 
P. K. Woodside for Clerk of the Supreme Court. 

The Whig Convention nominated G. B. Tingley 
and Philip Edwards for Congress, Sloan and 
Buckner for Justices of the Supreme Court, and W. 
W. Hawks for Clerk. 

In the District Convention, Ross was 'the Demo- 
cratic and John M. Howell the Whig, nominee for 
District Judge. 

No great difference was observable in the party 
platforms. The Democratic professed fealty to the 
Compromise measures of 1850, which had forever 
settled the slavery question. The Whigs professed 
greater fealty, claiming that they had been the means 
of accomplishing that noble and much desired end. 
The Democrats favored the uniting of the Atlantic 
and Pacific Coasts by the most improved means of 
communication. The Whigs declared that their 
party was the only one favorable to internal improve- 
ments by the general Government, and that the Dem- 
ocratic Party could not be trusted to build the Pa- 
cific Railroad. These obscure and ridiculous senti- 
ments are fair synopses of the two platforms. 

General Scott, the Whig candidate for the Presi- 
dency, was exceedingly popular as the Commander- 
in-Chief of the Army, and had won great honors in 
the war with Mexico. He was distinguished for his 
commanding appearance and soldierly bearing, of 
which he was very proud. His companion on the 
ticket, Mr. Graham, was from North Carolina, nick- 
named the " Tar State," and these two facts — Scott's 
military dress and vanity, and Graham's native State 
— suggested to Daniel Webster, when told of the 
nomination, the expression, " feathei-s and tar, tar 
and feathers," and this became the slogan of ridicule 
that took from Scott all the prestige of his military 
rank and fame. 

Franklin Pierce had also served in the Mexican 
war, as a General of volunteers; but it was for his 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



103 



services as a partisan rather than as a soldier that 
he was rewarded with the nomination. 

John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, and Cieorge W. 
Julian, of Indiana, were the candidates of the Free 
Soil Party. This organization had for its basis the 
exclusion of slavery from the Territories. It figured 
but slightly in the election in California. 

The vote of California was for the Democratic 
nominees. Pierce, 40,62(5; Scott, 35,407; Hale, 100. 
In Placer County, for: 

President — Pierce (D), 2,851; for the highest 
elector and for Scott 2,295. 

Congress— McDougall (D), 2,822; Latham (D), 
2,844; Tingley (W), 2,258; Edwards (W), 2,259. 

Justices of Supreme Court — Murray (D), 2,812; 
Wells (D), 2,779; Sloan (W), 2,552; Buckner (W), 
2,266. 

Clerk of Supreme Court— Woodside (D), 2,828; 
Hawks (W), 2,263. 

Judge of Eleventh Judicial District — Ross (D), 

2,668; Howell (W), 2,212. In the district, Howell 
received a majority of 700. 

The Democratic Countj- Convention met at Auburn, 
August 28, 1852. Hon. Seth B. Farwell was Presi- 
dent; John Nye and Morris King, Vice-Presidents, 
and Philip Lynch, Secretary. 

The Whig Convention met in the same place, 
September 4tb, with F. G. Eussell, President, Frank 
Caldwell and George Ellmore, Vice-Presidents, and 

C. AV. Belden and R. O. Cravens, Secretaries. 

The nominees of these Conventions and the returns 
of the election are given in the following: — 

State Senator — Joseph Walkup (D), 2,716; James 
K. Hale (\V), 2,164. 

Assembly — Patrick Canney (D), 2,706 (was 
elected Speaker pro tern.'), Benjamin F. Myers (D), 
2,474; John Hancock (W), 2,274; Thomas White 
(W), 2,269. 

Sheriff— S. C. Astin (D), 2,726; Wm. T. Henson 
(W), 2,135. 

District Attorney— P. W. Thomas (D), 2,697; R. 

D. Hopkins ( W), 2,125. 

County Clerk— Wm. A. Johnson (D), 2,658; A. S. 
Grant (W), 2,056; H. R. Hawkins (W, and running 
independently), 175. 

County Treasurer— Ed. G. Smith (D), 2,681 ; Honry 
Hubbard (W), 2,189. 

Assessor — William Gunn (D), 2,682: John Bristow 
(W), 2,178. 

Coroner— Dr. Pinkham (D), 2,704; W. J. Patter- 
son (W), 2,148. 

Surveyor— N. O. Hinman (D), 2,737; Geo. M. Hill 
(W), 2,127. 

Public Administrator. — Henry Barnes (D), 2,733: 
Jonathan Roberts (W), 2,148. 

Total number of votes cast, 5,144. 

The great leaders of the Whig party in the LTnited 
States were Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Clay 
died June 29, 1852, and Webster October 24th of the 
same year. From their death the strength of the 



party waned, and with the defeat of Scott it left 
the field as a great national power. For some years, 
however, it maintained organizations in the various 
States. 

The census of 1852, which had been taken under 
the authority of the State, showed a total popula- 
tion in Placer County of 10,784. In this were 
included females and children, foreigners and Indians, 
colored and Chinese not vested with the elective 
franchise, yet the vote of 5,144 shows nearly one- 
half the population to have been voters. 

PATRICK CANNEY. 

The first gentleman who had the honor of repre- 
senting Placer in the Legislature of California is 
worthy of special mention in the history of the 
county, though many years have elapsed since the 
service was performed and since the subject moved 
among his fellow pioneers. Patrick Canney was 
elected to the Assembly September 3, 1851, be being 
then but twenty-four years of age. His duties were 
performed so satisfactorily that he was re-elected to 
the same position in 1852, serving through the term 
of 1853, being Speaker pro tern, of the Assembly. 
At the expiration of his term, he received an 
appointment in the Custom House at San Francisco, 
and there resided during the remainder of his life, 
dying at the early age of thirty years, March 1, 1857. 
The San Francisco Herald of March 2d paid him the 
following warm eulogy: — 

A noble spirit was yesterday quenched in the cold 
embrace of death. Patrick Cannej' is dead. A truer 
man never lived. His nature was all goodness, gen- 
tleness and kindly feeling. No soil of worldliness 
ever stained the purity of his character. In the dis- 
charge of his duties as a public officer, no danger 
could affright, no blandishments could allure him. 
Bold and steadfast in the declaration of his princi- 
ples, honest in his purposes, faithful in his friend- 
ships, true to every obligation, unflinching in his 
assertion of the right — he possessed those genuine 
graces of character that endeared him in a singular 
degree to all who knew him. His untimely fate has 
created a most poignant sorrow in the hearts of all 
his friends — and who that knew Pat Canney did not 
love him? Indeed, indeed, we shall ne'er look upon 
his like again — so brave, so gentle — of such a win- 
ning geniality — so honest and truthful and magnani- 
mous and unselfish. May God have mercy on the 
soul of the simple-hearted and worth}' gentleman. 
Since the world began there never has been a better 
man than poor Pat Cannej'. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1853. 

The campaign of 1853 involved the election of 
State, Legislative, and township officers, and several 
vacancies in the county, and the LTnited States Sen- 
atorial question was always open. The Whig County 
Convention met at Auburn, June 17th, and elected 
delegates to the State Convention, which met at Sac- 
ramento July 6, 1853. The delegates so chosen 
were R. O. Craven, J. C. Hawthorn, A. S. Smith, A. 
S. Grant, Day Coulter, Theodore Hotchkiss, and 
James E. Hale. 



104 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The Convention was held at the date mentioned, 
and William Waldo was nominated for Governor and 
Henry Eno, of Calaveras, for Lieutenant-Governor; 
Tod Robinson, of Sacramento, for Justice of Supreme 
Court; D. K. Newell, of El Dorado, for Attorney- 
General; Geo. E. Winters, of Yub*, for Controller; 
Samuel Knight, of San Joaquin, for Treasurer; S. E. 
Woodworth, of Monterey, for Surveyor-General, and 
Sherman Day, of Santa Clara, for Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. 

The Democratic Convention met at Bcnicia June 
20th and nominated John Bigler, of Sacramento, 
for Governor; Samuel Pardy, of San Joaquin, for 
Lieutenant-Governor; Alexander Wells, of San Fran- 
cisco, for Judge of Supreme Court; John R. McCon- 
nell, of Nevada, for Attorney-General; Samuel Bell, 
of Mariposa, for Controller; S. A. McMeans, of El 
Dorado, for Treasurer; Seneca H. Marlette, of Cal- 
averas, for Surveyor-General, and Paul K. Hubbs, of 
Tuolumne, for Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The campaign was not very exciting, and to the 
people generally appeared chiefly to concern the 
heads of the tickets. The Democratic nomination 
was usuallj' deemed equivalent to an election. Big- 
ler had been nominated through the aid of David 
C. Broderick, a persistent candidate for the United 
States Senatorship. Waldo had assisted the over- 
land immigration during several summers, and was 
thought popular among the masses. The entire 
Democratic State nominees were elected, the vote 
for Governor being, Bigler, 38,9-10; Waldo, 37,404. 

The election occurred September 7, 1853, and the 
result in Placer County was as follows: — 

Governor— John Bigler (D), 1,925; William Waldo 
(W), 1,747. 

Senate— Charles A. Tultle (D), 1,948; W. R. Long- 
ley ( W), 1,643. 

Assembly — Benjamin F. Myers (D), 1,729; B. L. 
Fairfield (D), 1,890; Geo. II. Van Cleft (,D), 1,775; 
James O'Neil (D), 1,719; James Evans (W), 1,612; 
James Trask(W), 1,513; William Wilson {W), 1,646; 
Samuel Crary (W), 1,700. 

Assessor — \Vm. McCarty (D), 1,709; Daniel Dewey 
(W), 1,371. 

Surveyor— C. W. Finley (D), 1,926; Wm. A. Elli- 
son (\V), 1,462. 

Public Administrator— Wm. :M.Jordon (D), 1,980; 
Dr. J. L. Finly (W), 1,498. 

The Legislature met at Benicia January 2, 1854, 
and removed to Sacramento February 25th following. 
The Senate consisted of thirty-four members, and 
eighty in the Assembly. The session was an ex- 
ceedingly stormy one. David C. Broderick again 
came forward as a candidate for the United States 
Senate, for which position he had aspired since the 
organization of the State Government. By his 
aspirations and management the Democratic party 
was divided into what were commonly denominated 
'chivalry" and "anti-chivalry," or "Broderick," 
wings. He had attempted to have himself elected 



successor to John C. Fremont, whese term expired 
March 3, 1851, but not succeeding in this, was suffi- 
ciently skillful in his management as to prevent the 
election of Senator until late in 1853, when John B. 
Weller was elected. There being no Congressional 
statute fixing the time of election, Broderick assumed 
it could be done at any time. The position of Placer 
County upon this question was anomalous, and is 
stated in the historical sketch of the county pub- 
lished in the Directory of 1861 — " While the South- 
ei-n men united upon Mr. Gvvin, and ojjposed the 
election of a United States Senator by the Legisla- 
ture of 1854, in every other county, and the North- 
ern men united upon Mr. Broderick, and favored the 
election at that session, in Placer County, the South- 
ern men favored Mr. Broderick and the Northern 
men supported the Gwin faction. Thus we see the 
astute and far seeing Southern Democrats of that 
day assisting Mr. Broderick in carrying out the 
' great Northern sentiment ' which he professed to 
represent, and the Northern men opposing him and 
his party, and advocating and expressing the same 
sentiments and opinions that Southern men did in 
other counties." 

POLITICAL DUELS. 

The bitter controversy led to several hostile meet- 
ings between prominent politicians of the two wings 
of the Democracy. Mr. Philip W. Thomas, District 
Attorney of Placer County, and Chairman of the 
County Central Committee, had made some dispar- 
aging remarks about Mr. J. P. Rutland, of Placer, 
a clerk in the oflSce of the State Treasurer. For 
this be was called to Sacramento, to which point 
the Capital had been removed, and while there 
received a challenge from Rutland at the hands of 
Dr. Dickson, of San Francisco. Thomas declined 
the challenge on the ground that the challenger was 
not a gentleman. Dr. Dickson then declared that 
he would take the place of his principal. To this 
Thomas replied that Dr. Dickson was unacijuainted 
with the character of Rutland, and he would prove 
that all he had said was true. This was not satis- 
factory, and a retraction was insisted upon, or a 
hostile meeting. The retraction was declined, and 
on the 9th of March, 1854, the parties met at Oak 
Grove, about nine miles northeast of Sacramento. 
Dr. Hamilton Bowie of San Francisco, acted as the 
second of Mr. Thomas, and Judge Edward McGowan, 
of San Francisco, was the second of Dr. Dickson. 
The parties fought with duelling pistols at a distance 
of fifteen jiaces, and Dickson fell mortally wounded 
at the first fire, his shot striking the ground at the 
feet of Thomas. 

March 2l8t, B. F. Washington, editor of the Times 
and Transcript, anti-Broderick, and Washburn, of the 
Alta, a friend of Broderick, fought, near San Fran- 
cisco, and the latter was severely wounded. March 
20th, J. S. Landon and David E. Hacker fought a 
duel at Volcano Bar, on the middle fork of the 



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POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, 



105 



American, resulting in the death of Landon. This 
arose from a publication by Hacker about the Sen- 
atorial election. 

THE SLAVERY QUESTION IN CALIFORNIA. 

The subject of slavery was a very delicate ques- 
tion in politics in those days, and woe be to him who 
dared to express an opinion averse to, or doubtful of, 
the sacredness of the institution. But a bold leader, 
for his own political purposes and ambition, had 
thrown a gauge of battle into the arena and chal- 
lenged the acknowledged champions of slavery to 
combat. Thus it followed that those who could 
break from party rule for a personal object could 
come to express an opinion on principle. From such 
steps the breach grew wider and irreconcilable. On 
the 17th of April there were laid on desks of the 
Members of the Legislature circulars issued by the 
Societ)' of Friends of Great Britain and Ireland, 
animadverting upon the subject of slavery in Amer- 
ica, and advocating its suppression. This touched 
the sorest spot in the political body, and great indig- 
nation was expressed. 

Mr. McBrayer, Member of the Assembly from 
Sacramento, offered the following preamble and res- 
olutions respecting the circulars, which are here 
reproduced as a sign of the times, and presaging the 
struggle and war in the future. 

Whereas, An Abolition document, purporting to 
come from the Society of Friends in London, has 
been laid upon the desk of each member of this body. 

And Whereas, Such document, under cover of 
religious teachings, advises treason, immorality, and 
a general disobedience of the laws of the Union; 
therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the pages and porters of this 
House bo directed to gather up said documents, 
and in imitation of the Indian burial service, make 
a funeral P3're of the same. And be it further 

Resolved, That the Society of Friends in London 
be requested in the sole name of humanity to attend 
to the interest of the white slaves of England and 
Ireland, and to be kind enough to allow the people 
of the United States to look after, and attend to, 
the affairs and condition of the " poor " African 
within their own borders. 

The resolutions were adopted by the following 
vote: — 

Yeas— Messrs. A. G. Bradford, C. B. Carr, Pedro C. 
Carrillo, — Clingan, T. E. Davidson, J. N. Dawley. 
W. M. Gordon," H. Griffith, — Hagans, E. O. F. 
Hastings. — Henry, A. J. Houghtaiiing, E. Hunter, 
Richard Irwin, W. Lindsey, J. VV. Mandeville, J. 
Musser, B. F. Myers, J. M. McBrayer, C \\ . McDan- 
iel, F. S. McKenney, Chas. P. Noel. Jas. O'Neil, J. VV- 
Park, Martin Rowan, John Stemmons, W. VV. 
Stow— 27. 

Xays — Messrs. Francis Anderson, D. R. Ashley, S. 
A. Ballou, J. H. Bostwick, Ed. Burton, John Con- 
ness, P. B. Cornwall, B. L. Fairfield, H. B. Godard, 
H. Hollister, N. Hubert, J. C. Jones, H. B. Kellogg, 
F. W. Koll, W. S. Letcher, G. McDonald, E. B. 
Purdy, J. R. King, T. A., Springer, \V. J. Sweasey, 
Joseph Livy, S. G. Whipple — 22. 

Those voting against the resolution were in the 
ensuing campaign held up by the Democratic press 



and speakei-s to public execration and bitterly 
denounced as " Abolitionists." Of the Placer dele- 
gation Myers and O'Neil voted for the adoption, 
Fairfield against, and Van Cleft not voting. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1854. 

The dissensions among the leaders of the Demo- 
cratic party culminated in an open rupture in the 
campaign of 1854. In April of that year, the Brode- 
rick wing established the Placer Democrat at Auburn, 
as an advocate of their chieftain for the position of 
Senator. This paper was edited by Philip Lynch, 
and opened the campaign bj' advocating Hon. Chas. 

A. Tuttle of Placer, as the nominee of the Broderick 
wing for Congress. The chief question that agitated 
the public was the election of United States Senator 
to succeed Dr. Wm. M. Gwiii, whose term would 
expire Mai'ch 3, 1855. 

Placer was an important county in the contest, 
ranking as eighth in population and vote. Hereto- 
fore it had been a reliable Democratic county, and 
Broderick, who pei'sisted in making his fight within 
that party, being chairman of the State Central 
Committee, and " boss of the machine," pursued the 
policy of " divide or conquer." The Democratic 
State Convention was called to meet at Sacramento 
on the 18th of July. Placer was accorded 
eleven delegates of the 260 constituting the Conven- 
tion. The counties having more were San Francisco. 
41; El Dorado, 25; Sacramento, 18; Tuolumne, 16; 
Calaveras, 15; Yuba, 14, and Nevada 13. Thei-e 
were two members of Congress and a Clerk of the 
Supreme Court to be nominated. 

The Democratic County Convention met at 
Auburn, July 7, 1854. The Convention was com- 
posed of 111 delegates, and was very nearly evenly 
divided between "Broderick" and " regular" Demo- 
crats, the latter having three or four majority. The 
majority affected an organization by the election of 
John K. Kate as President; and the minority, under 
the leadership of Charles A. Tuttle, S. C. Astin, F. 

B. Higgins, J. W. Scobey, Hugh Fitzsimmons, P. H. 
Clayton, and others, withdrew and organized 
another Convention. Both Conventions elected 
eleven delegates to the State Convention. The same 
occurred in nearly every county. Of those elected 
at the regular, or majority Convention, Messrs. JI. P. 
H. Love, J. R. Pile, E. D. Shiriand, and J. McMartin 
attended, and the others were represented by P. W. 
Thomas, B. F. Parsons, S. T.Leet, J. H. Baker, J. L. 
Bennett, Samuel Todd and J. P. Dameron as proxies. 

A STORMT state CONVENTION. 

The State Convention of 1854 was an event long 
to be remembered by the politicians of California. 
Broderick had planned to control it absolutely, and 
where he had not the command of the regular organ- 
ization of the county, caused opposition Conventions 
to be held, and as a consequence two sets of delegates 
appeared at Sacramento. The Convention met on 
the day appointed in the Baptist Church. Each 



106 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



wing bad arranged to effect a surprise and immediate 
organization, and thus secure control, but the secret 
arrangement of each had been treacherously made 
known to the other. Broderick, as Chairman of the 
Slate Central Committee, called the Convention to 
order. Immediately Jnmes OMeara, anti-Broderick, 
of San Francisco, nominated ex-Governor John Mc- 
Dougal for Chairman. Mr. Vermule of Sunta Clara, 
Broderick, nominated Judge Ed. McGowan. Brod- 
erick refused to recognize O'Meara as a delegate, 
put the motion of Vermule, and without asking for 
the noes, declared him elected. OMeura put his 
own motion and declared McDougal elected. Each 
faction was prepared for war, and with revolvers 
drawn, escorted their respective Chairmen to the 
stage where each occupied seats. Men of nerve and 
action had been selected for this purpose; prominent 
among the Broderick faction were Samuel C. Astin, 
Sheriff of Placer, William Walker, the filibuster, 
James P. Casey, afterwards hanged by the Vigilance 
Committee, Billy Mulligan, the prize fighter, Mike 
Gray, Sheriff' of Yuba, Henry Caulfield, of Sacra- 
mento squatter notoriety; Jack McDougall, of El 
Dorado, •' Bill " Poach, of Monterej' and others. Of 
the Anti-Brodericks were Maj. John Bidwell and 
Judge W. S. Sherwood of Butte, P. W. Thomas, of 
Placer, J. P. Dameron, Naval Officer, Wm. G. Ross, 
James O'Meara and Blanton McAlpin, of San Fran- 
cisco, ex-SveakerC,S. Fairfax, of Yuba. General Rich- 
ardson, United States Marshal, David S. Terry and 
Samuel H. Brooks, of San Joaquin, Major P. Solomon 
and George S. Evans, of Tuolumne, Jos. C. McKibben, 
of Sierra, Ben. Marshall, ex-Sheriff of Calaveras and 
many of the Federal officers of San Francisco who 
were the appointees of Senator Gwin. All were 
prepared for the most desperate action, and a hundred 
pistols were drawn and held in readiness for bloody 
and deadly hostilities. The utmost disorder pre- 
vailed. The two Chairmen sat side by side through 
the day, but no progress in business could be made. 
Broderick moved an adjournment which was declared 
carried, but no one left the house. The Trustees 
and the Pastor of the church begged the assemblage 
to disperse, and not further disgrace or endanger l5y 
a riot the sacred edifice, but their praj'ers were 
received with derision by the howling mass. In 
this condition the double Convention continued 
through the day until late in the evening, when the 
Trustees having refused to permit the gas to be 
lighted, the two Chairmen, arm in arm, headed the 
procession and marched out and separated. 

CONVENTIONS AND NO.MINATIONS. 

The next day two Conventions met, and each made 
nominations. Each styled itself Democratic, but the 
common designations were, " Regular Democrats," 
and "Broderick Democrats." The first nominated 
Gen. James W. Denver of Trinity, and Philip T. 
Herbert of Mariposa for Congress, and Charles A. 
Leake of Calaveras for Clerk of the Supreme Court; 



and the Broderick Democrats nominated Milton S. 
Latham of Sacramento, and James A. McDougall of 
San Fi'ancisco for Congress, both then holding the 
offices, and P. K. Woodside of Calaveras for Clerk. 
Latham subsequently declined, and James Church- 
man, of Nevada, was named in his place. 

The Whig State Convention met at Sacramento, 
July 25, 1854, and nominated George W. Bowie of 
Colusa and Calhoun Benham of San Francisco for 
Congress, and Joseph R. Beard of Nevada, for Clerk 
of the Supreme Court. 

Three parties were now in the field, two claiming 
the title of Democrat, but bearing the epithets and 
appellations of "chivalry" and "anti-chivalry;" 
" regulars " and " bogus;" " Democrats " and " Brod- 
erick Democi-ats;" the other party was the Whigs. 
All held county conventions and made full nomina- 
tions for all the offices. The candidates named both 
for State and county officers were men well known 
and of great popularity, and the canvass was thor- 
oughly and warml}- contested. Meetings were held 
in every locality where audiences could be assembled, 
and the ablest public speakers went through the 
State in the interest of their respective parties. The 
Whigs felt that with a divided Democracy they 
could win, and therefore worked with unusual vigor. 
The regular Democratic press was very bitter upon 
the Broderick party whom they termed bolters, and 
denounced as Abolitionists, but was quite mild and 
patronizing towards the Whigs. The Broderick 
County Committee proposed a compromise which 
was rejected as unfair to the regulars. The chief 
matter of discussion was Gwin and Broderick. 
Shortly after the campaign opened, Latham with- 
drew his name, expressing objections to dividing the 
Democracy. The election occurred on the 6th of 
September, with the following result in Placer 
County: — ■ 

Congress— George W, Bowie (W), 2.366; Cal- 
houn Benham (W), 2,378; James W. Denver (D), 
1.915; P. T. Herbert (D), 1,935: J. A. McDougall, 
(B D) 1,117; M. S. Latham, (B D) 653; James 
Churchman, (B D) 505. 

Clerk of Supreme Court— J. R. Beard (W), 2,418; 
C.A.Leake (D). 1.865; P. .K Woodside (B D), 1,237; 

Senate— J. C. Hawthorne (W), 2.347; W.H.Gray 
(D), 1,831, G. C. Newman (B D), 1,211. 

Assembly— Thomas Moreland (W), 2,-394: R. F. 
Gragg (W). 2.312; Wm. Corey (W), 2,303; Moses 
Andrews (W), 2,316; J. H. Baker (D), 1,805; D. 
B. Curtis (D), 1,840; B. F. Par.sons (D), 1,844; J. 
L. Bennett (D), 1,734; L. N. Ketchum (B D), 1,247, 
J. N. Smith (B D), 1,237; P. H. Clayton (B D), 
1,226; J. C. Duell (B D), 1.183. 

County Judge— James E. Hale (W). 2,284; A. 
Bronk (D), 1,904; Hugh Fitzsimmons (B D), 1,225. 

Sheriff— W. T. Hen.son (W), 2,514; Samuel Todd 
(D), 1,733; N. A. Dillingham (B D), 1,190. 

District Attorney— M. E. Mills (W), 2,452; Philip 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



107 



VV. Thomas (JJ), 1,7U7; Joseph VV. Scobey (B D), 
1,224. 

County Clerk— A. S. Grant (W), 2,348; W. E. 
Johnaon (D), 1,858; W. A. Parker (B D), 1.232. 

County Treasurer— J. R. Crandall (W), 2,330; E. 
[i Smith (D) 1,822; G. VV. Applegate (B D), 1,2(59. 

County ABsessor— A. S. Smith (VV), 2,261; H. W. 
Starr (D), 1,922; J. E. Stewart (B D), 1,241. 

Public Administrator — JohnE. Gwynn (W,) 2,159; 
James Anderson (D), 1,803; James Bovven (B D), 
1,225. 

Coroner— J. L. Finley (\V), 2,276; John P. Har- 
per (D), 1,913. 

Surveyor— G. H. Colby (W), 2,436, (November 
19, 18"'5, Colby resigned and Thomas A. Young was 
appointed in his place), C. W. Finley (D), 1,364. 

Total vote, 5,520. 

A slight feeling had been created against Denver, 
in consequence of his having shiin Hon. Edvvard F. 
Gilbert in a duel two years previouslj', and his vote 
was less than Herbert's. But a few months before 
the election Thomas, the Democratic candidate for 
District Attorney, had killed Dr. Dickson in a duel, 
and this militated against his success to the extent 
of about 100 votes. Hei'bert subsequently distin- 
guished himself by killing a waiter at Willard's 
Hotel, in Washington, for inattention to bis orders. 

Placer County had electod its entire Whig ticket 
by a plurality, but the State had elected two Demo- 
cratic members of Congress, and the Whig nominee 
for Clerk of the Supreme Court, the successful can- 
didates receiving from 35,754 votes for Beard (W), to 
37.677 for Denver (D); the Whig Congressman, 
35,369 I'or Bowie, and Mr. Churchman, the highest 
Broderiek Democrat, 10,039. 

The Legislature was estimated by the San Fran- 
cisco Herald to contain thirty-three regular and ten 
"bogus" Democrats, thirty-five Whigs and two 
Independent in the Assembly; thirteen regular and 
thirteen '-bogus" Democrats and seven Whigs in the 
Senate. There was great rejoicing among the Gwin 
Democrats, that wing having the majority of the 
Democrats, and Broderiek still professing to act in 
that organiz ition, it was believed he would submit 
to the caucus, which would secure the re-election of 
Dr. Gwin to the United States Senate. 

The Legislature met at Sacramento January 1, 
1855. In the Assembly VV. W. Slow, Whig, w;i8 
elected Speaker, greatly to the astonishment of the 
Gwin Democrats. The Legislature met in joint con- 
vention early in the session to vote for Senator, and 
continued from day to day until the last of Febru- 
ary, when the Convention adjourned suie die without 
an election, by a vote of 63 ayes to 44 nays. On 
the last of January the vote was, Col. Philip Ed- 
wards (.W), 37; Gwin, 36; Broderiek, 31; N. E. 
Whitesides (D), 13; J. A. McDougall, 1; Joseph 
W. McCorkle, 7; Vincent E. Geiger, 2; Myron Nor- 
ton, 1. February 16th great joy was expressed 
by the regular Democrats because of the vote of 



Hon. C. A. Tattle, Senator from Placer, for Gwin, 
which, with some others, swelled his vote to 41. 

The action of this Convention may be said to 
have marked an era in the political histoiy of Cali- 
fornia. The question of shivery, deeply smothered 
as it was, had a powerful and controlling influence. 

Under the cloak of Broderickism, anti-chivalry, 
free-soil, and other names, the anti-slavery exten- 
sion element fought the extreme pro-slavery power, 
and from this element, in after years, sprang the 
Pepublican party. The great national question at 
that time was the extension of slavery into the 
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The Missouri 
Compromise had been abrogated at the demand of 
the Southern States, thus admitting slavery into the 
Territories, and the opposition to this measure so 
strengthened the opposition to Gwin as to cause the 
defeat of the election at this time. As a personal 
matter, it appeared as a triumph of Broderiek, who, 
powerl'ul as he was in the management of a few 
steadfast friends, was I'eally exceedingly unpopular 
throughout the State, and without the leeling of 
antagonism to slavery extension, which he at that 
time ignored, but which influenced many, he would 
not have had the power to deleat the election. 

Among the most important Acts of the Legislature 
was one providing for a Board of Supervisors for 
Placer County, the Court of Sessions having had the 
business aftuirs in charge. 

The Legislature passed amendments to the Con- 
stitution, to be submitted to the vote of the people 
at the next election, which provided that the sessions 
of the Ijegislature should he biennial, beginning with 
the session of 1858, and sections to make the Con- 
stitution consistent with that change. The Placer 
members in the Legislature acted well their part, 
and left a record for bold and honorable principles 
to which they could point with pride in after life. 

With the signal defeat of the Broderiek wing in 
the election in Placer County, the Democrat, the 
organ of the parly, edited by L. P. Hall, who had 
succeeded Lynch early in the campaign, ceased pub- 
lication, and was succeeded by the Auburn W/iig, 
with Mr. Mills, the newly-elected District Attorney, 
as editor. This fl.ished up quite brilliantly for a 
period, under the inspiration of an unexpected vic- 
tory, and, following its party like the sudden bright- 
ness of a dying candle, paper and party soon went 
out iorever. 

FIRST AND ONLY WUIO ADMINISTRATION. 

The Whig administration in Placer Countj' is best 
shown in the history of the finances and official 
re];orts. Judge Hale has since been repeatedly hon- 
ored with high trusts and office; Henson was called 
a model Sheriff; Dr. Crandall one of the best of 
Treasurers, and the reports of Assessor Smith wore 
the most complete and comprehensive ever made in 
the county. 

April 7, 1855, S. C. Astin resigned as Sheriff, and 



108 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Wm. H. Dillingham was appointed to the place by 
Judge Fitzsimmons, and William McCarty, Assessor, 
resigned, and J. T. Griffith was appointed. 

April 9th an election was held for a Board of 
Supervisors, resulting as follows: District No. 1, C. 
G. W. French; No. 2, Henry W. Starr; No. 3, E. L. 
Bradley; No. 4, Albert L. Boyden; No. 5, W. N. Leet. 
After this Board came into power the Sheriff and 
Assessor appointed by Judge Fitzsimmons were 
removed and Sheriff-elect Henson and Assessor- 
elect Smith were appointed in their places. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1855. 

In the meantime a new political partj- had entered 
the field. This was first organized in Baltimore, 
Maryland, as a secret society, professing its object, 
as publicl}' understood, to elevate only native-born 
citizens to office. From this it took the title of 
'• Native American," but from its secret meetings, 
and the reticence of its members as to its object and 
principles, they weresooti dubbed ''Know-Nothings,' 
and that became the common name of the party. 
This organization made itself felt in the campaign of 
1854 in San Francisco, and, in the municipal election 
of the succeeding spring, elected several of the city 
oflSeers. Lodges of Native Americans were organ- 
ized throughout the State in the spring and summer 
of 1855, and it entered the campaign with great 
energy to contest for the supremacy. The Whigs 
abandoned the field, ths majority, apparently, join- 
ing the new party. Many of the leading Southern 
Democrats, violently opposed to the Borderick rule, 
also joined, or secretly encouraged the Know- 
Nothings, and these with such Americans as were 
attracted by the watchword " Americans shall rule 
America," gave strength to this unique jiolitical 
organization. 

With the death of the Whig party its Placer 
County organ, in June, became the Flacer l^ress, 
edited by Hiram E. Hawkins, and the advocate of 
the new party; while the Herald continued the 
staunch advocate of the Demoeracj'. 

The election this year included State and Legisla- 
tive officers. The two Democratic wings had united 
with the Broderick leaders in control. The State 
Convention of the party was called to meet at Sacra- 
mento, on the 27th of June. El Dorado headed the 
list in the number of delegates being allowed 33; 
San Francisco 30, Nevada 20, and Placer 17, making 
this the fourth in rank of Democratic voters. 
The County Convention was called to meet at 
Auburn on the 23d of June, to appoint delegates to 
the State Convention, and to nominate a Legislative 
ticket. The following were the delegates chosen: 
James McCabe, Hugh Bradley, Joseph Walkup, W. 
W. Caperton, S. C. Astin, Abram Bronk, George W. 
Applegate, John McNally, William Duck, James 
Herrick, Daniel Cribbs, J. II. Baker, James O'Neil, 
J. L. Bennett, Le Grand Berry, Samuel Adams and 
W'illiam Riley. 

The State Convention met at Sacramento as 



appointed and organized harmoniously. The princi- 
pal candidates for Governor were Col. B. F. Washing- 
ton, Milton S. Latham, James Walsh, and Gov. John 
Bigler. Colonel Washington was the favorite of the 
"Chivalry," and before the assemblingof the Conven- 
tion it was understood he would be the nominee. Brod- 
erick having control of the Central Committee effected 
a compromise by which Washington withdrew, and 
the understanding was general that Governor Bigler 
was also to withdraw; but when names were pre- 
sented for nomination, the Broderick power pre- 
sented the name of John Bigler, and he became the 
Democratic candidate for his third term as Governor. 
This so incensed the friends of Washington that 
many withdrew from the Convention, and others of 
the party declined nominations at its hand. Among 
these were Chief Justice Hugh C. Murray and David 
S. Terry, who were proposed for the Supreme Court. 
The nominations were completed as follows: For 
Lieutenant-Governor, Samuel Purdy, of San Joa- 
quin; Justices of the Supreme Court, Myron Norton, 
of Los Angeles, for full term; Charles H. Bryan, of 
Yuba, for unexpired term; Controller, Thomas C. 
Flournoy. of Mariposa; Treasurer, Benj. F. Keene, 
of El Dorado; Attorney-General, B. C. Whiting, of 
Monterey; Surveyor-General, Seneca H. Marlette, of 
Calaveras; State Printer, George H. Crosette, of 
Butte; State Prison Directors, Samuel C. Astin, of 
Placer, Wm. H. Bell, of San Francisco, and C. F. 
Powell, of San Joaquin. 

NATIVE AMERICANS, OR KNOW-NOTHINGS. 

The County Convention of the Native American, 
or Know-Nothing, party, was held at Auburn on the 
24th of July, and appointed delegates to meet at 
Sacramento in State Convention on the 8th of 
August. All proceedings were kept secret. The 
State Convention met at the appointed time, and 
James W. Cotfroth, of Tuolumne, was elected Chair- 
man. The following nominations were made: For 
Governor, J. Neely Johnson, of Sacramento; Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, R. M. Anderson of El Dorado; Jus- 
tice of Supreme Court, Hugh C. Murray of Solano, 
full term; David S. Terry, of San Joaquin, unex- 
pired term; Controller, George W. Whitman of 
Tuolumne; Treasurer, Henry Bates of Shasta; Attor- 
nej--General, W. G. Wallace of Santa Clara; Sur- 
veyor-General, John A. Brewster of Sonoma; State 
Printer, James Allen of Yuba; State Prison Direc- 
tors, Alex. Bell of Los Angeles, F. S. McKenzie of 
Trinity, and Ezekiel Wilson of San Francisco. The 
County Conventions made full nominations, whose 
names appear in the returns. 

The campaign was short but active. On the Dem- 
ocratic side were such speakers as Wm. M. Gwin, 
Wm. Van Voorhies, Governor Bigler. Myron Norton, 
and others of note; and the Americans sent through 
the country David S. Terry, James W. Coffroth, 
Edward C. Marshall, and the State and county can- 
didates of both parties spoke at meetings at every 
precinct. The election occurred on the 5th of Sep- 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



100 



tember, resulting in a complete American triumph — 
the Governor, Johnson, receiving 4,073 majority, the 
others being upwards of 3,000, excepting Murray, 
whose majority was but 407, Terry's 2,785 and 
Anderson's 1,490. The American majoi'ity for the 
State officers was about 800. 

The vote for Legislative officers was as follows: — 

Senate — Charles Westmoreland (A), 2,955; Abram 
Bronk (D), 2,428. 

Assembly — Silas Selleck (A), 2,978; Lansing Stout 
(A), 3,017; T. H. Read (A), 3,009; R. L. Williams 
(A), 2,981; A. P. K. Safford (D), 2,362; Albert Thorn- 
dyke (D), 2,385; B. K. Davis (D), 2,306; Samuel B. 
Wyman (D), 2,381. 

Superintendent of Common Schools — H. E. Force 
(A), 3,002, (died, and Theodore B. flotchkiss ap- 
pointed February 4, 1856,) Wm. A. Johnson (D), 
2,342. 

The total number of votes cast was 5,554. The 
question of a Prohibitory Liquor Law received in 
Placer County, 1,741 votes in its favor, and 1,678 
votes against. 

EFFORTS TO ELECT A SENATOR. 

The Legislature met in January, 1856. One of 
the most important questions before it, was the elec- 
tion of United States Senator to succeed Dr. Grwin, 
whose term had expired on the third of the preced- 
ing March. The Americans had a large majority in 
joint convention, but were tied with the Democrats 
in the Senate, though one Independent afterwards 
voted with them. The principal candidates were 
ex Governor Henry S. Foote, lately from Mis.sissippi, 
Henry A. Crabb and Edward C. Marshall. The 
resolution to go into joint convention was introduced 
in the Assembly, and passed on the 12th of January, 
and transmitted to the Senate. After several post- 
ponements in that body, on the 22d the resolution to 
go into joint convention was indefinitely postponed, 
and that all action on the election of Senator be 
postponed until January 1, 1857. This was adopted 
by a vote of nineteen to fourteen, Messrs. Flint, of 
San Francisco, Ferguson, of Sacramento, and Fiske, 
of Sutter, Americans, voting for it. The election of 
Governor Foote was expected to have been the result 
of the Convention, and from this fact, many who 
had advocated the American party in the campaign, 
expressed pleasure in the defeat of the election. The 
anti-slavery element in the Senate was the balancing 
cause of the defeat. 

The leading candidate, Governor Foote, was not 
inclined to abandon the contest, but remained at the 
capital devising plans and arguments to bring on the 
election. February and March had nearly passed 
with but very little rain, and the prayers of miners 
and farmers were loud for water, in which they 
were much more interested than in the election of 
United States Senator. Late in March Foote and 
Marshall were at their hotel in Sacramento, convers- 
ing on the condition of the country, when the 



former observed that in consequence of our foreign 
relations, portentous of war, and the distraction of 
our people on many local questions, the welfare of 
the whole country, and especially of this State 
demanded that California should have another Sen- 
ator in Congress. Marshall raised himself listlessly 
from the sofii upon which he was reclining, and said 
abruptly: "Yes, that or rain." The waggery and 
appositeness of the answer soon became the common 
joke, ridiculing the pretentions of the Senatorial 
aspirant, and little more was heard of the election 
after that. 

Many of the American party papers expressed 
deep indignation, and those of the Democracy as 
heartily rejoiced. The Flacer Herald, then under the 
editorial charge of James Anderson, closed a long 
article on the subject as follows: — 

Weep! weep! and howl! ye patriotic quill-drivers 
of the order of the Dark Lantern, for the miseries 
that have come upon you. Writhe and curse your 
political idiocy, ye victims of misplaced confidence, 
who whilom sat in your council chambers, and swore 
to stand by each other through thick and thin. 
Whither, oh! whither will ye fly! Will ye with 
drooping ears and tails between your legs, fall behind 
the heel of your caucus-chosen Senator, or will ye, 
sorrowfully and repentant, with downcast eyes ask 
admission into the ranks of men, who dare, with 
fearless I'ront, hold in public their councils and do 
battle as becomes men! Show your hands! make 
good your words! be men; be mice, or be long-tailed 
rats! 

Among the measures introduced in the Legislature 
affecting Placer was one for the division of the 
county. On the 15th of September, 1855, Messrs. 
Olmstead and Miller commenced the publication of 
the Iowa Hill A^eivs, and immediately began the 
agitation of the question of the division ol'the county. 
This subject is more fully treated in a chapter 
devoted to it. 

Another measure was the funding of the county 
debt, for which a bill was introduced by Senator 
Hawthorne, but it failed to pass. Hon. Lansing 
Stout, one of the Assembljanen from Placer, in after 
years became a citizen of Oregon, where he was 
elected to Congress by the Democracy in 1859. He 
died at his residence in Oregon in March, 1871. 

The Legislature passed an Act permitting the 
people of Placer County to vote upon the proposition 
of subscribing to the stock of any extension to the 
Sacramento Valley Railroad from Folsom to Auburn ; 
also one authorizing the Supervisors to levy a special 
tax for the benefit of, or expenses of the jail and 
prisoners. 

CAMPAIQN or 1856 — THE REPUBLICANS. 

Again a new political party made its appearance 
in California. This was the Republican party, 
already strong in the I^orthern States of the East, 
but in the beginning of 1856 only mentioned with 
bated breath on the Pacific Coast. The Republicans 
had gained such strength in Congress as to enable 
them to elect N. P. Banks, of Massachusetts, Speaker, 



110 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



oy a plurality vote after a contest of two months. 
This had so incensed the California Legislature, then 
in session, that it adopted a resolution declaring it 
deplorable, " as representing sectional feelings dia- 
metrically opposed to the Constitution of the United 
States, and to the only measures and doctrines 
which will insure the perpetuity of our Republican 
institutions, and the preservation of our Union." 

This resolution was introduced in the Assembly 
by Hon. J. T. Farley, the Speaker, and leader of 
the American party, and it was that party, which 
at the time seemed most to dread the new organiza- 
tion. The Democrats, although denouncing the 
Republicans in bitter terms, hailed them as disor- 
ganizersof the American party, as from that element 
it might draw the disaffected and independent vote. 
No thought was entertained that the new party 
would gain suflBcient strength in California to be 
dangerous to the Democracy. The masses of the 
people were so opposed to it that its first advocates 
were frequently mobbed when attempting to address 
the public. The organization was regarded with 
unspeakable horror, as unwarrantably sectional and 
treasonable, and its advocates as fanatics or lunatics. 
Such was the welcome the Republican party received 
in California. 

The election of 185G involved a President and 
Vice-President of the United States, two members 
of Congress, Clei-k of the Supreme Court, Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction, a Legislature that would 
have the election of two United States Senators, 
and a full set of county oflicers. 

The Democrats called a State Convention to meet 
at Sacramento, March 5th, to elect delegates to the 
National Convention at Cincinnati. Placer was 
alloted 13 delegates,the rank being sixth; San Fran- 
cisco 39, El Dorado 21, Sacramento 16, Nevada 14, 
and Tuolumne 14. 

The Democratic County Convention to send dele- 
gates to Sacramento, met at Auburn, February 23d. 
Resolutions were adopted recommending that dele- 
gates be sent, favorable to the nomination of James 
Buchanan for the Presidency. The following were 
chosen delegates: Captain Southworth, D. B. Curtis, 
Tabb Mitchell. George W. Applegate, Samuel Todd, 
J. H. Baker, Joseph Colgan, Henry Gooding, AV. 
W. Caperton, Joseph Walkup, James O Neil, Wm. 
McClure and Benjamin F. Myres. The State Con- 
vention met on the 5th. Resolutions were adopted 
declaring that James Buchanan was the choice of 
the California Democracy for the nomination of 
President. Broderick, Bigler, and other Northern 
Democrats were the champions of Buchanan, while 
Volney E. Howard, and other extreme pro-slavery 
men expressed doubts as to his position, upon the 
question of admitting slavery into all the Territories. 

The Convention met at Cincinnati, June 2d, and 
on the 5th, made nominations of James Buchanan, of 
Pennsylvania, for President, and John C. Brecken- 
ridge, of Kentucky, for Vice-President. 



The Grand Council of the American party met at 
Philadelphia, February 19, 1856; and nominated 
Millard Fillmore, of New York, for President, and 
Andrew Jackson Donelson, of Tennessee, for Vice- 
President. 

The first Republican State Convention in Califor- 
nia met at Sacramento, April 30th, and was attended 
by representatives from thirteen counties. • The 
riacer Herald congratulated the people of the county 
on the fact that only one man trom Placer was 
present. The Republican National Convention met 
at Philadelphia, June 3, 1856, and nominated John 
C. Fremont, of California, for President, and Wm. L. 
Dayton, of New Jersej', for Vice President. The 
residence of Fremont in California was denied, and 
he was accredited to South Carolina, his native 
State. The anti Fillmore men of the American party 
met in Convention in Philadelphia on the 20th of 
June, and nominated John C. Fremont for the 
Presidency, and Wm. F. Johnson, of Pennsylvania, 
for Vice-President. 

The Abolition party nominated Garrett Smith, of 
New York, for President, and S. McFarland, of Penn- 
sylvania, for Vice-President, and a third faction of 
the American party nominated R. F. Stockton, of 
New Jersey, for President, and Kenneth Rayner, of 
North Carolina, for Vice-President. 

The principal questions of difterence between the 
parties were, on the Republican side, opposition to 
the extension of slavery into the Territories; dis- 
satisfaction with the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise, and demanding the repeal of the obnoxious 
Fugitive Slave Law. 

The County Democratic Convention met at Auburn 
on the 5th of September, to nominate one Senator 
four Assemblymen, and county officers, and to 
appoint thirteen delegates to the Slate Convention. 
These delegates were: S. G. Elliott, Joseph Walkup, 
P. H. Clayton, C. Setfens, Col. Wm. McClure, J. H. 
Baker, J. O'Neil, Henry Gooding, W. W. Caperton, 
S. C. Astin, Jas. Herrick, Charles King and D. S. 
Beach. The State Convention nominated Charles 
L. Scott, of Tuolumne, and Joseph C. McKibben, of 
Sierra, for Congress, Charles S. Fairfax, of Yuba, 
for Clerk of Supreme Court, and Andrew J. Moulder, 
of San Francisco, for Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. 

The Republican Slate Convention met at Saci'a- 
mento on the 27th of August. Placer County was 
represented by Messrs. Charles A. Tuttle, P. H. 
Sibley, H. Hazel, F. B. Higgins, — Buckland, — 
Brock, J. D. Carpenter and C. J. Hillyer. The 
nominations were as follows; Ira P. Rankin, of San 
Francisco, and Tom. Cox, of Plumas, for Congress, 
(Cox was withdrawn and — Turner placed in his 
stead,) Cornelius Cole, of Santa Cruz, for Clerk of 
Supreme Court, and J. M. Buffington, of Sacramento, 
for Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The Convention of the American party, held 
September 15th, nominated A. B. Dibble, of Nevada, 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



in 



and B. C. Whitman, of Solano, for Congress, John 
Skinker, of Sacramento, Clerk of Supreme Court, 
and Horace P. Janes, of San Francisco, Superintend- 
ent of Public Instruction. 

The election occurred on Tuesdaj', November 4th, 
with the following result in Placer County: — 

President— Buchanan (D), 2,808; Fillmore (A), 
2,096; Fremont (E), 992. 

Congress— Scott (D), 2,739; McKibben (D), 2,725; 
Dibble (A), 2,090; Whitman (A), 2,069; Rankin (R), 
1,043; Turner (R), 1,007. 

Clerk of Supreme Court— Fairfax (D), 2,778; 
Skinker (A), 2,086; Cole (R), 986. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — Moulder 
(D), 2,771; Janes (A), 2,092; Buffington(R), 973. 

For Railroad subsidy 3,432 against, and 319 in 
favor. Amendments to Constitution, 2,462 for and 
795 against. 

The county nominees of the several parties, and 
the votes received for each were as follows: — 

Senate— Joseph Walkup (D), 2,738; Hiram R. 
Hawkins (A), 1,913; Curtis J. Hillyer (R), 1,016. 

Assembly— W. W. Caperton (D), 2,724; A. P. K. 
Sufford (D), 2,718; S. B. Wyman (D), 2,720; James 
O'Neil (D), 2,568; Lansing Stout (A), 2.183; C. J. 
Brown (A), 2,024; P. B. Fagan (A), 2,073, M. M. 
Robinson (A), 2,013; W. D. Lawrence (R), 925; — 
Burrows (R), 884; S. R. Bradley (R), 796; — Shel- 
don (R), 874. 

Sheriff— Charles King (D), 2,619; W. T. Henson 
(A), 2,515; Monroe Richardson (R), 513. 

District Attorney— P. W. Thomas (D), 2,711, R. 
D. Hopkins (A), 1.995; F. B. Higgins (R), 908. 

County Clerk— Tabb Mitchell (D), 2,576; B. F. 
Moore (A), 2,302; \Vm. Cory (R), 776. 

Treasurer— Philip Stoner (D), 2,632; T. B. Hotch- 
kiss (A), 2,246; — Matoon (R), 750. 

Assessor— J. W. Spann (D), 2,679; A. S. Smith 
(A), 2,129; A P. Frary (R), 845. 

Public Administrator — James M. Gaunt (D), 2,753: 
H. T. Holmes (A), 1,998; G. Otis (R), 902. 

Surveyor— Eugene A. Phelps (D), 2,789; C. W. 
Finley (A), 1,990; —Wagner (R), 869. 

Coroner— H. M. House (D;;, 2,586; John P. Gaines 
(A), 2,081; G. W. Towle (R), 908. 

Superintendent of Common Schools — P. C. Millette 
(D), 2,708; S. R. Case (A), 2,013; Albert Hart (R), 
933. 

California was entitled to four electoral votes, and 
of these, the Democratic electors received in the 
State 51,935 votes, the American 35,113 and the 
Republican 20,339. In the United States Buchanan 
(D), received 174 electoral votes, Fremont (R), 114, 
and Fillmore (A), 8, the vote of Maryland. The 
California Legislature met January 6, 1857, and con- 
tained in the Senate, 19 Democrats, 11 Americans, 
and 3 Republicans; in the Assembl3-, 59 Democrats, 
9 Americans, and 12 Republicans. E. T. Beatty, of 
Calaveras was chosen S])eaker, and James O'Neil, of 
Placer, Speaker ;jro tern. 



SKETCHES OF CANDIDATES. 

The Placer Herald gave sketches of the Democratic 
candidates for ofSce in the county, which are here 
republished, with additions, with the exception of 
those whose biographies are published elsewhere: — 

W. W. CAPERTON, 

One of the nominees for the Assembly, is a native of 
Mississippi; emigrated with the rush to California, 
and has long resided in this county, in which he has 
been largely engaged in mining. 

In after years he resided in Monterey County, as 
lawyer and editor, and died at Monterey in 1864. 

SAMUEL B. WYJIAN, 

One of the successful candidates for the Assembly, 
was born in the State of New York, came to Cali- 
fornia in 1849, and in that year settled at Atburn, 
where the mercantile house of Walkup & Wj'man 
existed for several years. In 1851, Mr. W^yman was 
elected County Sux-veyor. Subsequently the two 
pioneers were extensively engaged in farming and 
cattle raising, on the place of their choice, where 
Auburn Ravine debouches upon the plain; where he 
continued his pleasant and prosperous life for many 
years. In 1855 he had been one of the Democratic 
candidates for the Assembly, but the excitement of 
the Know-Nothings, or Americans at that time, 
carried the election, and Mr. Wyman was defeated 
with his partJ^ Of late years he has resided in San 
Francisco. 

A. p. K. SAFFORD. 

The name of this gentleman often appears in the 
first decade of Placer County's history, as connected 
with public improvements, politics and measui-es for 
the advancement of society. In 1855 he was a can- 
didate for the Assembly as a Democrat, but was 
defeated by the American, or Know-Nothing party. 
The following year he was again nominated and 
elected, and again elected to the same office in 1857. 
In 1862 he removed to Humboldt County, Nevada, 
and there, as in his old home of Placer, became an 
active politician; was County Recorder, and in 1867 
was appointed by President Johnson Surveyor- Gen- 
eral of Nevada. In 1869 he was appointed by Pres- 
ident Grant Surveyor-General of Arizona, and 
became a resident of that Territorj-, where he has 
since resided. After serving his term as Surveyor- 
General, he was appointedGovernor of the Territory, 
and later he has become a prominent banker in 
the cities of Tucson and Tombstone. 
JA.MES o'neil 

Was a citizen of the Federal City, where he was 
engaged as an emploj-ee in the Washington Union 
office, under the eye of the venerable Ritchie, untiT 
the year 1851, when he emigrated to this county, in 
which he has since resided, lie re]>r'osented Placer 
in the Legislature of '54, and is a ]>ractical miner by 
occupation. 

Mr. O'Neil was elected, and became Speaker jjto 
tern, of the Assembly. 



n-2 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



CHARLES KING, 

The nominee for Sheriff, is a native of the State of 
Maine; was for many years a resident of Washing- 
ton City, where he was engaged in business. In 
1850 he came to California and permanently settled 
in this county the following j'ear. Like most Cali- 
fornians, he has seen a variety of fortune, has taken 
his turn with the pick and shovel, been engaged in 
the saw-mill and lumber business; as a merchant 
was burnt out in 1852, sustaining thereby a heavj- 
loss. Mr. King is possessed of courage, persever- 
ance and energy, qualifications that eminently fit 
him for the position in which the party have every 
reason to believe he will be placed by the people. 

PHILIP STONER, 

Elected County Treasurer in 1856, had acquired 
his business education in a mercantile house in Cin- 
cinnati, where he was engaged until carried away 
by the gold excitement of 1849, when he joined 
the throng for the Pacific Coast. With that inde- 
pendent and bold spirit which characterized the 
5-oung men of 1849 he sought the mines as his field 
of labor and enterprise, locating in the upper regions 
of Placer County on the rich Forest Hill "divide,'' 
and there worked as a miner until called to the 
office of Treasurer. When he entered the office the 
county was in debt to the amount of S101,000, which 
amount was reduced during his term of office, ending 
June 2, 1859. to S46,000, and well on the way to 
final extinguishment. Mr. Stoner had been elected 
as a Democrat, and was proposed as a Senator in 
1859, but declined the nomination. In the earlj- 
days of the silver discovery in Nevada he emigrated 
to the eastern slope, and when the Territory was 
organized was made Treasurer of Ormsby County 

PHILIP W. THOMAS, 

The candidate for District Attorney, was born in 
the State of Maryland, grew to manhood in the old 
" Empire State," and received a collegiate educa- 
tion — studied the profession of the law in the office 
of the distinguished Wm. M. Price — was licensed 
and practiced at the Bar in the city of New York 
until 1849, when he emigrated to California and 
settled at once in this county. Judge Thomas 
labored with the pick and shovel until 1850, when 
he resumed the practice of his profession. He was 
elected Justice of the Peace at the first election in 
the Slate, and was Associate Justice of Sutter 
County in 1850. He was chosen by the electors of 
this county in 1852, and served from June, 1853, to 
June, 1855, in the office for which he is now before 
the people. The long and familiar acquaintance ot 
Mr. Thomas with the people of Placer County pre- 
cludes the necessity of further remarks on our part, 
in connection with his name. 

As will be seen in this Political History, Mr. 
Thomas continued a prominent man in politics, 
'serving in the Senate as a Douglas Democrat, but 
afterwards acting with the regular Democracy. He 
afterwards removed to New York. 

J. W. SPANN, 

Our nominee for Assessor, is from the State of Mis- 
souri to California. He is a printer by profession, 
but has been engaged since 1851 in this coiinty as a 



practical miner. Sober, intelligent, and of active 
business habits, he will fill the position with credit to 
himself, and to the satisfaction of the people. 

In addition it may be said, Mr. Spanu was elected 
to the office, which he filled with much credit, and in 
his reports to the Surveyor-General gave a complete 
exhibit of the condition, property, and prospects of 
Placer County. He subsequently removed to Tulare 
County, and became a farmer near the border of 
Tulare Lake. 

EUGENE A. PHELPS, 

The candidate for County Surveyor, is a native of 
the State of New York; moved to California in 
1849, and has long been a resident of this county. 
He has surveyed and superintended, as civil engi- 
neer, water ditches in the vicinity of Y^'ankee Jim's. 
Competent judges speak in high terms of his capacity 
for the office the Convention has selected him to fill. 

JAMES M. GAUNT, 

Nominee for the office of Public Administrator 
was born in Virginia, and was for a long time a citi- 
zen of Missouri, from which State he emigrated in 
1850 to California, and settled in Placer County in 
'52. Mr. Gaunt is a mechanic, but has spent his 
time in this State in laborious mining. Of active, 
correct business habits, and possessing a stout honest 
heart, that commands the respect of all with whom 
he comes in contact, he is well suited to the place. 

HUDSON M. HOUSE, 

Is the nominee for Coroner. He is a native of 
Ohio, where at an early age he engaged in mercan- 
tile pursuits. He has lived in this county since 1849, 
and is familiarlj' known to the public as the land- 
lord of the Empire Hotel in Auburn; was one of the 
five Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to 
organize the county of Placer in 1851. 

PERCIVAL C. MILLETTE, 

Nominated for County Superintendent of Public 
Instruction. This gentleman seems peculiarly suited 
to this important trust, having graduated at Triiiity 
College, Dublin; studied for the law, and was 
admitted to practice, but has employed his years, for 
the most part, in teaching that which he found such 
a pleasure in acquiring as a student. He was last a 
citizen of W^isconsin, and has been engaged in 
teaching during his residence in California. 

ELECTION OF SENATORS. 

The election of two United States Senators occu- 
pied the first two weeks of the session. As before 
the election of Senator Weller, California had been 
rejiresented by but one Senator, the term of I)r. 
Cwiii having expired on the 3d of March, 1855, and 
Colonel Weller's term would expire on tUe 3d of 
March, 1857. Broderick's handiwork had been seen 
in every Senatorial contest since 1849, and now by 
adroit management that ambitious and skillful politi- 
cian had control of the election. He and his fi lends 
had been the special advocates of James Buchanan for 
the Presidential nomination, and the official patron- 
age expected from that source lent its influence in 
his favor. The aspirants for Senatorial honors were 
Broderick, Gwin, W^eller, Tilford, Latham, Field, 
McCorkle and \Vashin£cton. 




PV. L. Aluiison. 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



113 



TRIUMPH OF BRODERICK. 

Broderick received the nomination in the Demo- 
cratic caucus, for the long term, succeeding AVeller, 
receiving the vote of O'Neii, of Placer, while the 
others of the delegation voted for Frank Til- 
ford. For this O'Neii received the severest excoria- 
tion by the people of Placer, who expressed the 
strongest hostility to Mr. Broderick. The result 
was the election of David C Broderick as United 
States Senator for six yeai-s from March 3, 18.57, and 
Dr. W. M. Gwin for four years. Broderick had won 
at last the ambition of his life, but the fruits of his 
triumph were like " Dead Sea apples, that turned to 
ashes on his lips." The story of his struggle for the 
Senatorship, and his life, would constitute one of the 
most interesting chapters of California's political 
history, combining intrigue and triumph, romance 
and tragedy, the firmness of friendship and the per- 
fidy of politicians; but only the brief statement of 
facts can enter the historj^ of Placer. 

ACTS FOR PLACER. 

Among the Acts passed specially for the interest 
of Placer County were the following: An Act, intro- 
duced by Senator Walkup, and approved February 
4, 1857, to change the time of election of Supervisors 
of Placer County, so that one will be chosen each 
year; also an Act, introduced by the same, to appro- 
priate all the special tax levied according to Act of 
the previous year for jail purposes, and one-half 
the proceeds of the Foreign Miners' License Tax, to 
the redemption of county scrip before it would 
become due, on such terms as could be agreed upon. 
Scrip was usually sold to brokers at a discount of 
from thirty to fifty per cent., and this Act provided 
a fund whereby the Treasurer could act as broker 
and purchase scrip. The saving by this measure was 
estimated at $10,000 per annum. 

By an Act approved February 13, 1857, the salary 
of the County Judge was placed at $2,000 per 
annum. The terms of county officers were to begin 
and end on the first Monday in December after those 
elected in 1858, continuing two years. 



C II A P T E R XXI 
POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 
Campaign of 1S57 — The Democracy United — Democratic Com- 
binations — Contempt for the Republicans — Campaign of 1858 
Douglas Democrats — Conventions Held — Republicans and — 
Douglas Democrats Combine — Eleventh Judicial District — 
The Klection — A Portentous Omen — The Legislature — Cam- 
paign of 1859 — Horace Greeley — Broderick and Terry Duel 
— M. S. Latham Elected Senator— Legislation for Placer — 
James Anderson — Campaign of 1860 — Threatening Aspect 
of Parties — The Election — Lincoln the President — James A. 
McDougall .Senator — A Stormy Session — The Rebellion — 
Campaign of 1861 — Success of the Republicans — Campaign 
of 1862 — Three Parties in the Field — Abolition of Slavery — 
Constitutional Amendments Adopted — Campaign of 1863 — 
Democratic Song — "Long Hairs" and "Short Hairs" 
United — Democrats United — Judicial Election — Placer 
County Matters — Campaign of 1864 — Presidential Nomina- 
tions — The Election. 

The campaign of 1857 involved the election of 
State, Legislative, several count}- and township offi- 



cers; also to pay or repudiate the State debt, and a 
vote upon calling a Constitutional Convention. The 
political power seemed indisputably in the hands of 
the Democratic party, and their nominations were 
generally regarded as equivalent to an election. 
There were several reasons for this. The Senatorial 
contest, which had been a prolific source of discord, 
had been settled, apparently, for four years at least, 
and the two wings appeared firmly united. In addi- 
tion to this, the administration of State affairs by the 
American party had given great dissatisfaction, and 
the Republicans were still laboring under the com- 
mon denunciation of being disunionists, abolitionists, 
sectionalists, negro-worshipers, and the like, and 
their power was insignificant, except in the large 
cities. 

DE.MOCRATIC COMBINATIONS. 

The combinations made in settling the Senatorial 
question in the previous winter had decided, in 
advance of any convention, a good portion of the 
Democratic nominees, at least so far as bargaining 
could. 

CONTE.MI'T FOR THE REPUBLICANS. 

The Republicans put forth their platform, which 
appeared to the Democrats so obnoxious that they 
published it as a campaign document on the theory 
that 

" Vice is a monster of such hideous mien. 
That to be hated needs but to be seen. " 

The result was, however, as demonstrated in after 
years, the conclusion of the poet, 

" But seen too oft we become familiar with its face: 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace, " 

The Republican platform declared the national 
character of the party, and expressed no opinions 
regarding State policy, other than to invite immigra- 
tion, wherein it differed from the American party 
To prohibit slavery in the Territories was in the 
power and duty of Congress, in which it diffei'ed 
from the Democi-atic party, which denied that power. 
It was opposed to interference with slavery in the 
States. One resolution said "That the opinion ren- 
dered by Chief Justice Taney, and concurred in by 
other Judges, in the late Dred Scott case, is a pal- 
pable violation of the principles of the Declaration 
of Independence, a falsification of the history of 
our country, subversive of State rights, and a flagrant 
injustice to a large portion of the people of the 
United States, and as such merits the indignant 
repi'obation of every freonan." This disappi'oba- 
tion of so sacred a thing as a decision of the t^nited 
States Supreme Court was considered as but little 
short of blasphemy. The platform expressed the 
hope that the free men of Oregon, then about organ- 
izing a State Government, would succeed in estab- 
lishing it on a basis of free principles, excluding 
slavery from the Pacific Coast forever. 

The campaign was opened early, the I'larer Herald 
and a number of other papers placing the name of 
John B. Weller at the head of their columns as can- 



114 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



didate for Governor, subject to the Democratic State 
Convention. Tbis Convention was called to meet 
at Sacramento July 1-tth, and Placer County was 
accorded fifteen of the 312 delegates, ranking as the 
sixth among the forty-four counties. 

The County Convention met at Aubui-n Julj- 11th 
and a))pointed Messrs. James Anderson, D. H. Lee, 
Daniel Choate, J. M. Powers, VV. Story, John O. 
Manuel, J. R. Nickerson, P. W. Thomas, D. M. 
Reavis, D. C. Scott, Dr. J. W. Waters, J. P. Olmstead. 
John Mason, H. Manser, and Joseph Walkup dele- 
gates to the State Convention. These were instructed 
to vote for the nomination of John B. Weller for 
Governor. 

The State Convention met as ordered. The gen- 
tlemen mentioned for candidates for Governor were 
John B. Weller, of Sacramento, Joseph W. MeCorkle, 
of Butte, and John Nugent, of San Francisco — 
Weller being nominated. The remaining nomina- 
tions were as follows: For Lieutenant-Governor. 
Joseph Walkup, of Placer; Justice of Supreme 
Court, full term, Stephen J. Field, of Yuba, Peter 
H. Burnett, of Santa Clara, short term; Attorney- 
General, Thomas H. Williams, of El Dorado; Con- 
troller, James W. Mandeville, of Tuolumne; Treas- 
urer, Thomas Findley, of Nevada, long term, James 
L. English, of Sacramento, short term; Surveyor- 
General, Horace A. Iligley, of Alameda; State 
Printer, John O'Meara, of San Francisco. Shortly 
after the nomination Joseph Walkup resigned his 
position as Senator, leaving a vacancy to be filled at 
the ensuing election. 

The American State Convention met at Sacra- 
mento, July 28th. and nominated the following: For 
Governor, Geo. W. Bowie, of Colusa; Lieutenant- 
Governor, J. A. Raymond; Justice of the Supreme 
Court, James 11. Ralston, of Sacramento; Controller, 
G. W. Whitman, of Amador; Attorney-General, T. 
J. McFarland, of Nevada; Treasurer, J. R. Crandail, 
of Placer; Surveyor-General. Lucien B. Healy; 
State Printer, B. H. Monson. 

The Republican State Convention met at Sacra- 
mento, July 8th, and made the following nominations: 
For Governor, Edwai-d Stanley, of Marin: Lieutenant- 
Governor, D. W. Cheeseman, of El Dorado; Justice of 
Supreme Court, Nathaniel Bennett, of San Francisco; 
Attornej^General, Aaron A. Sargent, of Nevada; 
Controller, L. C. Gunn, of Tuolumne; Treasurer, 
Leland Stanford, of Sacramento; Surveyor-General, 
P. M.Randal, of Amador; State Printer, F. B. Mur- 
dock, of Santa Clara. 

The campaign was quiet, the usual i-ound of speech 
making being followed, with the addition of a num- 
ber of Republican speakers, who received more 
respectful attention than in the preceding year. 

The result was the election of the entire Demo- 
cratic State and County ticket; the vote in the 
county for Governor being, Weller (D), 1,999; Bowie 
(A), 1,425; Stanley (R), 708. Joseph Walkup, for 
Lieutenant-Governor, received 2,0GS votes, being the 



highest of any candidate. The full vote in the State 
for the Gubernatorial candidates was: Weller, 
53,122; Stanley, 21,010; Bowie, 19,481. For Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Walkup received 57,336 votes; 
Cheeseman, 16,800; Raj'mond, 19,718, making Walk- 
up's majority, 20,818. The votes of El Dorado, 
Klamath, and Santa Barbara, were not counted by 
the Legislature, making that count much less. 

The vote on payment of the State debt was large 
in its favor, and against holding a Convention to 
revise the Constitution. 

The following are the names of the candidates for 
Legislative and county offices, and the vote each 
received: — 

Senate— full term, J.C.Baker (D), 1,841; T. P. 
Slade (A), 1,474; P. H. Sibley (R), 704; short term, 
James Anderson (D), 1,977; John Barnes (A), 1,388; 
S. R. Bradley (R), 640. 

Assembly-D. B. Curtis (D), 2,005; A. P. K. Saf- 
ford (D), 2,007; Nicholas Kabler (D), 1,968; Wm. C. 
Stratton (D), 2,001; James H.Toole (A), 1,330; F. 
J. Frank (A), 1,400; H. S. Wooster (A), 1,379; W. 
Whittier (A), 1,434; A. G. Read (R), 604; A. H. 
Goodrich (R), 634; A. C. Skull (R), 622; W. H. 
Hilton (R), 635. 

Superintendent of Common Schools — Percival C. 
Millette (D), 1,970; J. P. Brooks (A), 1,485. 

Public Administrator — Thomas Coffey (D), 1,935; 
C. T. Palmer (A), 1,578. 

Coroner— W. J. Esmond (D), 2,071; Dr. Page (R), 
1,457. 

Convention — for, 2,552; against, 748. 

Paying State Debt— for, 2,850; against, 663. 

Total number of votes cast, 4,219. 

Placer was about the only count\' that gave a 
majority for holding a Convention to revise the Con- 
stitution. This had resulted from the advocacy 
of the question by the Herald, where the cumbrous- 
ness of the courts, the powers given to corporations, 
and other defects of the Constitution had been ably 
pointed out. The State vote on the question was 
30,226 for the Convention and 17,680 against, but 
the statute authorizing the election required a major- 
ity of all the votes east, the total vote of the Slate 
being 93,643 the question was lost. 

The Legislature met on the first Monday in 
January, 1858. Lieutenant-Governor Walkup pre- 
sided in the Senate, and N. E. Whitesides, of Yuba, 
was elected Speaker, and Joseph W. Seobey, of 
Placer, Clerk of the Assembly. The session passed 
with but little of general interest, terminating its 
labors April 26, 1858. .In both houses were 104 
Democrats, 14 Republicans and 7 Americans. 

Soon after the election in 1857, Chief-Justice H. C. 
Murray died, and Peter 11. Burnett, who had been 
elected to fill the term, expiring January 1, 1858, 
was appointed to the vacancy, and Stephen J. Field, 
who had been elected to take office January Ist, was 
appointed to the place made vacant by the appoint- 
ment of Burnett. 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



115 



CAMPAIGN OP 1858. 

The progress of the political changes which led 
from the absolute supremacy of the Democratic 
party to its disruption and revolution is noticed with 
each recurring campaign. In a retrospective view 
the period including the administration of James 
Buchanan is one of the most interesting and instruc- 
tive of the political history of the United States, as 
it witnessed the culmination of the slave power; 
the imperial arrogance of its leaders; and the 
growth of the Republican party against whose suc- 
cess the South rose in rebellion. 

DOUGLAS DEMOCRATS. 

Witli the opening of the campaign of 1858 the 
first mention is made of " Douglas Democrats." 
Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois had intro- 
duced the bills for the organization of the Territo- 
ries of Kansas and Nebraska in 1854, which left the 
question of slavery to be decided by the people when 
organizing as States. For this he became a very 
popular leader of the Democracy. In 1858, under the 
pressure of Buchanan and the proslavery Democrats 
a bill was passed admitting Kansas with a Constitu- 
tion maintaining slavery, known as the "Lecompton 
Constitution," which had been rejected by a large 
majority of the people of Kansas, who. had sub- 
mitted an anti-slavery Constitution, made in Conven- 
tion at Topeka. Douglas, Broderick, and Chandler, 
Democratic Senators, voted against the measure, and 
were called bolters, and their adherents became 
known as "Douglas Democrats," or " Anti-Lecomp- 
tonites." The Placer Press, under the editorial charge 
of A. S. Smith, became the organ of the Anti- 
Lecompton party, and as the historian of 1860 
writes, " was accused of being strongly tinctured 
with Abolitionism." 

The principal questions under discussion during 
the Campaign were, the admission of Kansas, with 
the Constitution establishing slavery, and the dis- 
agreements between Senators Broderick and Douglas 
with theExocutiveat Washington. The proclamation 
of the Governor, called for the election of a Judge of 
the Supreme Court, and a State Controller as the only 
officers to be voted for by the people of the State in 
general, the election of Members of Congress having 
been postponed one year. The Eleventh Judicial 
District was required to elect a Judge, and the 
county Legislative officers and county officers. 

McKibben, Member of Congress, and strongly 
anti-Broderick the previous year, now opposed the 
Democratic Administration, and acted with the 
Douglas, or Anti- Lecompton party. The American 
party still maintained its organization in Placer 
County, but made no State nominations. 

CONVENTIONS HELD. 

The Republican County Conrention met July 24, 
1858, and selected twelve delegates to the State 
Convention, to meet at Sacramento on the 5th of 



August: P. H. Sibley, C. J. Hillyer, S. R. Bradley, 
F. B. Higgins, J. M. Moulton, Charles A. Tuttle, H. 
H. Watson, C. 11. Aldrich, L. R. Chamberlain, L. O. 
Gorman, George White and C. H. Goodrich. 

The State Convention met on the day appointed, 
and nominated John Currey, of Solano, for Judge of 
the Supreme Court, Dr. L. C. Gunn, of Tuolumne, 
for Controller, and Joseph C. McKibben, of Sierra, 
and F. P. Tracy, of San Francisco, for Members of 
Congress. 

The Democratic County Convention met July oOlh, 
and nominated legislative and county officers, and 
selected eleven delegates to the State Convention at 
Sacramento, to be held August -Ith. The following 
were the delegates: John C. Manuel, B. Stinson, N. 
Kabler, W. C. Stratton, Walter White, J. W. Brady, 
W. C. Rich, E. McDonald, L. G. Smith, S. B. Wyman, 
and J. A. Hill. 

The Democratic State Convention met at Sacra- 
mento, August 4Lh, and nominated Joseph P. Bald- 
win, for Judge of the Supreme Court, and A. R. 
Meloney, for Controller. Among the proposed nom- 
inees for Supreme Judge were John M. Howell, ot 
El Dorado, P. H. Burnett, Of Santa Clai-a, Judge 
Barber, of Tuolumne, and H. P. Barbour, of Yuba. 

The Douglas Democrats of Placer met in County 
Convention at Auburn, and selected delegates to a 
State Convention of the party at Sacramento, to be 
held simultaneously with the Democratic and Repub- 
lican Conventions. This Convention nominated John 
Currey, of Solano, for Supreme Judge, I. N. Dawley, 
of Nevada, for Controller, H. U. Jennings, of Butte, 
for Clerk of the Supreme Court, J. C. McKibben, of 
iSierra, and VVm. L. Dudley, of Calaveras, for Mem- 
bers of Congress. 

REPUBLICANS AND DOUGLAS DE.MCORATS. 

The intent and purpose of the Douglas Democrats 
and the Republicans being so nearly the same — that 
was to " end the misrule of the Buchanan Democ- 
racy," — ^that a combination was made, the Republic- 
ans nominating two of the Anti-Lecompton Demo- 
crats for State officers, and in the county both 
nominating the same. The division of the Demo- 
cratic party gave hopes of success to the American 
party in Placer, and a Convention was held at 
Aubui'n, July 31st, and officers for the Legislature 
and county were nominated. 

Among the resolutions in the Democratic platform, 
was one declaring, 

"That, in the opinion of this Convention, the 
formation of, and adherence to ihe so-called Topeka 
Constitution, by the Abolition party of Kansas, was 
an act of rebellion which ought to have been put 
down by force. And be it further 

Pesolved, — That it is the will of those who adhere 
to the Government, and not to the will of those 
who array themselves in rebellion against the Govern- 
ment, that should be looked to and carried out, 
both in the formation of State Constitutions, and the 
admission of States into the Union." 



110 



HISTORY OF PLA.CER C(jrXTY, CALIFORNIA. 



This Democratic doctrine of 1858 became very 
obnoxious to many of that party, when adopted by 
the Republicans, in the war of the Rebellion. 

ELEVENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT. 

The Eleventh Judicial District Convention met at 
Siieramento. August 5th, only Ei Dorado and Yolo 
Counties being represented, and nominated Thomas 
H. Hewes, of Ei Dorado, for Judge. This was pro- 
tested against by the people of Placer, and Benjamin 
F. Myres announced himself as an independent 
candidate for the position, saying in his address to 
the voters, that he had been solicited so to do by 
gentlemen from various parts of the district. 

THE ELECTION. 

The election was held September 1st, resulting in 
the success of regular Democratic State and county 
nominees, excepting the candidate for ('ollector, and 
of B.F. Myres, Democratic, but independent candidate 
for District Judge. The State returns were, for 
Supreme Judge — Baldwin, Democrat, 44,599; Currey, 
Douglas Democrat and Republican, 30,198; Con- 
troller— Meloney, Democrat, 44,285, Dawley, Dou- 
glas Democrat, 27,759; Gunn, Republican, 7,481. 
No count was made of the votes for Members of 
Congress, or Clerk of Supreme Court, the term of 
the latter office having been extended until 1859^ 
by the Legislature. The vote for District Judge 
was, in Placer County, for Myres. 3.054; Hewes, 702; 
Myres having a majority in the district of about 100. 

The following returns show the candidates of the 
different parties in the countj% and the vote each 
received : — 

Senate — James Anderson (^D), 1,909; H.S. Wooster 
(A), 1,392; J. C. Ball (R and D D), 1,290. 

Assembly— W. C. Stratton (D), 1,948; Wm. P. 
Barclay (D), 2,130; W. P. Wing (D), 1,989; Philip 
Lynch (D), 1,817; M. M. Robinson (A). 1,214; F. J. 
Frank (A), 1,314; J. B. Henderson (A), 1,358; D. B. 
Collins (A), 1,301; E. J. Schellhouse (R and D D), 
1,287; James McDonald (R and D D). 1,256; J. P. 
Kavanaugh (R and D D), l,2.s."); Wm. H, Lowell 
(R and D D), 1,278. 

County Judge— E. H. Vandecar (D), 1,957; H. R. 
Hawkins (A), 1,418; L. B. Arnold (R and D D i, 
1,209. 

Sheriff— L. L. Bullock (D), 2,005; M. C. Ladd (A), 
1,437; J. W. Phillips (R and D D), 1,220. 

Collector— M. Kimball (A), 1,993; G. L. Hamlin 
(D), 1,805; Thomas Sherman (R and D D), 804. 

Treasurer— G. W. Applegate (D), 1,938; J. T. 
Higbee (Ai. 1,394; Moses Hyneman (R and D D), 
1,223. 

Clerk— Henry Gooding (D), 2,044; T. P. Slade 
(A), 1,559; Jos. VV. Scobey (R and D D), 1,019. 

Recorder— G. L. Anderson (Dj, 1,995; J. L. Brown 
(A), 1,363; L S. Tichenor (R and D D), 1.233. 

District Attorney- P. W. Thomas (D), 2,243; J. 
F. Welch (A), 1,120. 



Assessor— T. B. Harper (D), 2,240; H. J. Marsh 
(A), 1,120; Geo. Lermond (R and D D), 1,213. 

Surveyor— S. G. Elliott (D), 1,992; E. A. Phelps 
(R and D D), 1,303. 

Public Administrator — John Reiser (D), 1,913; 
Julius P. Brooks (A), 1,280: E. M. Banvard (R and 
D D), 1,250. 

Coroner — James McBurney (D), 2,012; G. W. 
Sheridan (R and D D), 1,227. 

Total number of votes cast, 4,720. 

The terms of the county officers would begin 
June 2, 1859. 

The campaign had been quite active, particularly 
on the Republican side, with such speakers as F. P. 
Tracey, Joseph C. McKibben and Wm. L. Dudley, 
and these aroused the people to an excited state, 
calling out the votes of all ])arties. As a conse- 
quence the vote was much larger than had been 
anticipated, it having been estimated that at least 
8<i0 votes had left the county for Frazer River 
since the preceding election. 

The Legislature elected was composed of twenty- 
four Administration Democrats, seven Douglas Dem- 
ocrats and four Republicans in the Senate; and fifty- 
four Administration Democrats, sixteen Douglas 
Democrats and ten Republicans in the Assembly. 

.\ PORTENTliLS OMEN. 

As the c.ini[)aign closed there appeared in the 
northwestern sk}' a large and brilliant comet, after- 
wards known as Donati's Comet, with a tail of fifteen 
degrees in length, and curved toward the north like 
a flaming Turkish cimeter. This grand spectacle 
was visible every evening for six weeks, appearing 
like an armj- in the heavens passing in review from 
the north to the south, eventually disappearing in 
the southwest, having many features likened to 
military equipages; sharp, straight lines, like spears 
and rapiers, rising and disappearing, and the whole 
appearing like a saber held in the air, or an aigrette 
plume flowing from the chapeau of a soldier. By 
many it was regarded as the comet which some 
historians declare influenced Charles V., in the six- 
teenth century to abdicate the thrones of Spain 
and Germany, and which had foretold the birth of 
Christ, and in its period of a little over 300 years had 
prognosticated great political and religious events. 
Did it come at this time to forewarn the world of 
the great revolution to occur in the United States 
in a few years thereafter, one of the greatest 
political revolutions of history, and was its flaming 
sword and military appearance as it passed a symbol 
of the future mareh of the Union armies from the 
North to the South ? 

THE LEGISL.\TDRE. 

The Legislature met January 3, 1859, Lieutenant- 
Governor Walkup presiding in the Senate. On the 
4th the Assembly organized by the election of W. 
C. Stratton, of Placer, as Speaker, this county 
having the honor of the two presiding officers. The 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



117 



Reading Ulerk, Joseph W. Scobey, who had been 
Clerk of the preceding Assembly, was also from 
Placer County. 

The most exciting question of the session was a 
resolution introduced by Senator William Holden, 
of Tuolumne and Stanislaus, requesting D. C. Brod- 
erick to resign his office as United States Senator, 
for having disobeyed the instructions of the pre- 
vious Legislature to support the Administration in 
regard to the admission of Kansas under the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution, and for having spoken disrespect- 
fully of the President of the United States in the 
Senate on the 22d of March, 1858. This resolution 
was long and ably debated, and passed by a strictly 
partisan vote. In this debate Senator Anderson 
delivered one of the most powerful speeches of the 
session, reviewing the history of Broderick and 
attributing most of the political evils of California 
to his ambition and intrigue, and to the bad char- 
acter of the men he attached to his cause. Mr. 
Anderson also introduced a bill, which became a law, 
exempting from execution the homestead of an 
unmarried person to the value of $2,500. An Act 
was passed again submitting to a vote of the 
people the question of calling a Constitutional Con- 
vention. The Legislature adjourned April 19, 1859. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1859. 

The campaign of 1859 was one of the interesting 
series attending the disruption of the Whig, and the 
solidification of the Republican party. The Kansas 
"Embroglio," "Bleeding Kansas," the "Kansas 
Outrages," " Lecompton," and " Anti-Lecompton," 
" Squatter Sovereignty," and " Border Ruffians," 
were the common terms often heard in political 
speeches, individual wrangles, and newspaper articles. 
Questions of State and county interest were over- 
looked or forgotten, in the all absorbing subject 
agitating the nation. There was, however, the 
struggle for local offices, and in the general breaking 
up of parties, making it difficult to forecast the 
result, each organization entertained hopes of success. 
A full set of State officers were to be elected, also 
two Members of Congress, one Senator, four Assem- 
blymen, Superintendent of Schools, and Public 
Administrator. 

The Republican State Convention met at Sacra- 
mento, June 7, 1859, and organized by the election 
of Hon. Charles A. Tuttle, of Placer, as Chairman. 
The nominations were as follows: For Governor^ 
Leland Stanford, of Sacramento; Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, James F. Kennedy, of Santa Clara; Members of 
Congres8,P. H. Sibley, of Placer, and Col. E. D. Baker, 
of San Francisco; Justice of Supreme Court,Oscar L. 
Shafter, of San Francisco; Clerk of Supreme Court, 
S. D. Parker, of Tehama; Treasurer, P. P. Caine, 
of Yuba; Controller, J. R. Clarke, of El Dorado; 
Attorney-General, H. S. Love, of San Francisco; 
Surveyor-General, A. G. Randall, of Amador; 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, S. W. Brown, 



of Sonoma; State Printer, F. B. Murdock. of Santa 
Clara. 

The Anti-Lecompton County Convention met at 
Auburn, June 14th, and selected the following dele- 
gates to the State Convention: E. M. Shellhouse, J. 
C. Ball, M. Sherman, Philip Stoner, H. Fitzsimmons, 
T. Shei-man, L. B. Arnold, I. S. Ticheuor, John 
O'Jfeil and L. Chamberlain. The State Convention 
met at Sacramento, June KUh, and made the follow- 
ing nominations: For Governor, John Currey, of 
Solano; Lieutenant-Governor, John Conness, of El 
Dorado; Congress, Joseph C. McKibben, of Sierra, 
and Col. E. D. Baker, of San Francisco; Judge of 
Supreme Court, Royal T. Sprague, of Shasta; Clerk 
of Supreme Court, Joseph Powell, of Sacramento; 
Attorney-General, Edmund Randolph, of San Fran- 
cisco; Treasurer, Josiah Johnson, of Sacramento; 
Controller, George Pierce, of Sonoma; State Printer, 
John O'Meara, of Yuba. 

The Democratic County Convention met at Auburn, 
June 20th, and elected twelve delegates to the State 
Convention: H. H. Johnson, J. A. Hill, D. L. Beach, 
W. C. Stratton, M. Fannon, E. Barrett, C. C. Dudley, 
J. W. Brady, L. G. Smith, S. B. Wyman, G. L. 
Hamlin and L. L. Bullock. The State Convention 
met at Sacramento, June 22d, and made the follow- 
ing nominations: For Governor, Milton S. Latham, 
of Sacramento; Lieutenant-Governor, J. ti. Downey, 
of Los Angeles; Congress, John C. Burch, of Trinitj', 
and C. L. Scott, of Tuolumne; Judge of Supreme 
Court, W. W. Cope, of Amador; Attorney-General, 
Thomas H. Williams, of El Dorado: Clerk of Supreme 
Court, Charles S. Fairfax, of Sacramento; Treasurer, 
Thomas Findley, of Nevada; Controller, Samuel H. 
Brooks, of San Joaquin; Surveyor-General, Horace 
A. Higley, of Alameda; Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, A. J. Moulder, of San Francisco; Slate 
Printer, C. T. Botts, of Sacramento. 

The Amei'ican party made no State nominations, 
but in Placer County presented a full ticket. 

HORACE GREELEY. 

The usual exciting canvass followed, enlivened by 
the presence of such able speakers, as Col. E. D. 
Baker, M. S. Latham, Dr. Gwin, D. C. Broderick, 
James Anderson and others, besides the various 
candidates. An extra interest was given the cam- 
paign, by the visit to California of Horace Greeley, 
distinguished as an editor and politician, of what 
were then called advanced, radical, extreme views. 
Mr. Greeley spoke at Auburn on the Slh of Au- 
gust, to a Republican meeting, giving his opinion of 
the object and principles of the Republican party. 
Col. Baker had declared " Squatter Sovereignty," — 
leaving the question of slavery to be settled by the 
people of the Territories — to be the basis of the 
Republican party. Mr. Greeley said at Auburn, 
that Squatter Sovereignty was but another feature of 
the slave trade — that squatters nor Congi-ess should 
admit slavery into the Territories. This extreme 



118 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



doctrine was tbougbt by Ibo Domocrats so obnox- 
ious, tbat it would destroy the Republican party in 
California; but instead, it seemed to increase it. 

The canvass was made very bitter by the many 
personal allusions, made bj^ Senators iJroderick and 
Gwin, and charges against Mr. Latham, which were 
brought into discussion at almost every meeting. 

The election occurred Se])tember 7, 1859, resulting 
in a Democratic success in State and county. The 
vote in the State for Governor was: M. S. Latham. 
Democrat, 44,028; John Currey, Anti-Lecompton, 
24,180; Leland Stanford, Republican, 8,4G6. In 
Placer County, for Governor, M. S. Latham, 2..'^)2(l; 
John Currey, 1,117; Leland Stanford, 89G. 

The following gives the names of the nominees of 
the several parties in the county, and the vote each 
received. 

Senate— Samuel T. Leet (D), 1,7()5; Thomas P. 
Slade (A), 1,110; Curtis J. llillycr (H), 809; Hugh 
Fitzsimmons (A-L), 70(3. 

Assembly— S. W. Lovell {D), 1,905; James N. 
Makins (D), 2,031; i). S. Beach (D), 2,056; J. W. 
Harville (D), 2.059; Wm. G. Monroe (A), 982; S M. 
Jameson (A), 898; D. 15. Goode (A~), 853; S. E. Bar- 
rett (A), 913; G. D. Aldrieh (R), 848; W. D. Harri- 
man (R), 854; John Yule (R), 934; S. R. Bradley 
(R), 865; D. H.Gray (A-L), 561; D. Louderbac'k 
(A-L), 485; E. W. Nevers (A-Ij), 597; L. L. Deming 
(A-L), 522. 

Superintendent of Common Schools — S. S. Green- 
wood (D), 1,717; W. C. Howe (A). 1,0G4; A. H. 
Goodrich (R), 885; E. M. Banvard (A L), 565. 

Public Administrator— M. P. H. Love (D), 2,098; 
N. R. 1). Traphagen (A), 1,804. 

Total number of votes. 4.670. y 

BRODERICK AND TERRY DCEL. 

The returns of the election were but just counted 
and made known to the people when David S. Terry 
resigned his position as Chief Justice of the Sujn'eme 
Court and challenged Senator David (J. Broderiek to 
a duel. The assumed provocation was the remark 
made by Broderiek, in the June preceding, that he 
" once said Terry was the only honest Judge on the 
Supreme Bench, but 1 now take that back." 
Undoubtedly the true cause was the bitter enmity 
between Bi'oderick and the leaders of the Southern 
Democrats, of which Terry was the representntive. 
The duel occurred on the 13th of September, result- 
ing in the wounding of Ih-oderick, who died on the 
16th of the same month. The death ol' Broderiek 
created a vacancy in the Senate, and gave the oppor- 
tunity to the Democratic Legislature to elect an 
undoubted Democrat in his place. II. P. Haun, of 
Yuba, was appointed United States >Senator by the 
Governor to fill the position until a successor should 
be elected. 

M. S. LATHAM KLECTED SENATOR. 

The Legislature met January 2, 18f!0, Lieutenant- 
Governor Downej' jn-csiding in the Senate, and I. N. 



Qiiinn was elected President pro tern. Phil. Moore, 
of Nevada, was elected Speaker of the Assembly. 
On the 9th, the Legislature met in joint Conven- 
tion, nnd elected Gov. Milton S. Latham LTnited 
States Senator, for the unexpired term of D. C. 
Broderiek. The Democrats of Placer had held 
meetings at various places in the county, subsequent 
to the death of Broderiek, and expressed, preference 
for Gov. J. B. Weller for Senator. These expres- 
sions were responded to by all the delegation in 
caucus, with the exception of Senator Leet, who 
voted for Governor Latham. 

On the 14th of January the newly-elected Senator 
resigned his position as Governor, and was succeeded 
in office by J. G. Downey. 

LECilSLATION FOR PLACER. 

The Legislative enactments aft'ecting Placer, were 
the incorporation of Auburn, and submitting to the 
jK'Ojjlc of Auburn the ^proposition to subscribe 
§50,000 to the stock of the Sacramento, Placer, and 
Nevada Railroad; also an "omnibus" bill, authorizing 
an election in the county of Placer, to vote on the 
proposition of the county subscribing $100,000 to 
the stock of the Sacramento, Placer, and Nevada 
liailroad; $25,000 to the stock of the Eastern Exten- 
sion Pailroad; to donate $12,500 to construct a 
wagon-road from Secret Springs to Carson Valley, 
and the same to construct a wagon-road from Dutch 
Plat to Carson Valley. The election on the project 
of Auburn subscribing $50,000 for the railroad was 
held June 4, 1860, resulting in a majority for the 
proposition. The count}' election upon the other 
projects was held June 27th, resulting in a negative 
majority. (See chapter on Railroads.) 

JA.MES ANDERSON 

Was a native of Pennsylvania, born in Erie County, 
in August, 1822. AYhen about seventeen years of 
age he removed to the State of Kentucky, where he 
studied law, and was admitted to practice as an 
attorney and (•ounsellor in May, 1843. Sometime 
after this date, and before the opening of the Mexi- 
can War, he removed to Tennessee, and, in 1846, 
enlisted in the United States Volunteers, and with 
the tirst troops raised in that State went to Mexico. 
He was made a non-commissioned officer, and served 
as such through his term of enlistment. On his 
return in 1847, he was honored by the President 
with a commission as Second-Lieutenant, and 
returned to Mexico, where he remained until one 
year after the close of hostilities. For a short 
period he resided at Rio Grande City, Texas, engaged 
in the practice of his ]n-ofcssion. Like many thou- 
sands of his comrades in arms, he emigrated to Cal- 
ifornia, arriving at Stockton in the spring of 1850. 
There ho opened a law-office and was soon after 
appointed District Attorney for San Joaquin County. 
This office he held until the fall of 1851. He removed 
to Placer County in the fall of 1852, making his 
home in Auburn, As a resident of this county he 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



lU) 



always took part in public affairs, and was a most 
prominent and useful citizen. E'er some years he 
was Captain of the Placer Kifles, a militarj' company 
which he organized. In 1S.5G-57 he was editor of 
the Placer Herald, aud, in the election of the last- 
named year, was elected by the Democratic party to 
the State Senate, to fill the unexpired term of Hon. 
Joseph Walkup, who had been nominated for the 
office of Lieutenant-Governor, to which position he 
was chosen at the same election. In the succeeding 
year, Mr. Anderson was elected to the full term as 
Senator. Upon the expiration of his term great 
changes had occurred in the organization and 
strength of parties, thei-e being four in the field 
in the campaign of 18G0. Mr. Anderson was the 
nominee of the Breckenridge wing of the Demo- 
cratic party for the position of District Attorney, 
and Jo Hamilton of the Douglas wing, C. J. Hillyer 
of the Republicans, and M. E. Mills of the American 
party. In this contest Mr. Hamilton was successful. 
In 1863 Mr. Anderson went to Arizona, and located 
at Prescott, where he practiced his profession as a 
lawyer, until his return to Auburn in 18GG. James 
Anderson when in Arizona, January, 186,5, was Clerk 
of the Assembly, and at the close of the session the 
following resolution was passed unanimously: — 

/i'esofoetZ, That the Clerk of this House, Hon. James 
Anderson, has exhibited a masterly knowledge of 
his duties, and has discharged them with industrj^, 
fidelity and impartiality; that his courteous bearing 
insures him our esteem as a gentleman; that we 
tender him the thanks of this body as an officer." 

He had returned to Auburn where he had so long 
resided and pi'ospered, to make it his permanent 
home, but he returned only to die. While seated in 
the Herald office, so pleasant a home to him, where 
he had formerly been partner and editor, he sud- 
denly expired of heart disease, on the 12th of Octo- 
ber, 186G, aged -14 year.j. Thus is given in brief the 
data of the principal events of a very busy, worthy, 
ambitious, and eventful life. The many scenes of 
early life, war, and polities, of which James Ander- 
son had been a part, would, if fully told, constitute a 
most interesting biography, including much of the 
history of our country during an active and 
important ])eriod. As a soldier, attorney, journalist, 
politician, and legislator, he was of the superior 
class, and attached in his friendships by the most 
enduring ties. 

CAMPAIGN OK 1860. 

With 1860 came the culmination of the political 
changes set in motion by the compromise measures 
of 1850, excited by the passage of the Fugitive 
Slave Law, aroused by the Dred Scott decision, 
accelerated b}' the extension of slavery into the 
Territories, and gathered into an overwhelming 
tempest by the attempt to force a pro-slavery Con- 
stitution upon the State of Kansas. Each of the 
great measures were thought, or claimed, as author- 
ized by the National Constitution aud to settle the 



slavery question forever; but each enactment gave 
additioinal cause for agitation and strength to the 
opposing forces. 

THRE.VTEXING ASPECT OF PARTIES. 

As parties arose in the East their influence soon 
extended to the most distant borders, and national 
politics controlled the votes of every county. In 
California the counties of the Sierra then predom- 
inated in wealth, population, enterprise and intelli- 
gence, and Placer was one of the leading of these, 
as at the present. Politics was discussed in every 
town, and hamlet, and mining camp, and an able 
City and country press kept the people well 
informed. Upon national questions the people 
divided into parties, and local officers were selected 
accordingly. Different statesmen suggested differ- 
ent methods of adjusting the threatening difficulties, 
and each had his adherents. A President was to 
be elected, and four parties entered the contest. 
Two of these, the Democratic and Republican, were 
parties of action, presenting positive principles, and 
two, the Douglas Democrats and " LTnion," with 
vacilating, undefined, conservative principles. One 
violent in its aggressions, the other determined in 
its resistance, and each claiming to be the resisting 
one and charging the other as aggressive. 

National Conventions for the nomination of Pres- 
idential candidates wore to be held at Charleston 
by the Democrats, and at Chicago by the Eepubli- 
cans. The Republican County Convention met at 
Auburn, February 20th, to elect delegates to the 
State Convention, which was to meet at Sacra- 
mento on the 22d, and the following were chosen: 
P. H. Sibley, S. R. Case, J. A. Sheldon, Lymai\ Stan- 
ford, F.. B. Higgins, J. Ives Fitch, R. McClelland, 
and George Haycock. 

The county delegates to the Democratic State 
Convention, which met at Sacramento February 27th, 
were Thomas He-.irn, D. B. Curtis, L. L. Bullock, R. 
C. O'Neil, M. Fannon, W. H. Bullock, J. H. Neff, 
James R. Rogers, Joseph Walkup, James Herrick, 
Wm. M. Crutcher, D. F. Hathaway, and Horace 
Smith. 

The Chicago Convention nominated Abraham 
Lincoln, of Illinois, for Presi<lent, and Hannibal 
Hamlin, of Maine, for Vice-President. 'I'he Charles- 
ton Convention failed to agree upon candidates, and 
the delegates of several States withdrew, agreeing 
to meet at Washington on the 11th of June, and 
the Convention adjourned to meet at ISaltimore on 
the 18th of the same month. At the Baltimore 
Convention a divirnion again took place, resulting 
in two Conventions, at one of which John C. J5reck- 
enridge, of Kentucky, was nominated for President, 
and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, lor Vice-President; 
and at the other, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, 
was nominated for Pre-^ident. aud Ilerschel V. John- 
son, of (ieorgia, for Vic^- i'lvsi.lent. John C. Bell, 
of Tennessee and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, 



120 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



were named by the Union party as candidates for 
President and Vice-President. 

The Republican State Convention met at Sacra- 
mento, June 20th, and nominated Charles A. Tuttle. 
of Placer, Charles A. Washburn, of San Francisco, 
Wm. H. Weeks, of Sacramento, and Antonio Maria 
Pico, of Los Angeles, for Presidential electors. ' 

The election comprised, besides the Presidential 
electors, legislative, count}^, and township officers. 
Conventions were held, and all parties placed candi- 
dates in the field. The campaign was long and 
vigorously conducted. The result was portentous 
of great events. Deep feeling, rather than enthusi- 
asm prevailed. The ablest speakers of every party 
traversed the country. Of the Breckenridge Demo- 
cratic orators, were Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, 
Senators Latham and Gwin, Frank Tilford, A. P. 
Dudley and others. For the Douglas Democracy, 
were James A. McDougall, Joseph P. lioge and 
others, and for the Republicans, Thomas Fitch, Col. 
E. D. Baker, then Senator from Oregon, Charles A. 
Tuttle and others, as well as the various candidates. 
The Democratic Signal newspaper, with R. C. Poland 
as editor, was established at Auburn in August, as 
a sup]ic.rt for the Douglas Democrats, and the 
Coi'.rier at Yankee Jim's also advocated the same 
party. 

Among the questions to be voted upon at the 
election, was one calling a Constitutional Convention, 
and another for payment of the State debt. The 
first had been voted upon at previous elections, the 
requirement to carry it being a majority of all the 
votes cast. The people had paid but little attention 
to it, and the question had not received the requisite 
vote. The State debt, amounting to 83,000,000, had 
been declared by the Supreme Court to have been 
contracted in violation of the Constitution, which 
prohibited an indebtedness exceeding $300,000. unless 
approved by a vote of the people. A certain amount 
of the debt had been voted upon in 1858, but there 
was an amount of §250,000, that had not been sub- 
mitted, and this was left for the approval or repudi- 
ation of the people, at the election in November, 1860. 

THE ELECTION LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT. 

The election was held November 7, 1860. The 
National electoral vote was: Lincoln, 180; Brecken- 
ridge, 72; Douglas, 12; Bell. 39. The California vote 
for the highest elector on each ticket was: Lincoln, 
38,734; Douglas, 38,023; Breckenridge, 33,075; Bell, 
9,098. Total, 120,031. The partisans of the Legis- 
lature were classified as follows: Senate — Douglas 
Democrats, 19; Breckenridge Democrats, 11; Repub- 
licans, 5. Assembly — Douglas Democrats, 38; Breck- 
enridge Democrats, 22; Republicans, 19; Union 1. 

The vote of Placer County for President was: 
Lincoln, 1,742; Douglas. 1,808; Breckenridge, 1,448; 
ISell, 776. For a Constitutional Convention, 4,518. 
To pay the State debt, 4,971; to repudiate, 304. 
Total vote in the county, 5,834. Again Placer had 



voted to call a Convention to revise the Constitu- 
tion, but in the State the vote failed of a majority 
of all the votes cast. 

The surprise was general that the electoral vote of 
California had gone for Lincoln, the Republican can- 
didate, and to Democrats the news was viewed with 
consternation. But four or five years previously the 
spealvers of this party had been mobbed when 
attempting to speak in public, and were constantly 
denounced as Abolitionists, Black Republicans, and 
many other epithets then considered insulting and 
damaging. He who enunciated its principles in 
advance of public opinion was William H. Seward, 
United States Senator from New York, a man much 
respected throughout the South for his ability, hon 
esty, and urbanity of manner, and he had been the 
expected candidate of the part}' for the Presidency, 
and great disappointment had been felt when it was 
given to another. Lincoln was not a popular candi- 
date, and the vote given him was dictated by prin- 
ciple, and not by the attraction of the man. Doug- 
las had been long and favorably known, and claimed 
the revered name of Democrat, but maintained a 
bold and firm opposition to the extreme pro slaverj^ 
measures of the party, and thus attracted to his 
support many who professed the principles of the 
Republican party. His Democracy and his personal 
popularity also attached to him many who were 
classed as pro-slavery men, among whom were Philip 
W. Thomas, candidate for Senator, and Jo Hamil- 
ton, on the same ticket, for District Attorney. The 
er^-stallization of parties resulting from the dissolu- 
tion of the old was not yet complete. Two of 
Placer's newspapers also advocated the Douglas 
party, and thus it carried the county. 

The nominees of the several parties for Legislative 
and count}- officers are given in the following returns 
of the election of 1860 : — 

Senate— P. W. Thomas (D D), 1,788; F. B. Hig- 
gins (R), 1,757; Joseph Walkup (B D), 1,372; Wm. 
RufusLongley (L^), 700. 

Assembly— L. G. Smith (D D), 1,863; W. J. Har- 
rison (D Dj, 1,832; Patrick Munday (D D), 1,801; 
W. I). Harriman (R), 1,764; J. C. Ball (D D), 1,737; 
G. B. Densmore (R), 1,670; S. R. Case (R), 1,696; 
C. P. Hubbell (R), 1,677; S. W. Lovell (B D), 1,318; 
Wm. M. Vance (B D), 1,400; D. S. Beach (BD), 
1,419; James N. Makins (B D), 1,361; Alexander 
Mills (U), 824; B. D. Burt (U), 715; J. F. Brown (U), 
719; Henry Hubbard (IT), 768. 

Sheriff— L. L. Bullock (D D); 1.612; John C. Boggs 
(U), 1,509; S. B. Miller (B D), 1,347; C. J. Garland 
(R), 1,188. 

County Clerk — Henry (rooding (D D), 1,974: Wm. 
A. Johnson (B D), 1,358; George Aldrich (R), 1,003; 
Daniel M. Hosmer (U) 719. 

District Attorney— Jo Hamilton (D I)), 2,304; E. 
W. Hillyer(R), 1,665; James Anderson (B D), 1,358; 
.\L E. Mills (U), 247. 

Treasurer — E. M. Banvard (I) D), 1,761; Lyman 




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POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



121 



Stanford (R), 1,693; Henry W. Starr (B D), 1,408; 
Julius P. Brooks fU), 768. 

Recorder— W. A. Selkirk (R), 1,763; W. W. Stew- 
art (D D), 1,761; Louis S. Moffitt, (B D), 1,400; Jas. 
P. Bull (U), 703. 

Surveyor— S. G. Elliott (D D), 1,826; A. N. David- 
son (R), 1,687; C. W. Finley (B D), 1,407; John 
VVhitcomb (U), 737. 

Public Administrator— Rufus Smith (D D), 1,770; 
M. P. H. Love (B D), 1,486; S. D. Merrick (U), 835. 

Coroner — James Piatt (D D), 1,856; James Mc- 
Burney (B D), 1,696; T. B. Hotchkiss (U), 661. 

The county officers took their positions on the first 
Monday in December, in accordance with the statute 
of 1858. Those retiring were commended for the 
faithful discharge of their duties. 

J. A. m'dougall senator. 

The Legislature met at Sacramento January 7, 
1861. Pablo De Le Guerra, Douglas Democrat, was 
elected President of the Senate, and after near two 
weeks balloting R.Burnell, Douglas Democrat, of Ama- 
dor, was elected Speaker. The question of the elec- 
tion of United States Senator to succeed Dr. VV. M. 
Gwin was the political feature of the session. The 
Douglas Democrats, having the plurality, were 
expected to name the successful aspirant, and as a 
consequence presented the greater number. Of 
those mentioned were Judge Joseph G. Baldwin, J. 
W. Denver, John Conness, Edmund Randolph, and 
James A. McDougall. John Nugent was the Breek- 
enridge candidate, and Timothy Guy Phelps was 
presented by the Republicans. This matter remained 
undecided until the 20th of March, when James A. 
McDougall received 56 votes of 111 cast, and was 
declared elected. 

A STORMY SESSION — THE REBELLION. 

The session was quite a stormy one, the " state 
of the Union " constituting the great theme of dis- 
cussion. Shortly after the Presidential election, in 
1860, the State of South Carolina passed an ordi- 
nance of secession, and was soon followed bj other 
States of the South. The question debated was 
the right of a State to secede from the Union, and 
the right of the General Government to coerce a 
State to remain. Upon this, when the Placer Herald 
was called a secession organ, it indignantly repelled 
the assertion, but replied that it was equally opposed 
to coercion, saying, "It is no more possible to hold 
the States together by force of arms than to pluck 
the stars from the firmament of heaven." 

President Buchanan, in his efforts to stay secession 
and avert war, appointed January 4, 1861, as a day 
of national fasting and prayer for the preservation 
and peace of the Union. The day was accordingly 
observed with solemnity at Auburn and other 
places in the county. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1861. 

President Lincoln was duly inaugurated on the 
4th of March, 1861, and on the 19th of April the 



war of Rebellion commenced by firing upon Fort 
Sumpter, in Charleston Harbor. The President 
called an extra session of Congresf^to convene at 
Washington July 4th, but owing to the time of 
election of Congressmen, Californfa would be unrep- 
resented until after the general election in Septem- 
ber. Under the census of 1860 it was believed Cal- 
ifornia would be accorded three Representatives, 
but no apportionment was made. By apportionment 
of the Legislature the Assembly delegation of Placer 
County was reduced to three members. 

The campaign of 1861 was for the election of a 
Governor and other State officers, two members of 
Congress and a Legislature. Although the State was 
authorized to elect but two members of Congress, 
and but two were nominated in Convention, the 
belief existed that the population justified the elec- 
tion of three, and three were elected. 

The Democi'atic State Convention met at Sacra- 
mento June 11th, but owing tothe non-attondanee of 
members adjourned to meet again on the 23d of July. 
Correspondence passed between the two Central 
Committees of the Bi'eckenridge and Douglas Dem- 
ocrats upon the subject of consolidating the ele- 
ments of the party, but was ineffectual. At the 
adjourned Convention the following nominations 
were made: For Governor, John R. McConnell, of 
Nevada; Lieutenant-Governor, Jasper O'Farrell, of 
Marin; Congress, H. P. Barbour, of Tuolumne, and 
D. O. Shattuck, of San Francisco; Justice of Supreme 
Of)urt, Wm. C. Wallace, of Napa; Controller. S. H. 
Brooks, of San Joaquin; Treasure!-, Thomas Findley, 
of Nevada; Attorney-General, Tod Robinson, of 
Sacramento; Clerk of Supreme Court, C. S. Fairfax, 
of Marin; Surveyor-General, H. A. Higley, of Ala- 
meda; State Printer, M. D. Carr, of Yuba. Frank 
Ganahl, of Siskiyou, was added as a candidate for 
Congress by the State Central Committee. 

The Republican State Convention nominated: For 
Governor, Leland Stanford, of Sacramento; Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, J. F. Chellis, of Trinity; Congress, 
T. G Phelps, of San Mateo, and A. A. Sargent, of 
Nevada; Justice of Supreme Court, Edward Norton, 
of Sau Francisco; Attorney-General, F. M. Pixley, 
of San Francisco; Clerk of Supreme Court, F. F. 
Fargo, of Alameda; Controller, G. B. Warren, ot 
San Joaquin; Treasurer, D. R. Ashlej^ of Monterej-; 
Sui-veyor-General, J. F. Houghton, of Solano; State 
Printer, Benjamin P. Averj^, of Yuba. Frederick 
F. Low, of Yuba, was subsequently added as a third 
candidate for Congress. The Convention was large, 
highly respectable and enthusiastic. 

The Douglas County Convention met at Auburn 
July 2d, nominated a Legislative ticket and Super- 
intendent of Schools, and appointed delegates to the 
State Convention, to meet at Sacramento July 4th. 
The nominations made at the State Convention were: 
For Governor, John Conness, of El Dorado; Lieu- 
tenant-Governor, Richard Irwin, of Plumas; Con- 
gress, Henry Edgerton, of Sacramento, and Joseph 



122 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



C. McKibben, of Sierra; Justice of Supreme Court, 
B. C. Whitman, of Solano; Clerk of Supreme Court, 
George S. Evans, of Tuolumne; Attorney-General, 
Geo. W. Bowie, of Sacramento; Treasurer, Joel T. 
Landrum, of Shasta; Controller, James E. Nutt- 
man, of San Francisco; Surveyor-General, J. J. 
Gardner, of San Francisco; State Printer, John E. 
Eidge, of Nevada. Douglas died on the 6th of June, 
leaving his name as the title of a party, and political 
principles which, in the radical changes soon to 
follow, were to be swept away as the mist before 
the storm. 

Three parties were in the field, but only the Demo- 
cratic and Republican showed any well-defined prin- 
ciples or object; the Douglas appearing as composed 
of men not knowing which side to take, or that, 
with the elements so disturbed, their opportunity 
was better to rise to the surface and obtain an office. 
The war of the Eebellion had begun, and several 
battles were fought during the campaign. The 
excitement was intense, and partisan feelings were 
bitter. The Republicans were evidently the strong- 
est, and, as Unionists, were supported by the Douglas 
Democrats, and these made common cause against 
the Democrats, who were denounced as rebels, 
secessionists, copperheads, and other opprobrious 
terms. 

SUCCESS OF THE REPUBLICANS. 

The election was held September 4, 1861, giving 
the majority in the State to the Republican nominees: 
For Governor 119,731 votes were cast, of which 
Leland Stanford received 56,036, John R. McConnell, 
■32,751, and John Conness, 30,944. A. A. Sargent, 
T. G. Phelps and F. F. Low were elected to Congress. 

The vote in Placer County was: 

Governor— Leland Stanford (E), 2.222; John 
Conness (D D), 1,463; John E. McConnell (D), 893. 

Lieutenant-Governor— J. F. Chellis (R)), 2,050; 
Richard Irwin (D D), 1,648; Jasper O'Farrell (D), 
887. 

Congress— T. G. Phelps (R), 2,025; A. A. Sargent 
(R), 1,194; F. F. Low (R), 4,704; Henry Edgerton 
(D D), 1,637; J. C. McKibben (D D), 1,637;' J. E. 
Gitchell (D D); 1,531; H. P. Barbour (D), 925: D. 
0. Shattuck (D), 904. 

Justice of Supreme Court— Edward Norton (R), 
2.034; B. C. Whitman (D D), 1,646; Wm. C. Wallace 
(D), 893. 

Clerk of Supreme Court— F. F. Fargo (R), 2,045; 
Geo. S. Evans (D D). 1,649; C. S. Fairfax (D), 908. 

Attorney-General- Frank M. Pixley (R), 1,863; G. 
W. Bowie"(D D), 1,777; Tod Robinson (D), 915. 

Treasurer— Delos R. Ashley (R), 2,021; Joel T. 
Landrum (D D), 1,606; Thomas Findley (D), 949. 

Controller— Gilbert R. Warren (R), 2,006; James 
E. Nuttman (D D), 1,654; S. H. Brooks (D), 896. 

Surveyor-General— J. F. Houghton (E), 1,998; J. 
J. Gardner (D D), 1,654; Horace^A. Higley (D), 912. 

State Printer— B. P. Avery (R), 2,020; J. R. Ridge 
'D D), 1,636; M. D. Carr (D), 901. 



The county nominees received the following votes: 

Senate- W. D. Harriman (R), 2,005: H. Fitzsim- 
mons (D D), 1,691; E. McDonald (D), 777. 

Assembly— John Yule (R), 2,074; E. W. Hillyer 
(R), 1,954, J. J. Lynn (R), 1,774; C. C. Dudley (D D), 
1,815; J. L. Brown (D D), 1,651; T. L. Chamberlain 
(D D), 1,406; Wm. H. Parkinson (D), 759; J. E. 
Nickerson (D), 840; T. B. Harper (D), 927. 

Superintendent of Common Schools — A. H. Good- 
rich (R), 2,000; J. W. Scobey (D D), 1,557; James 
Moore (D), 845. 

The total vote of the county, 4,654. 

The Legislature met January 4, 1862, and organ- 
ized by electing James McM Shafter (Republican), 
President 2»'o tein. of the Senate, and George Bar- 
stow (Republican), Speaker of the Assembly. Jan- 
uary 14lh, Sacramento was inundated by the sever- 
est flood ever experienced since the American occupa- 
tion of the State, and the Legislature adjourned, and 
made a temporary capital at San Francisco. In 
March, an Act was passed authorizing Placer County 
to vote upon the proposition of subscribing SI 00.000 
to the stock of the Sacramento, Placer and Auburn 
Railroad. One of Placer's Members of Assembly 
was E. W. Hillyer, who was also a Lieutenant and 
afterwards a Lieutenant-Colonel of volunteers, and 
was stationed at Walla Walla, in Washington Terri- 
tory. He obtained a leave of absence from his com- 
pany, and served his term in the Assembly. 

The Legislature adjourned sine die April 14, 1862. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 

At the election to be held on the first Wednesday 
of September, 1862, the people were requii-ed to vote 
for a Superintendent of Public Instruction, and upon 
four amendments to the State Constitution, through- 
out the State, and in Placer County for Legislative 
and county officers. The amendments to the Consti- 
tution provided for biennial sessions of the Legisla- 
ture, making the session begin the first Monday of 
December in 1863, and every two years thereafter, 
limiting the session to 120 days; and separated 
the election of the judiciary and school officers from 
the purely political officers. 

THREE PARTIES IN THE FIELD. 

Efforts were made to form combinations of parties 
to dissolve the Douglas, or, as it was commonly 
called, the Union Democratic Party, that seemingly 
being the only movable or dissoluble organization. 
The effort prevailed in some counties, but in Placer 
the three parties entered the field, as in the previous 
campaign. The Republicans and the Douglas Dem- 
ocrats represented the Union element, and the Dem- 
ocracy the peace-at-any-price and rebel element. 
The war was progressing with great fierceness and 
energy, and parly and sectional feeling was intense 
and bitter. The Union element was much the strong- 
est, and at times expressed itself in the violent treat- 
ment of its opponents, as the Republicans had been 
treated four or five years before. Hon. James Ander- 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



123 



son, in this campaign Democratic candidate for 
County Judge, was rudely assaulted with eggs 
thrown at him, when addressing a political meeting 
at Dutch Flat. So bitter was the feeling against 
those called Secessionists that many were deterred 
from expressing their opinions in public. 

The election occurred September 4, 1862, resulting 
in the election of John Svvett as Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. The candidates and the votes 
each received in Placer County was: 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — John Swett 
(R) 2,001; J. D. Stevenson (U D), 1,829; O. P. Fitz- 
gerald (D), 695. 

Senate— Felix B. Higgins (R), 1,948; Lewis G. 
Smith (U D), 1,837; Joseph Walkup (D), 714. 

Assembly— S. R. Bradley (R), 1,799; John Yule 
(R), 2,053; N. W. Blanchard (R), 1,925; C. C. Dud- 
ley (U D), 1,975; Lathrop L. Bullock (U D), 1,843; 
Titus Ewing (U D), 1,774; Edward Barrett (D),694; 
Geo. W. Applegate (D), 656; S. B. W.» man (D), 656. 

County Judge— Hart Fellows (R), 2,068; Alvin S. 
Higgins (U D), 1,754; James Anderson (D), 683. 

District Attorney— Jo Hamilton (U D), 2,210; P. 
H. Sibley (R), 1,893; James P. Dameron (D), 315. 

Sheriff— Henry Gooding (U D), 2,193; John C. 
Bogga (R), 1,960; 0. H. Ballingcr (D), 358. 

County Cleric — Wm. Cory (R), 1.874; Augustus 
Williams (U D), 1,807; W. H. Kruger (D), 790. 

Treasurer— E. M. Banvard (U D), 2,151; E. F. 
Hoyt (R), 1,757; J. W. Brady (D), 573. 

Recorder— W. H. Patton (U D), 1,936; VV. A. Sel- 
kirk (R), 1,820; J.Jones (D), 698. 

Public Administrator — Charles T. Palmer (U D), 
1,879; Henson Hazel (R), 1,873: W. A. Henry (D), 
668. 

Surveyor— A. N. Davidson (R), 2,002; S. G. Elliott 
(U D), 1,771; C. \V. Finley (D), 731. 

Coroner— Francis O'Neil (U D), 1,862; Thomas 
Jamison (R), 1,861; Otto Johnson (D). 657. 

Constitutional Amendments — Article 4 — No, 1,431 ; 
Yes, 1,021; Article 5— No, 1,543:' Yes, 856; Article 6 
—No, 1,433; Yes, 1,233; Article 9— No, 1,491; Yes, 
869. Total vote of the county, 4,582. 

ABOLITION OP SLAVERY. 

The Legislature met January 5, 1863. The parti- 
san representation was classed as follows: Senate — 
31 Republicans, 5 Union Democrats, and 4 Demo- 
crats. Assembly 63 Republicans, 10 Union Demo- 
crats, and 4 Democrats. A. M. Crane was elected 
President /»)0 ten. of the Senate, and T. N. Machin, 
Speaker of the Assembly, both Republicans. Nearly 
the first business introduced was a resolution 
approving the Emancipation Proclamation of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, by which slavery was abolished in the 
United States January 1, 1863. This was violently 
opposed by Assemblyman C. C. Dudley, of Placer, 
who had been elected on the Union Democrat ticket, 
defeating Lynn, who had declared himself an Aboli- 
tionist of olden time, but prevailed by the largo vote 
of 65 yeas to 11 noes. 



JOHN OONNESS ELECTED SENATOR. 

The question of the election of United States Sen- 
ator occupied a great part of the business of the 
session until the 10th of February, when the choice 
fell upon John Conness, of El Dorado. The lea(!f!ng 
candidates had been T. G. Phelps, A. A. Sargent and 
James McM Shafter. 

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ADOPTED. 

The Legislature by resolution declared that the 
Constitutional Amendments proposed by the two 
preceding Legislatures had been adopted and were 
part of the organic law. The Legislature passed an 
Act, approved April 2, 1863, authorizing an election 
in Placer County, on the proposition to subscribe 
$250,000 to the stock of the Central Pacific Railroad. 
The election was held M:iy 12th, and decided in favor 
of the subscription. An Act regulating elections to con- 
form to the provisions of the Amendments to the Con- 
stitution provided that all county officers should be 
elected in 1863 and every two years thereafter, tak- 
ing their offices on the first Monday of March follow- 
ing. This statute shortened the terms of the county 
officers of Placer nearly one year. This was charged 
as an act of partisanship, as nearly all the officers 
were Union Democrats, and that the Republican 
Legislature exercised its power for the benefit of the 
party. The Legislature adjourned sine die, April 27, 
1863, and the event was celebrated in Auburn by the 
firing of 100 guns. 

CAMPAIGN OP 18G3. 

In the campaign of 1863 the political parties had 
become more defined, and the groat questions of 
national importance had so developed as to leave two 
sides plainly visible, leaving no possible question for a 
third party upon which it could claim a principle. 
The great war was at its height, and was fought 
with an energy and force of men and means, of 
blood and treasure, of skill and courage, of enthu- 
siam and determination, of patriotism and suffering, 
never before recorded in history. The abolition of 
slavery was declared and, with the existence of the 
Union, depended on the issue of the war. The 
political question of the campaign was the support of 
the Admmistration in the war on one side, and disap- 
proval and enmity on the other. 

There were to be elected three Members of Con- 
gress, a Governor and State officers. Legislative and 
county officers at the political election to be held 
September 2d; and a Supei-intendent of Public 
Instruction, District and County Judge, at the judi- 
cial election to bo hold October 21, 1883. Two State 
Senators were to be elected in Placer County. 

DEMOCll.iTIC SONQ. 

The following verses are taken from a popular 
Democratic campaign song of 1863, entitled " A Now 
Dixie," and are an example of the argument and 
feeling of the period: — 



124 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The people 'lecteil Olfl Abe Liucolu, 
Wonder what they were a thinkiu'? 
Abraham was an old deceiver, 
Rail-wood splitter — Union cleaver. 
Look away — Away — • 
Old Abe won t save the Union! 
On Union ground 
He is not found — 
He will not save the Union. 

Years of warfare ! bloodshed! horror! 
Years of broken hearts and sorrow; 
Widows, orphans, bankrupt Nation. 
And yet our eyes see no Salvation! 
Look away — Away — 
They will not save the Union! 
On Union ground 
They are not found. 
Who favor war for Union! 

Down with Wade and Chase, and all such, 
Weak or wicked we will call such — 
Give us men as rulers o'er us. 
Like Vallandii;ham and Voorhies! 
Look away — Away; 
Such men will give us Union; 
On Union ground 
They're always found, 
And loyal to the Union. 

" LONG H.iIRS " AND '■ SHORT H.\IRS " UNITED. 

The election of Gonness to the United States Sen- 
ate by the Republican Legislature, had united the 
Union Democrats adhering to him, known as 
" Short Hairs," to the Republican party, which had 
been designated as " Long Hairs." The County 
Convention of this party met at Auburn, June 13th, 
nominated Legislative and countj' ofBcers, and 
appointed delegates to the State Convention, which 
met at Sacramento June 15th. The "Short Hairs" 
were in the majority, and secured all the nominations, 
with the exception of Controller and Clerk of the 
Supi'eme Court, the latter, the Hon. Wva. D. Harri- 
man, Senator from Placer, having been an outspoken 
Republican from the organization of the party and 
an able advocate of the abolitioa of slavery. The 
term " Long Hair" was given the early Republi- 
cans in derision of the many leaders who affected 
that fashion of wearing their hair; and the reverse 
to the rougher element who had formerly been the 
adherents of Brodorick, coming into the party via 
the Douglas branch, and who were supposed to crop 
their locks in fighting style. The prominent candi- 
dates for Governor were, A. A. Sargent and F. P. 
Low. The former received 93 votes, and the latter 
170. 

The Union Democratic County Convention met at 
Auburn, June 22d, nominated l>egislative and county 
officers, and appointed delegates to a State Conven- 
tion to be held at Sacramento on the 24th. At this 
Convention only the Chairman of the Central Com- 
mittee, D. D. Colton, and the Placer delegates were 
present, and no nominations were made. With the 
exception of in Placer, the Union Democrats affilli- 
ated with the other parties as their principles or 
interests dictated. 

DEMOCRATS UNITED. 

The Democrats of Placer held no County Conven- 
tion, but in township meetings selected delegates to 
the State Convention, which met at Sacramento 



July 8th, being a union of the Democratic elements. 
The prominent candidates for Governor were R. T. 
Sprague, of Shasta; \Vm. N. Leet, of Placer; J. G. 
Downey, of Los Angeles; John B. Weller, of Ala- 
meda, and Joseph W. McCorkle, of Butte, the honor 
falling upon ex-Governor Downey. 

The Stars and Stripes newspaper was established 
as an advocate of the Republican cause July 29th, 
by J. C. Boggs, with \V. A. Selkirk as editor, being 
the first avowed Republican paper in the county. 

The election was held September 2, 1863, electing 
the Republican candidates. The following was the 
vote for Governor: Low (R), 64,283; Downey (D), 
44,622. At the judicial election, held October 21st, 
the Republican candidates received 45,000 votes and 
the Democratic 20,000. 

The vote in Placer County was as follows: — 

Governor— F. F. Low (R), 2,066; J. G. Downey 
(D), 1,529. 

Lieutenant-Governor — T. N. Machin (R), 2,057; 
E. \y. McKinstry (D), 1,616. 

Congress— T. B. Shannon (R), 2,0-59; Wm. Higby 
(R), 2,039; Cornelius Colo (R), 2,059; J. B. Weller 
(D), 1,561; John Bigler (D), 1,470; N. E. White- 
sides (D), 1,682. 

Secretary of State— B. B. Redding (R), 2,055; S. 
W. Bishop (D), 1,614. 

Controller— Geo. Oulton (R), 2,052; Robert 0. Cra- 
vens (D), 1,620. 

Treasurer— R. Pacheco (R), 2,042; T. Findley (D), 
1,631. 

Attorney-General — J. G. McCullough (R), 2,054; 
L. C. Granger (D), 1,614. 

Surveyor-General — J. F. Houghton (R), 2,054; 
Presly Dunlap (D), 1,616. 

State Printer -O. M. Clayes (R), 2,054; Beriah 
Brown (D), 1,612. 

Clerk Supreme Court— W. D. Harriman (R), 2,017; 
A. C. Bradford (Dj, 1,640. 

Harbor Commissioner Taylor (R), 2,059; 

M. Hayes (D), 1,614. 

The candidates for Legislative and county officers 
and the votes received were as follows: — 

Senate — John Yule (R), 2,154; James E. Hale 
(R), 2,117; E. L. Bradley (D), 1,684; C. C. Dudley 
(D), 1,674. 

Assembly— J. D. Pratt (R), 2,207; E. H. Snyder 
(R), 2,144; M. C. Winchester (R), 2,180; J. C. Ball, 
(D), 1,639; Wm. Dana Perkins (D), 1,702; S. A. 
Boutwell (D), 1,653. 

Sheriff— Wm. Sexton (R), 2,174; H. Gooding (D), 
1,692. 

County Clerk— D. W. Spear (R), 2,192; A. Hunt- 
ley (D), 1,668. 

Treasurer— J. W. Dickerson (R), 2,100; E. M. 
Banvard (D), 1,744. 

Recorder— W. B.Lyon (R), 2,221; W. H. Patton 
(D), 1,638. 

District Attorney— C. A. Tweed (R), 2,127; Jo 
Hamilton (D), 1,733. 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



125 



Public Admiiiistraloi-— H. Hazel (R), 2,205; C. T. 
Palmer (D), 1,631. 

Superintendent of Schools — A. H. Goodrich (R), 
2,212; D. W. Uammond (D), 1,634. 

Surveyor— E. A. Phelps (R), 2,189; E. C. Uren 
(D), 1,668. 

Coroner — Thomas Jamison (R), 2,192; Thomas 
Shanley (D), 1,660. 

JUDICIAL ELECTION. 

At the jutlicial election, October 21, 1S63, the vote 
was as follows: — 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — John Swett 
(R), 1,789; O. M. Wozencraft (m, 802. 

Justices of Supreme Court — S. W.Sanderson, John 
Curry, Lorenzo Sawyer, A. L. Rhodes, and O. L. 
Shafter (R), 1,784; Royal T. Sprague, Wm. T. Wal- 
lace, J. B. Hall, Tod Robinson, and H. H. Hartly 
(D), 795. 

District Judge of Fourteenth Judicial District 
(comprising the counties of Placer and Nevada) — T. 
B. McFarland (R), 1,857. 

County Judge— H. Fellows (R), 1,634; Hugh Fitz- 
simmons (Ind), 936. 

PLACER COUNTY MATTERS. 

On the 1st of January, 1864, Placer County ceased 
to be a part of the Eleventh Judicial District, and, 
with Nevada County, became the Fourteenth Dis- 
trict. 

December 1, 1863, C. J. Hillyer, a citizen of Placer, 
resigned his position as Reporter of the Supi-eme 
Court, and Charles A. Tuttle, also of Placer, was 
appointed by Governor Stanford in his stead. 

By an Act passed by the Legislature of 1863 the 
terms of county officers commenced on the first 
Monday of March ensuing their election. 

The new administration went into power on the 
first Monday in December. The Legislature organ- 
ized by the election of R. Burnell, of Amador, as 
President ^ro tem. of the Senate, and Wm. H. Sears, 
of Nevada, as Speaker of the Assembly. 

Among the Acts of the Legislature was one pro- 
viding for levying a poll tax of two dollars upon 
each inhabitant of Placer County liable to such tax 
under the general law. The revenue derived from 
this was to be devoted to the payment of the 
interest on the S250,000 bonds issued by the county 
in purchasing the stock of the Central Pacific Rail- 
road Company. 

CAMPAIGN OP 1864. 

With the campaign of 1864, again occurred the 
Presidential election. The war had been prosecuted 
during the past year with geat vigor on both sides, 
and the decisive victories of Gettysburg and Vicks- 
burg and the opening of the Mississippi had been 
won by the Federal forces; but the rebel government 
was still maintained at Richmond, and several for- 
midable rebel armies continued in the field. The 
political position was the same as in the preceding 
campaign; that was, the support of the war or oppo- 



sition to it. The abolition of slavery had given the 
Democrats the opportunity to make strong accu- 
sations against the Republican administration, slav- 
ery being regarded as the most sacred institution 
of the Government, as it had been declared to be the 
corner-stone of the Southern Confederacy, and negro 
equality was the frightful picture presented to the 
people. 

PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS. 

National Conventions to nonriinate a President and 
Vice-President had been called — the Republican to 
meet at Baltimore June 7th, and the Democratic to 
meet at Chicago, July 4th, which was postponed to 
August 29th. A Convention stj'ling itself " Radical 
Democrats," claiming to be Republicans opposed to 
the tender policy of Lincoln, was held at Cleveland 
the last of May, and nominated J. C. Fremont for 
President and John Cochrane for Vice-President. 

The Baltimore Convention nominated Abraham 
Lincoln, of Illinois, for President, and Andrew John- 
son, of Tennessee, for Vice-President; and the Chicago 
Convention nominated George B. McClellan, of Penn- 
sylvania, for President, and George H. Pendleton, of 
Ohio, for Vice-President. The Democrats declared 
" unqualified condemnation of the Emancipation 
Proclamation of the President as tending to pro- 
tract indefinitely the civil war, excite servile insurrec- 
tion, and close the door forever to a restoration of 
the LTnion of these States." The war for the Union 
was declared a failure, and a cessation of hostilities 
urged with a view to a Convention of all the States 
to make peace on a basis of the Federal Union of 
all of the States. 

The Proclamation of the Governor called for the 
election November 8, 1864, to choose five electors, 
three Members of Congress, and county officers 
according to law. By Act of the Legislature of 
1864, the State had been divided into Congressional 
Districts, with Placer County in the Second, which 
was composed of the following counties: Alameda, 
Alpine, Amador, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Do- 
rado, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Sacamento, San Joaquin, 
and Tuolumne; and the county divided into three 
Supervisor and Revenue Districts, in each of which 
a Supervisor, an Assessor, and a Collector, should be 
elected in the manner provided by statute. District 
No. 1, was comprised of Townships Nos. 1, 2, 9, and 
10; District No. 2, of Townships Nos. 3 and 4; and 
District No. 3, of Townships Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8. In 
District No. 1 a Supervisor was to be elected, and an 
Assessor and Collector in each in 1864. 

THE ELECTION. 

The election was held November 8th, resulting in 
the success of the Republican candidates. The 
electoral vote in the United States was: Lincoln, 
212; McClellan, 21. The vote in California was: 
Lincoln, 62,899; McClellan, 43,865. For Represen- 
tative in the Second Congressional District the vote 
was as follows; William Higby (R), 23,414; Jame» 



126 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



\V. Coffroth (D), 14,581. In the First District, D. C. 
McKuer, of San Francisco, and in the Third, John 
Bidwell, of Butte, were elected to Congress. 

The candidates and the votes each received in 
Placer County were as follows: — 

For Presidential Electors — Samuel Brannan (R), 
2,303; J. G. McClellan (R), 2,313; Charles MeClay 
(R), 2,315; W. W. Crane, Jr., (R), 2,3U; W. Oliver 
(R), 2,310; H. P. Barbour (D), 1,476; John T. Doyle 
(D) 1,478; B. F. Whit!; (D), 1,476; Jo Hamilton (D), 
1,485; E. J. Lewis (D), 1,474. 

Congress— William Higby (R), 2,310; James W. 
Coffroth (D), 1,458. 

Assessor, District No. 1 — A. C. Barmore (R), 631; 
James Moore (D), 541. 

Assessor, District No. 2 — John Kneeland (R), 674; 
W. A. Himes (D), 503. 

Assessor, District No. 3 — William Van Vactor (R), 
829; Thomas Dodds (D), 560. 

Collector, District No. 1 — W. Dana Perkins (D), 
641; G. L. Grilley (R), 522. 

Collector, District No. 2— William B. Miller (R), 
620; Thomas Curley (D), 392; C. M. Kopp (Ind). 
171. 

Collector, District No. 3 — J. S. Stackhouse (R), 
719; J. D. McCormick (D), 659. 

Total vote, 3,788. 

Mr. William Dana Perkins, as Collector of District 
No. 1, had the honor of being the only Democrat 
elected in Placer County. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 

(continued.) 

Campaign of 1S6.5 — Death of Lincoln — Split in the Republican 
Party — Judicial Election — The Legislature — Registry Law 
— Campaign of 1867 — Political Changes — Meeting of Con- 
ventions — The Election — Judicial Election — The Legisla- 
ture — Eugene Casserly Senatnr — Presidential Campaign of 
1868 — Republican Victory — Campaign of 186'J — Negro Suf- 
frage — Tlie Election — Judicial Election — The Legislature — 
Edgar M. Banvard — Campaign of 1871 — The Election — Judi- 
cial Election, 1871 — The Legislature — Sargent Senator — 
Dunnam's Election — Campaign of 1872 — 'Jrant and Gree- 
ley — Questions at Issue — The Election — Campaign of 1873 
^" Dolly Vardens '" — The Election — Judicial Election — The 
Legislature — Senators Elected— Campaign of 1875 — Com- 
plicated Parties — The Election — Judicial Election, 1875 — 
The Legislature — The Debris Question — Wdliam M. 
Crutcher -Campaign of 1876 — Centennial Year — Presi- 
dential Election, 1876. 

Great political changes occurred between the 
close of the campaign of 1864 and the opening of 
the catnpaign of 1865. The last great battles of 
the Rebellion had been ftjught, the rebel armies sur- 
rendered, and as peace and good-will were prom- 
ised by President Lincoln, he was assassinated on 
the 14th of April, 1865, dying the following day. 
The great triumph which had sent joy throughout 
the land was turned to sincercst mourning. The 
newspapers of Placer County, without distinction of 
politics, were issued in mourning and published 
articles of sorrow and abhorrence of the great crime. 



The funeral obsequies of the murdered President 
were observed in all the prominent towns of the 
county, as well as throughout the State, on the 
19th of April following the sad event. Business 
was suspended, public and many private buildings 
were draped in black, whole communities assem- 
bled in procession; sermons, poems, and orations 
were delivered, and the form of funeral observed 
with feeling and solemnity. This dark tragedy 
closed the terrible war. The Union was maintained 
and slavery forever forbidden in the territory of 
the United States. Many of the citizens of Placer 
had participated in the war, whose records are 
given in the chapter devoted to military affairs. 

The political campaign of 1865 opened with timid 
and cautious action. The great events preceding it 
attracted the chief attention, and no question of 
importance seemed to demand the exertions of pol- 
iticians. The Democrats were overwhelmed with 
the rebel defeat, and the success of the Republicans 
was conceded. There were two wings of this party, 
denominated the " Long Hairs" and "Short Hairs.'' 
A United States Senator was to be elected by the 
next Legislature and the principal strife was which 
wing should win the prize. Conness had been elected 
by the " Short Hairs," and the Federal offices were 
held by his adherents. 

The officers to be voted for in Placer County at 
the political election in September were a State Sen- 
ator, three Assembl^'men, county offlcei-s and Super- 
visors. 

SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

The Republican County Convention was held at 
Auburn June 27th and made nominations, which 
were claimed as a triumph of the " Long Hairs," 
and so distasteful to the defeated party that a call 
was issued for a " People's Union Convention," to 
meet at Auburn July 11, 1865, for the purpose of 
nominating Legislative and county officers. This 
Convention nominated candidates, "issued a platform, 
and organized as a party. The platform declared in 
favor of the State adojiting the Constitutional 
amendment abolishing slavery, and approved all acts 
of the late war, but opposed any change being made 
in the right of suffrage in this State. This last prop- 
osition was to oppose the granting of the right to 
vote to colored citizens, and was a pleasing plank to 
the Democracy. The new party also favored the 
"reconstruction " policy of President Johnson, which 
was violently opposed by the Republicans, and 
thus party lines were drawn. 

The Democrats made no county nominations. The 
Herald, while not advocating the " People's Union " 
ticket, vigorously attacked its opponents, who were 
strongly upheld by the Stars and Stripes, at Auburn, 
and the Enquirer, at Dutch Flat. 

The election was held September 6, 1865, passing 
verj' quietly, as is indicated by the light vote. 
The candidates and the votes received are as fol- 
lows: — 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



127 



Senate— E. L. Bradley (R), 1,659; L. B. Arnold 
(PU), 1,311. 

Assembly— John Yule (R), 1,632; Wm. Sexton 
(R), 1,760; John Bosquit (R), 1,710; J. N. Hinman 
(P U), 1,330; J. B. Stevens (P U), 1,218; Titus Ewing 
(P U), 1,233. 

Sheriff— A. VV. Poole (R), 1,730; C. J. Garland 
(PU), 1,325. 

County Clerk— D. W. Spear (R), 1,829; S. M. Jami- 
son (P U), 1,196. 

Recorder— W. B. Lyon (R), 1,9-12; D. Choate 
(P U), 1,020. 

Treasurer— J. W. DIckerson (R), 1,887; J. Marri- 
ner (P U), 1,109. 

District Attorney— E. L. Craig (R), 1,697; P. H. 
Sibley (P U), 1,274. 

Superintendent of Schools — S. R. Case (R), 1,710; 
A. H. Goodrich (P U), 1,18-t. 

Public Administrator— J. Russell (R), 1,726; S. 
Beck (PU), 1.276. 

Coroner — T. Jamison (R), 1,756; A. Becknell 
(P U), 1,244. 

Surveyor— R. H. Raymond (R), 1,748; C. Cad- 
wallader (P U), 1,248. 

Supervisor, District No. 1— Samuel Dodd (R),428; 
T. L. Chamberlain (P U), 250. 

Supervisor, District No. 2— W. C. Richmond (R), 
664; J. R. Gwynn (P U), 178. 

Supervisor, District No. 3— A. B. Scott (R), 631; 
M. B. Tubbs (P U), 519. 

Total vote in the county, 3,055. 

JUDICIAL ELECTION. 

The judicial election was ordered for the election 
of a Justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Chief 
Justice S. W. Sanderson. To make nominations for 
this and to choose State Central Committees, Con- 
ventions were held by the Republican and Demo- 
cratic parties. The Republican Convention met 
August 16, 1865, at Sacramento, both wings being 
represented, but the " Long Hairs" in the majority. 
Silas VV. Sanderson and J. H. McKune were pre- 
sented for nomination, the honor falling upon the 
former. 

The Democrats called a Convention to meet at 
Sacramento September 19ih to nominate a candidate 
for Supreme Judge, select a Slate Central Commit- 
tee, and issue a platform of principles. The Conven- 
tion met as ordered, and nominated Henry Hare 
Hartlej- for Supremo Judge. The platform pledged 
support to the National Administration in all Con- 
stitutional measures, and expressed its unalterable 
determination to oppose negro suffrage, and the 
political equality of the negro, " on the ground of 
justice to the white man as well as humanity to the 
negroes themselves." 

The election was held October 18th, with the fol- 
lowing vote in the State: Sanderson (R), 31,662; 
Hartley (D), 25,474. In Placer County the vote was 
Sanderson 1,449; Hartley, 859. 



THE LEGISLATURE. 

The Legislature met December 4, 1865, and oi'gan- 
ized by the election of S. P. Wright, of Del Norte, 
President ^ro tein. of the Senate, and John Yule, of 
Placer, Speaker of the Assembly. The Senate was 
composed of 31 Republicans and 9 Democrats; and 
the Assembly of 53 Republicans, 20 Democrats, and 
7 Independents. The great question of United 
States Senator was settled without difficulty by the 
election of Cornelius Colo, to succeed James A. Mc- 
Dougall after the 3d of March, 1867. This was a 
" Long Hair " triumph. 

REQISTRY LAW. 

The principal Act of the session was the passage 
of the '• Registry Law " requiring a registration of 
votei'3. This was prepared and introduced by Hor- 
ace Hawes, Senator from San Francisco. It was 
bitterlj' opposed by the Democrats as a partisan 
measure. The Legislature passed an Act defining 
the western boundary line of Placer County, as it 
now exists. But little of importance was accom- 
plished, and the session terminated April 2, 1866. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1867 — POLITICAL CHANGES. 

Under the Amendments to the Constitution, the 
State was relieved of an election campaign in the 
year 1866. Little was accomplished politically, but 
steps were taken for the reorganization of the Dem- 
ocratic party. The " Reconstruction " measures of 
Congress, the Amendments to the Federal Constitu- 
tion, and the disagreement between Congress and 
the President, were causes for many changes from 
the Republican to the Democratic party; and among 
the prominent persons so changing were, H. H. 
Haight, of S.in Francisco, and P. H. Siblej' of Placer 
County. 

Prepai'ations for the campaign of 1867 commenced 
early by the organization of clubs and committees, the 
discussion of political questions going on continually. 
There were to be elected a Governor, and all State 
officers, a Representative in Congress from each Dis- 
trict, a Legislature which would elect a United 
Slates Senator to succeed John Conness, county and 
district ofiicers, at the political election, and a 
Supreme Judge and Superintendent of Public 
Instruction at the judicial election. 

MEETING OF CONV'ENTIOXS. 

The Republican County Convention met at 
Auburn, June lOlh, and the Democratic on the 17th, 
and made nominations; and the State Conventions 
of the t\vo parties met at Sacramento June 12th and 
19th respectively. The Republican State Conven- 
tion was controlled by the ''Short Hair" wing, 
which nominated George C.Gorham, of San Francisco, 
for Governor, and John P. Jones, of Trinity, for Lieu- 
tenant-Governor. The nomination of Gorham was so 
distasteful to the other wing of the Republican 
part\', that an opposition ticket was made, with 
Caleb T. Fay, of San Francisco, as the candidate 



128 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



for Governor, and J. P. Jones, Lieutenant-Governor. 
The Democratic Convention nominated Henry H. 
Haight, of Alameda, for Governor, and William 
Holden, of Mendocino, for Lieutenant-Governor. 
Thus three tickets were in the field. In the Second 
District, William Higby, of Calaveras, was renomi- 
nated by the Republicans for Congress, and the 
Democrats nominated James W. Coffroth, of Sacra- 
mento. The canvass was conducted with a great 
deal of energy, the Central Pacific Railroad Company 
lending its aid to Gorham, who in company with 
F. M. Pixley and Wm. M. Stewart, held meetings 
throughout the county. 

THE ELECTION. 

The election was held September 4, ISfiT, result- 
ing in a Democratic victory in the State, and a 
Republican victory in Placer County. The State 
vote for Governor was, Haight, 49,604; Gorham, 
40,050; Fay, 2,088. Lieutenant-Governor, Holden, 
47,969; Jones, 44,274. The largest vote was for 
State Treasurer, aggregating 92,776. In the Second 
District, Higby, 16,053; Coffroth, 14,789. 

The vote in Placer (bounty was as follows: — 

Governor — George C. Gorham (R), 1,672; Henry, 
H. Haight (D), 1,590; Caleb T. Fay (Ind), 132. 

Congress— William Higby (R), 1,907; James W. 
Coffroth (D), 1,524. 

Senate— C. A. Tweed (R), 1,822; W. D. Lawrence 
(D), 1,608. 

Assembly— M. Waldron (R), 1,880; Charles A. 
Tuttle (R), 1,917; C. G. Spencer (R), 1,917; H. F. 
Davis (D), 1,530; A. C. Neil (D), 1,526; G. E. Mason 
(D), 1,545. 

Sheriff— J. H. Neff (R), 1,875; Wm. M. Crutcher 
(D), 1,566. 

County Clerk- George G. Sowell (R), 1,820; W. 
H. Kruger (D), 1,615. 

Treasurer— O. W. HoUenbeck (R), 1,937; Wm. 
McClure (D), 1,507. 

Recorder— W. B. Lyon (R), 1,936; M. W. Hassett 
(D), 1,508. 

District Attorney— E. L. Craig (R), 1,814; L. B. 
Arnold (D), 1,583. 

Superintendent of Schools— S. R. Case (R), 1,903; 
W. H. Hobbs (D), 1,543. 

Public Administrator — Thomas Jamison (R), 
1,928; G. A. Keehner(D), 1,512. 

Surveyor— R. H. Raymond (R), 1,927; C. W. Fin- 
ley (D), 1,519. 

Coroner — Thomas Jamison (R), 1,923; G. A. Keeh- 
ner (D), 1,514. 

Collector, District No. 1— \V. Dana Perkins (D), 
433; W. H. Mullen (R), 365. 

Collector, District No. 2— M. H. Calderwood (R), 
797; W. A. Himes (D), 697. 

Collector, District No. 3 — B. D. Dunnam (D), 562; 
J. S. Stackhouse (R), 559. 

Assessor, District No. 1 — Thos. B. Harper (D), 
457; M. C. Baker (R), 35G. 



Assessor, District No. 2 — John C. Boggs (R), 884; 
George L. Slocumb (D), 615. 

Assessor, District No. 3 — Wm. Van Vactor (R), 
657; James Pursely (D), 466. 

Supervisor, District No. 1— J. D. Pratt (R), 452; 
C. H. Schnabel (D), 351. 

Supervisor, District No. 2— William Duck (R),867; 
Robert Gordon (D), 628. 

Supervisor, District No. 3— M. H. Power (R), 60S; 
M. Fannon (D), 512. 

Total vote in the county, 3,451. 

JUDICIAL ELECTION. 

The judicial election was held October 16, 1857, 
resulting as had the political election, with a Demo- 
cratic majority in the State and a Republican major- 
ity in Placer County, the vote in the county being 
as follows: — 

Supreme Judge — John Currey (R), 1,565; Royal T. 
Sprague (D), 1,236. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — JohnSwett 
(R), 1,581; 0. P. Fitzgerald (D), 1,213. 

County Judge— David W. Spear (R), 1,577; B. F. 
Myres (D), 1,214. 

The result of the election was received with great 
rejoicing by the Democrats, who celebrated it by 
public meetings, illuminations, and firing of guns; 
and with general satisfaction by the majority of the 
Republicans, who considered it a proper reproof for 
an injudicious gubernatorial nomination. 

THE LEGISLATURE— CASSERLY SEN.\T0R. 

The Legislature met on the first Monday of Decem- 
ber, and was composed of nineteen Democratic and 
twenty-one Republican Senators, and fifty-one Demo- 
cratic and twenty-nine Republican Assemblymen. 
This body elected Eugene Casserly United States 
Senator to succeed John Conness, whose term expired 
March 3, 1869. 

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OP 1868. 

In the campaign of 1868 a President, Vice-Pres- 
dent, and Representatives in Congress were to be 
elected. National Conventions were held by the Repub- 
licans in Chicago in May, nominating Gen. Ulysses 
S. Grant for President and Schuyler Colfax for Vice- 
President, and by the Democrats in Julj^, in New 
York, nominating Horatio Sej-mour for President 
and Francis P. Blair for Vice-President. In the 
Second District Aaron A. Sargent, of Nevada, was 
nominated for Congress by the Republicans, and 
James W. Coffroth, of Sacramento, by the Demo- 
crats. The canvass was active and bitter. The suc- 
cess of the Democrats the preceding year had 
inspired hopes of success, which gave life and inter- 
est to the struggle. The leading papers of Placer 
were the Herald and the Stars and St7-ipes, the former 
edited by ex-Lieutenant-Governor Walkup and the 
latter by ex-Judge Fellows, both talented writers 
and strong partisans, and were able to arouse an 
iulense feeling in the county. 




F. D. Adc 



mils. 



^ 



POLITICAL HISTORY (3F PLACER COUNTY. 



129 



RErUIiLICAN VICTORY. 

The election was beld ^^ovember 4, 1868, resulting 
in a complete Republican Victory. The electoral 
vote of the United States was. Grant, 214; Seymour, 
80, and 23 vacancies. The vote in California was, 
for Grant, 54,592; and for Seymour, 54,078. In the 
Second Congressional District the vote was, for Sar- 
gent, 18,264; Coffroth, 15,124. In the First District, 
S. B. Axtell, Democrat, was elected over F. M. 
Pixlc}^, and in the Third, James A. Johnson, Demo- 
crat, over Chancellor Hartson. 

The vote in Placer County was as follows: — 

Presidential Electors— D. B. Hoffman (R), 1,988; 
A. Reddington (R), 1,987; Charles Westmoreland 
(R), 1,988: J. B. Pelton (R), 1,988; O. H. La Grange 
(R), 1,988; Thomas J. Henley (D), 1,233; E. J. C. 
Kewen (D), 1,233; W. T. Wallace (D), 1,233; A. B. 
Dibble (D), 1,233; Geo. Pearce (D), 1,233. 

Congress— A. A. Sargent (R), 1,976; J. W. Coff- 
roth (D), 1,236. 

Total vote of the county, 3,221. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1869 — NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 

The great battles for principle have been fought 
in the campaigns preceding the election of General 
Grant to the Presidency, and parties have, in the 
year 1869, taken their stand upon them. The 
question of negro suifrage is the only modern one 
that divides the parties, and this is contained in 
the Fifteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitu- 
tion. The election of 1869 is for a Legislature to 
either adopt or reject this Amendment, and a strug- 
gle was made for the supremacy. 

THE ELECTION. 

Conventions were held as usual and nominations 
made by the two parties. The political election for 
Legislative, county and district officers was held 
September 1, 1869, resulting as follows; — 

Senate- E. M. Banvard (D), 1,310; E. L. Bradley 
(R), 1,284. 

Assembly— M. Waldron (R), 1,350; M. H. Power 
(R), 1,347; M. H. Calderwood (R), 1,331; J. T. Can- 
^non (D), 1,197; Patrick Munday (D), 1,223; H. Fitz- 
simmons (D), 1,256. 

Sheriff— B. D. Dunnam (D). 1,298; J. L. Sanborn 
(R), 1,290. 

County Clerk— Geo. G. Sewell (R), 1,338; J. W. 
Chinn (D), 1,266. 

Treasurer— O. W. Hollenbeck (R), 1,338; Frank 
Lux (D), 1,268. 

Recorder — C. C. Crosby (R), 1,403; James Moore 
(D), 1,196. 

Assessor— J. C. Boggs (R), 1,330; T. B. Harper 
(D), 1,272. 

Superintendent of Schools — ^J. T. Kinkade (R), 
1,420; Isaac Stonecipher (D), 1,184. 

District Attorney— H. H. Fellows (R), 1,304; 
Robert O. Cravens (D), 1,200. 

Public Administratoi" — Thomas Jamison (R), 1,394; 
Francis Sampson (D), 1,209. 



Surveyor— Y. Dougherty (R), 1,403; C. W. Finley 
(D), 1,208. 

Coroner — T. Jamison (Rj, 1,388; F. Sampson (D), 
1,207. 

Supervisor, District No. 1— J. D. Pratt (R),412; .1. 
L. Gouldsby (D), 309. 

Supervisor, District No. 2 — W. H Kinder ( D), 540; 
William Duck (R), 463. 

Supervisor, District No. 3 — William Van Vactor 
(R), 478; M. M. McBride (D), 365. 

Total vote of the county, 2,606. 

JUDICIAL ELECTION. 

The judicial election was held October 20, 1866, 
resulting in the election to ihe Supreme Bench of 
Judges Crockett and Wallace, the Democratic nomi- 
nees, and in the Fourteenth District of T. B. Reardan 
as District Judge, the vote being, Reardan, 3,941; 
McFarland, 2,472. 

The vote in Placer (Jounty was as follows: — 

Supreme Judge — Lorenzo Sawyer (R), 1,174; 0. 
C. Pratt (R), 1,145; J. B. Crockett (D). 1,061, Wm. 
T. Wallace (D), 1,030. 

District Judge— T. B. McFarland fR), 1,114; Thos. 
B. Reardan (D), 1,068. 

THE LEGISLATURE. 

The Legislature was largely Democratic, the Sen- 
ate having 27 Democratic and 13 Republican mem- 
bers, and the Assemblj' 66 Democrats, 11 Republi- 
cans, and 3 Independents. 

The Legislature organized by the election of E. J. 
Lewis, of Tehama, President pro (em. of the Senate, 
G. H. Rogers, of San Francisco, Speaker, and W. 
Dana Perkins of Placer, Sergeant-at-Arms of the 
Assembly. 

Among the Acts of the Legislature was one " to 
protect litigants," by which the District Judge should 
designate the newspapers in which legal advertise- 
ments should be published in his District. This was 
intended to help the Democratic papers, as all the 
District Judges were Democrats. The Placer Herald 
was appointed the official paper of Placer County 
hy Judge Reardan on the 6th of April, 1870. Two 
bills were also passed enabling certain counties to 
grant subsidies to railroads, intended as assistance 
to the Southern Pacific Railroad, but were vetoed 
by Governor Haight, for which he was censured by 
the railroad organs, and as heartily lauded b^- the 
anti-monopoly papers. The Legislature also passed 
an Act amendatory of a former Act passed in 1866 
authorizing the Supervisors of Placer County to sell 
the stock held by the county in the Central Pacific 
Railroad Company of California, for which bonds to 
the amount of $250,000 had been issued in 1864 
and '65. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1871. 

The camiiuign of 1871 involved the election of a 
Governor, and State officers, two Justices of the 
Supreme Court — one to succeed Judge Sanderson, 



17 



130 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



who had resigned, and one to succeed Rhodes, whose 
term would expire — a Member of Congrese for each 
district, Legislative and district officers. The candi- 
dates for Governor were: H. H. Haight, Democrat, 
and Newton Booth, Republican. The passage of the 
Act "To Protect Litigants," had rendered the Dem- 
ocratic Administration unpopular with the Independ- 
ent and Republican press of the State, and the veto 
of the railroad subsidy bills, bi'ought the power of 
the railroad company against the 'Governor. The 
declarations of the Democratic State Convention 
were decidedly anti-suhsidy. Mr. Booth was also 
regai'ded as an anti-subsidy candidate, but Romu- 
aldo Pacheco, the Republican candidate for Lieuten- 
ant-Governor, was classed as a friend of the railroad 
company. The declaration was made immediately 
after the nominations, that should Booth be elected, 
he would be removed, either by election to the 
United States Senate, or the appointment to a for- 
eign mission, leaving the friends of the railroad 
company in control of the State Government. 

The Democratic State nominations were: For 
Governor, H. H. Haight; Lieutenant-Governor, E. 
J.Lewis; Secretary of State, W. B. C. Brown; Con- 
troller, Dr. R. O. DeWitt; Treasurer, Antonio L. 
Coronell; Attorney-General, Jo Hamilton; Surveyor- 
General, John W. Bost; State Printer, John T. 
Barry; Clerk of Supi'eme Court, T. Las]>eyere; Har- 
bor Commissioner, John Rosenfeld. 

The Republican nominations were: For Governor, 
Newton Booth; Lieutenant-Governor, R. Pacheco, 
Secretarj' of State, Drury Melone; Controller, J. J. 
Green; Treasurer, Ferdinand Baehr; Attorney- 
General, J. L. Love; Surveyor-General, Robert 
Gardner; State Printer, Thomas A. Springer; Clerk 
of Supreme Court, Grant I. Taggart; Harbor Com- 
missioner, John A. McGlynu 

THE ELECTION. 

The election was held September 6, 1871, resulting 
in the success of the Republican candidates, the 
vote in the State being as follows: — 

For Governor — Newton Booth (R), 61,819; Henrj' 
H. Haight (D), 5G,800; the Republican majorities 
ranging from -1,304, for Pacheco, to 5,601 for T. A. 
Springer, for Slate Printer. Three Republicans, S. O. 
Houghton, from the First District, A. A. Sargent, 
from the Second, and John M. Coghlan, from the 
Third, were elected Repi'eseutatives in Coigress. 
The vote in the Second Congressional District was: 
For Aaron A. Sargent (R), 18,065; James \V. Cof- 
froth (D), 15,378. 

The vote of Placer County was as follows: — 

Governor— Newton Booth (Ri, 1,698; H. H. 
Haight (D), 1,330. 

Congress — A. A. Sargent (R), 1,686: J. W. Coflfroth 
(D), 1,300. 

Senate— J. H. Neft" (R), 1,652; T. B. Harper (^D), 
1,363. 

Assembly— Henry Long (K), 1,637; O. H. Lee (R), 
1,603; Jacob Welty (R), 1,707; A. W. Gofr(D), 1,336; 



B. F. Moore (D), 1,459; Daniel Stephenson (D). 
1,283. 

Sheriff— B. D. Dunnam (D), 1,508; J. B. Starbuck 
(R), 1,506. 

County Clerk— B. F. Burt (R), 1,570; B. H. Mc- 
Clure (D), 1,433. 

District Attorney — J. M. Fulweiler (R), 1,667; B. 

F. Myres(D), 1,323. 

Recorder— C. C. Crosby (R), 1,670; J. B. Chinn 
(D), 1,343. 

Treasurer— O. \V. HoUenbeck (R), 1,707; E. C. W. 
Albrecht (D), 1,306. 

Superintendent of Schools — J. T. Kinkade (R). 
1,667; Eugene Calvin (D). 1,339. 

Surveyor— E. C. Uren (R), 1,722; C. VV. Finley (D), 
1,292. 

Coroner — Thomas Jamison (R), 1,673; Francis 
Sampson (D), 1,332. 

Public Administrator— W. H. Mullen (R), 1,723: 
J. M. White (D), 1,287. 

Supervisor, District No. 1 — A. Laswell (R), 524; 
Peter Singer (D), 448. 

Supervisor. District No. 2— E. L.Bradley (R), 733; 
Edward Walsh (D), 468. 

Supervisor, District No. 3 — C. Beckraan (R), 424; 
R. Williams (D),405. 

Collector, District No. 1 — James Moore (D), 503; 
David Harris (R), 470. 

Collector, District No. 2— W. L. Munson (R), 654; 
J. E. Simpson (D), 546. 

Collector, District No. 3 — James McCormick (D), 
475; William Krysher (R), 358. 

Assessor, District No. 1 — John H. Mitchell (D), 517; 
J. D. Nash (R), 453. 

Assessor, District No. 2— L. T. Allen (R), 731; 
Thomas Shanley (D), 451. 

Assessor, District No. 3 — John Buller (R), 501; L. 

G. Randall (D), 332. 

Total vote of the count}', 3,028. 
Highest vote at State election, 120,001. 

JUDICIAL ELECTION, 1871. 

The judicial election was held October 18, 1871. 
resulting in the election of the Republican candidates 
by majorities from 10,214 to 14,638. The vote in 
Placer County was as follows: — 

Justice of Supreme Court; — A. L. Rhodes (R), 1,411; 
Addison C. Niles (R), 1,432; Selden S. Wright (D), 
844; Jackson Temple (D), 822. 

County Judge — J. Ives Fitch (R), 1,333; Hugh 
Fitzsimmons (D), 909. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — Henry Bo- 
lander (R), 1,521; O. P. Fitzgerald (D), 721. 

THE LEGISLATURE — SARGENT SENATOR. 

The two houses of the Legislature were of oppo- 
site politics, the Senate being composed of 22 Demo- 
crats, 17 Republicans and 1 Independent, and the 
Assembly 55 Republicans, 24 Democrats and 1 Inde- 
pendent. James T. Frtrle> was President pro tern. 
of the Senate, and Thomas B. Shannon was Speaker 



Political history of placer county. 



I SI 



of the Assembly. The duty of electing a United 
States Senator, as successor to Cornelius Cole, 
devolved upon the body in Joint Convention. Among 
the prominent candidates was Judge James E. Hale, 
of Placer County; but the Republican nomination 
fell upon Hon. A. A. Sargent, then member of Con- 
gress, but whose term would end as the term of Sen- 
ator would begin, and Sargent was elected. 

dunnam's election. 

The great popularity of Dunnam is shown in the 
following account of the election and count pub- 
ished in the Herald at that time: — 

" On Friday evening, after the election, our returns 
elected Dunnam Sheritf by two majority, but Mon- 
day's canvass gave Starbuck three majority, and the 
Republicans fired three guns for these three major- 
ity. Dunnam demanded a recount, and when all 
the tickets were counted, Dunnam was one ahead. 
Here the Supervisors had exhausted their authority 
under the law, and should have declared the result, 
and directed the certificate to issue, but a recount 
was demanded by Starbuck's counsel, an* illegally 
allowed by the Supervisors, the hope that a further 
handling, shaking and rubbing of the tickets might 
remove some of Dunnam's stickers from the Repub- 
lican tickets, being, we suppose, relied on to defeat 
him. 

" The handling of the tickets proceeded at intervals 
through the week, and in spite of everything the 
stickers would stick, and at the end of the week the 
canvassers were compelled to declare Dunman elected 
by two majority. This news spread rapidly, and by 
dark a large crowd had assembled on the plaza, 
anvils were planted, powder procured, and pop went 
the guns; and they kept popping and repeating the 
popping until a late hour at night, and at each pop 
the air reverberated with the shouts and cheers of 
Dunman's host of friends. The guns were the larg- 
est we ever heard by anvils, but this fact is explained 
by the make of a peculiar ring, not like the Court- 
House ring, and the use of J. M. White's cast-steel 
anvil and Schultheis' sporting powder. 

" The guns were plainly heard at Ophir, Newcastle, 
Clipper Gap, and even at Pino, eleven miles from 
here. 

■' We cannot describe the jollification, except by 
saying it was the heartiest, liveliest, bost-humorcd, 
whole-souled, political jollification ever held in 
Auburn. There was no pent-up Utica there. At 
about two o'clock next morning the party adjourned, 
and all is serene, and B. D. Dunnam is Sheritf. and 
will be again during the next two years." 

CAMPAIGN OF 1872 — GRANT AND GREELEY. 

With the campaign of 1872 again recurred the 
Presidential election, and by an Act of Congress 
the election of four members of Congress in Cali- 
fornia was fixed for this year. The nomination of 
General Grant for the Presidency' by the Republican 
Convention was regarded as a foregone conclusion, 



and a branch of the party opposed to such nomina- 
tion called a Convention to meet at Cincinnati, May 
1, 1872, styling itself the Liberal Republican Party.^ 
This Convention nominated Horace Greeley for 
President and B. Gratz Brown for Vice President. 
These nominations were indorsed by the Democratic 
National Convention, which met at Baltimore on the 
9th of July. The Republican Convention met at 
Philadelphia, June 5th, and nominated Gen. U. S. 
Grant for President and Henry Wilson, of Massa- 
chusetts, for Vice-President. 

QUESTIONS AT ISSUE. 

The questions at issue were the charges of corrup- 
tion, weakness and avarice against Grant and his 
administration, the jealousy of oifice-hoklers, and the 
desire for otfieial positions. The main question was 
" anything to beat Grant," and the singular spectacle 
was observed in politics of the extremes of two 
opposing parties joining under the names of Liberals 
to defeat the Republican Party. A few Democrats 
adhered to their party, and nominated Charles 
O'Conor, of New York, for President, and Charles 
Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. 

The Democrats of the Second Congressional Dis- 
trict also nominated a former extreme Republican 
for Representative in Mr. Paschal Coggins, of Sacra- 
mento, and the Republicans nominated Mr. 11. F. 
Page, of El Dorado. The Stars and Stripes news- 
paper, previously an advocate of the Republican 
party, became, in this campaign, the advocate of 
Greeley and Brown, and the Placer County Argu,% 
was established as a Republican paper, under the 
editorship of Mr. James B. McQuillan. 

THE ELECTION. 

The election was held November 5, 1872, resulting 
in the success of the Republican candidates, the elec- 
toral vote of the United States being 286 for Grant 
and Wilson and 80 for Greeley and Brown. In Cali- 
fornia the vote was for Grant 5-1,020; Greeley, 40,718. 
O'Conor, 1,068. The Representatives in Congress 
from California elected were Charles Clayton (R), 
from the First District, H. F. Page (R) from the 
Second, J. K. Luttrell (D) from the Third, and S. O. 
Houghton (R), from the Fourth. The vote of the 
Second District gave Page a majority of 961 over 
Coggins. 

The vote in Placer County was as follows: — 

Presidential Electors— John B. Felton (R), 1,417: 
John F. Miller (R), 1,415; Claus Spreckles (R), 1,416; 
James E. Hale (R), 1,417; T. H. Rose (R), 1,411; 
Jesse O. Goodwin (R), 1.417; J.C. Shorb (L R), 838; 
Frank M. Pixley (L R), 839; Jo Hamilton (L R), 
841; F. H. Rosenbuum (L R), 841; Peter Donahue 
(L R), 840; John Yule (L R), 839. Judge Hale, of 
Placer, one of the Electors, was selected to take the 
electoral vote to Washington. 

Congress— Paschal Coggins (L R), 1,179; H. F. 
Page (R), 1,071. On the 20th of November, 1872, 
after the election, Horace Greeley died, and theelec- 



1.^2 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



toral vote intended for him was cast lor various 
persons. 

« CAMPAIGN UF 1873 — " DOLLY VARDENS." 

The election of 1873 was for Legislative, county 
and district officers. The Legislature would elect a 
L^nited States Senator to succeed the term of Eugene 
Casserly, which would expire March 3, 1875. The 
chief political question was that of opposition to the 
power and management of the Central Pacific Rail- 
i-oad Companj' and the election of Governor Booth 
to the Senate. For this a party was organized call- 
ing itself the Independent People's party, with the 
expressed object of opposing " monopolies, rings, 
corruption and extravagance in office." This organ- 
ization bore the common appellation of " Dolly Var- 
den." The new party held a Convention at Auburn, 
called by the members of the late Democratic and 
Liberal Republican County Committee, and nomin- 
ated a ticket composed of eight Democrats and five 
Republicans. 

The statute for the election of Supervisors had 
been changed by the last Legislature, and now the 
county was divided into five districts, electing a 
Supervisor in each, who were required to draw lots 
for the length of term each should holil. The sys- 
tem, however, lasted only through one term, and in 
1875 but three Supervisors were elected, taking office 
iu January, 1870. 

TOE ELF,CT10N. 

The election was held September 3, 1873, with the 
result as follows: — 

Senate— Dr. Noble Martin (1 D), 1,303; M. H. 
Power (R), 1,248. 

Assembly— Wm. C. Norton (I R), 1,372; William 
Roush (I D) 1,274; S. B. Burt(R), 1,276, D. H. Long 
(I D), 1,227; Horace Mansur ( R), 1,233; Walter B. 
Lyon (R), 1,215. 

Sheriff — James McCormick (1 D), 1, 304; John C. 
Boggs (R), 1,25G. 

Treasurer — B. D. Dunnam (1 D), 1,349; O. W. 
Hollenbeck (R), 1,205. 

Recorder— C. C. Crosby (R), 1,389; G. W. Apjile- 
gate (I D), 1,169. 

County Clerk— B. F. Burt (R), 1,297; G. S. Yan 
Emon (I R), 1,252. 

District Attorney — J. M. Fulweiler ( R), 1,311; C. 
J. Brown (I R), 1,227. 

Surveyor— J. A. Benson (R), 1,286; C. W. Finley 
(1 D), 1,270. 

Superintendent of Schools — J. T. Kinkade (R), 
1,311. J. A. Filcher (1 D), 1,213. 

Public Administrator and Coroner — Merritt Swett 
(I D), 1,278; Charles Fett (^R), 1,266. 

Supervisor, District No. 1 — James Laird ( Ind), 1 97; 
J. N. Taylor (R), 193. 

Supervisor, District No. 2— A. J. Soule (R), 249; 
Thomas Pairchild (Ind), 195. 

Supervisor, District No. 3— V. Y. Mann (Ind), 288; 
Moses Andrews (R), 229. 



Supervisor, District No. 4 — S. B. Harriman (R), 
292; J. B. Taylor (Ind), 265. 

Supervisor, District No. 5 — E. Barrett (Ind), 348; 
Judson Wheeler (R), 289. 

Assessor, District No. 1 — J. H. Mitchell (Ind), 
622; D. Stephenson (R), 202. 

Assessor, District No. 2— L. T. Allen (R), 572; 
n. H. Richmond (Ind), 480. 

Assessor, District No. 3— John Butler (R), 408; 
A. G. Reed (Ind)', 255. 

Collector, District No. 1 — James Moore (Ind), 
476; D. A. Rice (R), 353. 

Collector, District No. 2— W. L. Munson (R),629; 
S. J. Ray (I D), 421. 

Collector, District No. 3— J. G. Bisbee (R), 379; 
G. AV. Gilbert (Ind), 287. 

Total vote in the county, 2,551. 

JUDICIAL ELECTION. 

The judicial election for Justice of the Supreme 
Court to succeed Belcher was held October 15, 1873. 
The Republicans nominated Samuel H. Dwinelle, of 
vSan Francisco; the Independent People's party nom- 
inated E. W. McKinstry, of San Francisco, and the 
Democrats S. B. 3IcKee, of Alameda. The Repub- 
licans also nominated Anson Brunson to succeed 
Judge Crockett, who had been elected for an unex- 
l)ired or short term; but the Court had decided 
that there was no short term, and therefore there 
was but one Judge to be elected at this election. 
The result in the State was the election of McKin- 
stry, receiving 28,901; Dwinelle, 16,189; Brunson, 
15,078; McRee, 21,850. 
The vote in Placer County was as follows: — 
Justice of Supreme Court — E. W. McKinstry (I D), 
1,052; Samuel H. Dwinelle (R), 386; Anson Brun- 
son (R), 368; Samuel Bell McKee (D), 97. 

THE LEOISLATURK — SENATORS ELECTED. 

The Legislature met December 1, 1873, and organ- 
ized by the election of William Irwin, Democrat, 
President p-o fern, of the Senate and M. M. Estee, 
Republican, Speaker, and Wm. M. Crutcher, of Placer. 
Sergeant-at Arms of the Assembly. The parties were 
represented by 18 Republicans, 14 Democrats and 8 
Independents in the Senate; and 19 Republicans, 27 
I)emocrats and 34 Indei^endents in the Assembly. 
The combinations for organization and the election 
of a United States Senator were announced to be 
monopoly and anti-monopoly, or friends and oppo- 
nents of the railroad company. Soon after the 
organization of the Legislature the resignation of 
Eugene Casserly as United States Senator was made 
known, making it necessary to elect a Senator for 
the unexpired term. The election of Senator for 
the full term was effected December 20th, after 
many ineffectual ballotings, the final vote being: 
For Newton Booth (Ind), 61; James T. Farley (D), 
37; James J\IcM Shaftcr (R), 20; and on the 23d 
John S. Hager, Democrat, of San Francisco, was 
elected to servo the unexpired term of Senator 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY 



133 



Casserly. R. O. Cravens, of Placei", was re-elected 
State Librarian for the term of four years. 

CAMPAIGN OP 1875 — COMPLICATED PARTIES. 

The campaign of 1875 was interesting from the 
complication of parties, the secrets of political manip- 
ulation exposed, personal animosities engendered, 
the power of monopolies in the control of nomina- 
tions, and the i-esults. In no campaign in the his- 
tory of the State were the parties more subordinated 
to personal and selfish control. Thoi-o were to be 
elected a Governor and State officers, Members of 
Congress, a Legislature, county oiflcers. Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, District and County 
Judges, and Justices of the Peace. Three State 
and Congressional tickets were in the field. The 
Republican State Convention met at Sacramento 
June 14th, and to the general surprise was organized, 
under the motion of George C. Gorham, by the elec- 
tion of A. A. Sargent as Chairman. T. G. Phelps, 
of San Mateo, was nominated for Governor; J. M. 
Cavis, of San Joaquin, Lieutenant-Governor; 0. II. 
Hallett, of Butte, Secretary of State; J. J. Green, 
of Marin, Controller; W. M. Beckman, of Sacra- 
mento, Treasurer; E. D. Sawyer, of San Francisco, 
Attorney-General; Robert Gardner, of Humboldt, 
Surveyor-General; Grant I. Taggart, of Shasta, Clerk 
of Supreme Court, and Ezra S. Carr, of Alameda, 
for Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

H. F. Page, of El Dorado, was nominated for Con- 
gress for the Second District. 

The management of the Convention, and the 
nominations, to a great extent, were so offensive 
to many Republicans that an Independent Conven- 
tion was called, which met at Sacramento on the 
22d of June and made the following nominations: 
For Governor, John Bidwell, of Butte; Lieutenant- 
Governor, Romualdo Pacheco, of Santa Barbara; 
Secretary of State, Wm. Roush, of Placer; Con- 
troller, Lauren E. Crane, of Sierra; Treasurer, Ferdi- 
nand Baehr, of Shasta; Attorney-General, Peter Van 
Clief, of Yuba; iSui-veyor-General, Edward Twitchell, 
of Sacramento; Clerk of Supreme Court, Paul Mor- 
rill, of Sacramento, and for Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction, J. M. Guinn, of Los Angeles. 

Charles A. Tuttle, of Alameda, formerly of Placer, 
was nominated for Congress in the Second District. 

The Democratic State Convention met at San Fran- 
cisco, June 29th, and nominated: For Governor, 
Wm. Irwin, of Siskiyou; Lieutenant-Governor, James 
A. Johnson, of San Francisco; Secretary of vState, 
Thomas Beck, of Monterej^, Controller, J. W. Man- 
deville, of Tuolumne; Treasurer, J. M. Estudillo, of 
San Diego; Attorney-General, Jo Hamilton, of Placer; 
Surveyor-General, William Minis, of Yolo; Clerk of 
Supreme Court, B. D. VYoolf, of San Francisco; 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, O. P. Fitzger- 
ald, of San Francisco. 

Henry Larkin, of El Dorado, was nominated for 
Congress in the Second District. 

The charges, common in the canvass, were that 



the Republican nominees were entirely under the 
control of the railroad company, and that the Dem- 
ocratic candidate for Governor had been given the 
nomination by the same company in reward for 
services while State Senator. 

By an Act of the Legislature of 1874, Placer 
County was deprived of one Senator and two 
Assemblymen, leaving but one Assemblyman to 
elect in 1875; also for the election of three Super- 
visors to take office on the first Monday of Febru- 
ary, 1876, one to hold two and the other four years, 
and thereafter the terms to be four years each. 
The office of collector was returned to the Sheriff. 

THE ELECTION. 

The Independents and Republicans made nomina- 
tions for Assembly and county officers. The polit- 
ical election was held September 1, 1875, resulting 
in the success of the Democratic State nominees, 
by the following vote: For Governor, Irwin (D), 
61,509; Phelps, (R), 31,322; Bidwell (Ind), 29,752; 
Lovett (Tern), 350. H. F. Page was re-elected Mem- 
ber of Congress from the Second District. 

The vote in Placer County was as follows: — 

Governor— Timothy Guy Phelps (R), 1,065; Wm. 
Irwin (D), 881; John Bidwell (ind), 606; William 
E. Lovett (Tem), 7. 

Congress — Horace F.Page (Rj, 1,187; Henry Lar- 
kin (D), 768; Charles A. Tuttle (Ind), 593. 

Assembly— Wm. M. Crutcher (Ind), 1,392; Daniel 
Hogins (R), 1,119. 

Sheriff— James McCormick (Ind), 1,342; L. T. 
Allen (R), 1,205. 

Treasurer— A. J. Soulo (R), 1,341; B. D. Dunnam 
(Ind), 1,195. 

Recorder— J. T. Ashley (R), 1,408; John Clydes- 
dale (Ind), 1,114. 

County Clerk— J. R. Crandall (R), 1,354, A. Mc- 
Kinley(Ind), 1,189. 

District Attorney— W. II. Bullock (Ind), 1,330; J. 
T. Kinkade (R), 1,187. 

Surveyor— C. W. Finley (Ind), 1,279; E. C. Uren 
(R), 1,250. 

S'lperintendent of Schools— E. Calvin (^tnd), 1,369; 
E. S. Atkins (R), 1,138. 

Public Administrator and Coroner — M. Swett 
(Ind) 1,274, G. B. Predmore (R), 1,250. 

Supervisor, First District— N. Mertis (R), 1,229; 
D. H. Long (Ind), 1,294. 

Supervisor, Second District— W. A. Himes (Ind), 
1,273; C. J. Swan (R), 1,204. 

Supervisor, Third District— J. B. Hussell (R), 
1,267; T. A. Stevens (Ind), 1,188. 

Assessor, First District— J. H. Mitchell (Ind), 467; 
Z. Bates (R), 228. 

Assessor, Second District— \V. L. Munson (R), 
614; B. H. Bartlott (Ind), 437. 

Assessor, Third District— John Buttler (R and 
Ind), 609. 



134 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



JUDICIAL ELECTION, 1875. 

The judicial election was held on the following 
20th of October. Placer and Nevada Counties, com- 
prising the Fourteenth Judicial District, were required 
to elect a District Judge, and for this office the 
Republicans nominated James B. Hale, of Placer, 
and the Democi'uts, T. B. Reardan, of Nevada. J. 
M. Guinn had withdrawn as candidate for Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, and E. S. Carr was 
elected. 

The following are the returns of the election; — 

District Judge— T. B. Reardan (D), in Placer 826, 
in Nevada 1,396; James E. Hale (R), in Placer 974, 
in Nevada 1,129. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction — Ezra S. Carr 
(R), 1,151; O. P. Fitzgerald (D), 642. 

County Judge— J. Ivis Fitch (R), 1,283; L. B. 
Arnold (D), 473. 

THE LEGISLATURE. 

The Legislature met December 6, 1875, and organ- 
ized by the election of B. F. Tuttle, of Sonoma, as 
President ;»-o tern, of the Senate, G. J. Carpenter, of 
Kl Dorado, Speaker, and W. Dana Perkins, of Placer, 
Sergeant-at-Armsof the Assembly. Both bodies were 
largely Democratic, the partisan representation being 
23 Democrats, 9 Independents, and 8 Republicans, in 
the Senate; 65 Democrats, 11 Republicans, and 4 
Independents in the Assembly. 

THE DEBRIS QUESTION. 

During the session the -'debris question" was 
introduction in the Assembly by C. P. Berry, of 
Sutter, with the remarkable statement that the 
mining debris annuall}^ washed into the bays at the 
mouth of the Sacramento River was equivalent to a 
solid body of earth one mile square and forty feet 
in thickness, and that at the rate minmg was going 
on in fifteen yeai-s Suisun Bay would be filled; and 
that but thirty-one years would be required to com- 
plete the destruction of San Pablo Bay. He also 
estimated the value of land destroyed by the debris 
at $6,350,000; and the expense of leveeing made 
necessary b}' it at $2,000,000. The statements were 
regarded as extravagant and the intervening years 
have so proven them. The question is elsewhere 
noticed in this work. Among the persistent ques- 
tions appearing in the Legislature was one fixing 
the rates of fares and freights on railroads, but like 
its predecessors, was defeated by the friends of the 
railroad company. 

WILLIAM M. CR0TCHER. 

Few names among those who have been active in 
business and politics in Placer County are better 
known than the one that heads this notice. Will- 
iam McDowell Crutcher was born December 19, 
1828, near Elizabethtown, Hardin County, Ken- 
tucky, coming of old Vii'ginia stock, his father hav- 
ing been born in the Old Dominion in 1803, his 
mother being a native of Kentucky. Hardin 
County in the days of our subject's youth was then 



far advanced in prosperity and enlightenment, well 
endowed with schools and academies, and in these 
Mr. Crutcher received his education, graduating from 
the Elizabethtown Academy, in 1847. There he 
remained, absorbing the elements of probity and 
manhood, so characteristic of his section, until 1853, 
when he transferred his home and allegiance to 
California, crossing the plains, and arriving at 
Placerville on the 20th of September of that year. 
His first field of enterprise was in Shasta, where he 
engaged in mining, and there remained until the 
Ist of April, 1854, when he removed to Placer 
County, which has been his home from that date. 
The rich and promising mining town of Wisconsin 
Hill vvas the place he sought, and there he delved 
until, in 1857, he removed to Iowa Hill, and thence, 
in 1859, to Auburn. 

There were attachments, however, that drew him 
back to Iowa Hill, for there he was married — 
seeking the "Happy New Year" for the happy 
event — to Miss Mary Elizabeth Currier, the cere- 
mony being performed by the Rev. Mr. McClay, the 
Methodist Episcopal Clei-gyman of the place. The 
fair bride was a native of Quincy, Massachusetts, 
daughter of Judge John B. Currier, Associate Justice 
of the county, then of Iowa Hill, but now a resident 
of San Francisco. The day of the wedding was 
auspicious of the happy and prosperous future as the 
pleasant home in Auburn gives proof to the many 
visitors who are so royaljy entertained at that hos- 
pitable mansion. Mrs. Crutcher is a most refined 
and worthy lady, adding to her many accomplish- 
ments that of being a skilled musician, an adornment 
to the social circle of which she is a prominent 
member, and, with her husband, fond of society and 
the entertainment of friends. 

The social and political career of Mr. Crutcher 
has been steadily onward and upward, and consis- 
tent. As soon as the proper age would permit 
he became a member of the Order of Free and 
Accepted Masons, joining that venerable Order in 
Garrettsville, Meade County, Kentucky, and during 
his long period of membership has filled nearly all 
the chairs of the Lodge. 

Politically, he started in life as a Whig, having 
been born in a locality where, if a person did not 
subscribe for the Louisville Journal and vote for 
Henry Clay, he would be socially ostracized. Upon 
the collapse of the Whig party he became a Demo- 
crat and a strong advocate of the principle of anti- 
monopoly. In these ranks he has trained these 
many years, and good need has Placer had of her 
firm and brave monopoly-resisting citizens. The 
political and financial history of the county shows 
the war they have engaged in and the results 
accomplished. As evidence of his ability in political 
matters is the fact of his being Chairman of the 
Democratic County Central Committee for a number 
of years, and the many positions he has held 
proves the confidence reposed in him by the people. 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



His first office was that of Deputy Sheriff, to which 
position he was appointed by Sheriff King in June, 
1857, which he held during the term, performing 
most efficient service in the arduous duties then 
required of fighting criminals, collecting foreign 
miners' licenses, and others of like dangerous and 
annoying character. These adventures would con- 
stitute a romantic story of early California life. 
The fight with and death of " Rattlesnake Dick," 
in which Mr, Crutcher was wounded, and his com- 
panion, George M. Martin, Deputy Tax Collector, 
killed, is told elsewhere in this book. With the 
expiration of the term of Charles King as Sheriff, 
June 2, 1859, and the accession to the office of L. 
L. Bullock, Mr. Crutcher was continued in the office 
as deputy during the two terms of that officer. At 
the election in 1862 Henry Gooding was chosen 
Sheriff, as a Union Democrat, and upon taking office 
Mr. Crutcher was made Under Sheriff, and contin- 
ued in that position until, by a change in the election 
laws, his principal was cut short of his full term, and 
in the following year the Republicans obtained full 
control. For some years the political elements per- 
mitted Mr. Crutcher to attend to his private affairs, 
which he industriously and successfully improved; 
but a change in the political tide brought him for- 
ward, and in 1873 he became Sergeant-at-Arms of 
the Assembly, and in 1875 was elected on the Inde- 
pendent ticket as Member of that body, serving with 
honor through the twenty-first session of the Legis- 
lature. 

Such has been the active and honorable career 
of Wm. M. Crutcher, now a stalwart anti-monopoly 
Democrat, a prosperous business man, and an 
esteemed citizen of Auburn. 

The residence of Mr, Crutcher (illustrated) is situ- 
ated upon a beautiful site in the eastern part of the 
village of Auburn, on a ten-acre plat, highly culti- 
vated, being so located as to be easily irrigated by 
the water from a spring owned jointly by Mr. 
Crutcher and George W. Reamer. The same spring 
also supplies water for the railroad company's large 
tank at the depot grounds. Mr. Crutcher has grow- 
ing upon his place an infinite variety of fruit trees, 
including two varieties of persimmons; many kinds 
of choice grapes; black and English walnuts; sixty 
orange trees, and all sorts of shrubbery that can be 
found in the nurseries which will withstand the frosts 
of this altitude. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1876 — CENTENNIAL YEAR. 

The campaign of 1876 was interesting as the Cen- 
tennial year of American Independence, and also as 
it brought again the election of a President of the 
United States, and, in California, of four Members 
of Congress. The Republican State Convention for 
electing delegates to the National Convention, to 
meet at Cincinnati June 16th, met at Sacramento 
on the 25th of April. Hon, W . C. Norton, of Placer, 
pi-esided. The National Convention met at the 
appointed time and nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, 



of Ohio, for President, and William A. Wheeler, of 
New York, for Vice-President. The Democratic 
State Convention met at San Francisco May 24th, 
and appointed delegates to the National Convention 
which met at St. Louis June 27th, and nominated 
Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, for President, and 
Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, for Vice-Presi- 
dent, 

In the Second Congressional District H, F. Page, 
of El Dorado, was nominated by the Republicans, 
and G. J, Carpenter, of El Dorado, by the Democrats, 
for Congress, In consequence of the death of J. VV. 
Mandeville, State Controller, the Republicans nom- 
inated D. M. Kenfield, of Tuolumne, to fill the posi- 
tion, and the Democrats named W. B. C. Brown. 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, 1876. 

The election was held November 7, 1876, resulting 
in the election of Hayes and Wheeler, they receiv- 
ing 185 electoral votes and Tilden and Hendricks 
18-1. The disputes and settlement of this election 
belong to the national histoiy. 

The vote of California was: For Hayes, 79,269; 
Tilden, 76,465; Peter Cooper, 47, and others, 19, 
making a total vote of 155,800, Ln the Second 
District Page was re-elected to Congress, receiving 
20,815 votes, and Carpenter 15,916, 

The vote of Placer County was as follovvs; — 

For President— R, B, Hayes (R), 1,610; S, J. Til- 
den (D), 1,278, 

Congress — H, F. Page (_R), 1,668; G. J. Carpenter 
(D), 1,220. 

Controller— D. M, Kenfield (R), 1,609; W. B, C. 
Brown (D), 1,279, 

Total vote in the county, 2,888, 

The Representatives in Congress elected were: 
First District, Horace Davis (R); Second, H, F.Page 
(R); Third, J. K. Luttrell (D); Fourth, P. D. Wig- 
gin ton (D). 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 

(CONTINUED.) 

Campaign of 1877 — Workingmen's Party — The Election of 1877 
— Judicial Election — Coustitutioual Convention — lames T, 
Farley Senator — Campaign of 1878 — Campaign of 1S7',* — 
Constitution Adopted — Political Campaign — The Election — 
■State Officers — Frank D. Adams — Presidential Campaign of 
1880— The Election— Population of Placer— Jolm C. Boggs 
— John Gould Bisbee- \V. B. Lardner. 

The campaign of 1877 involved the election of 
county officers and a Legislature that would have the 
choosing of a United States Senator to succeed Aaron 
A. Sargent. 

The Republicans and Democrats held Conventions 
in July, and nominated candidates for the various 
offices, generally those who had been in office at 
various times. The Repniilican candidate for Sen- 
ator was W . C. Norton, who had been elected to the 
Assembly on the Independent or " Dolly Varden " 



136 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ticket, and voted for l\y the Democrats. Dr. Noblo 
Martin, for Senator, was again nominated for the 
same office by the Democrats. 'J'ho same party 
nominated J. A. Filcher, editor of the Phicer Herald, 
and M. W. Wilson was the Republican candidate for 
same office. 

WORKINGMEN's I'ARTV. 

During the campaign a serious riot occurred at 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, caused by a strike among 
railroad employes, followed by other strikes through- 
out the country, causing great excitement among 
the dissatisfied elements of the large cities of Cali- 
fornia, which resulted in the organization of the 
" Workingmen's Party." This, at a subsequent date, 
exerted considerable political influence on the elec- 
tions and policy of the State. 

THE ELECTION 1S77. 

The election was held September 5, 1877, with the 
following result: — 

Senate — W. C. Norton ( R), 1,54.'); Noble Martin 
(D), 1,483. 

Assembly— M. W. Wilson (R), 1,521; .1. A. Filcher 
(D), 1,515. 

Sherift-- C. 0. Crosby (R), 1,57U; W. A. Mines (D), 
1,468. 

Treasurer — A. J. Soule (R), 1,757; Jonathan Mor- 
ris (D), 1,285. 

Recorder — J. T. Ashley (R), 1,047; John Sweeny 
(D), 1,397. 

County Clerk— Thos. J. Nichols (R), 1,G88; E. M. 
Banvard (D), 1,316. 

District Attorney— W. H. iiiillofk /D), l,5I);t; J, 
M. Fulweiler (R), 1,412. 

Surveyor— E. C. Uren (R), 1,027; C. AV. Finley 
(D), 1,393. 

Sujjerintendent of Schools — O. F. Seavey (D), 1,576; 
Miss C. M. Pitcher (R), 1,406. 

Public Administrator and Coroner — J. D. Redfern 
(R), 1,576; V. V. Mann (D), 1,526. 

Supervisor— E. J. Sparks (D), l,50|t; G. D. Aldrich 
(R), 1,491. 

Constitutional Convention — For, 1,995; against, 
207. 

Total vote in the county, 3,044. 

September 22d, an election was held for Super- 
visor to fill the unexpired term of W. A. Hines, 
resigned, with the following result: — 

Supervisor — J. A. Culver (R), 1,027; A. G. Moore 
(D), 860. 

JUDICIAL ELECTION. 

The judicial election was held October 17th, mak- 
ing three general elections in the county during the 
i-ampaign. Justices of the Peace were elected in the 
several townships. 

.lA.MES T. l-'ARLEV, SENATOR. 

'I'he Legislature oi'ganized December 3, 1877, by 
the election of E. J. Lewis, of Tehama, President 
piu fern, of the Si'iiate, and Camjibell li. Reny, of 



Sutter, as Speaker of the Assembly. On the 19tTi 
the Legislature met in Joint Convention, and elected 
James T. Farley, of Amador, United States Senator, 
to succeed Aaron A. Sargent, whose term would 
expire March 3, 1879. 

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

The State having voted to call a Constitutional 
Convention by a majority of 7,000, an Act was 
passed providing for the election of 152 members to 
meet at the Capitol on the 28th of September. The 
election for these delegates was ordered to be held on 
the third Wednesday of June, 1878. The representa- 
tion was one for each Senator and Assemblyman, and 
eight at large in each of the four Congressional Dis- 
tricts, making thirty-two at large. The Constitu- 
tion prepared by this Convention was ordered to be 
submitted to the vote of the people for approval or 
rejection on the first Wednesday of May, 1879. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1878. 

The campaign of 1878 was for the election of del- 
egates to the Constitutional Convention. The rise of 
the " Workingmen's Party," which had its origin in 
the riotous and communistic elements — chiefly for- 
eigners — of San Francisco, had caused a feeling ot 
fear and uneasiness throughout the State where it 
had spread, and the Republican and Democratic 
parties combined against it in their nominations of 
delegates. The new party was largest in the cities, 
and there was most pronounced in its threatenings 
of revolution and desolation, and these seriously 
affected the prosperity of the whole State. The 
alleged cause of the uprising was bad legi.slation. 
corruption in public places, the overpowering influ- 
ence of monopolies in politics, the aggregation of 
wealth in individuals and corporations, and the dis- 
tress of labor caused by the presence of the Chinese. 
These allegations, plausible, and, in a manner, true, 
drew many men of reason and patriotism to the sup- 
port of the Workingmen, giving it respectability in 
the country and temporary strength. 

The new party, being one of excitement, energeti- 
cally entered the field to obtain control of the Con- 
vention, while other parties were comparativelj' 
inactive. The people of the State opposed to the 
Workingmen's party, organized under the name of 
•' Non -Partisan." 

In Placer County two parties jn-esented candidates 
— one called the "Citizens'," and the other the 
■ Workingmen." The nominations of the first were 
S. B. Burt (R), a merchant of Bath, who had repre- 
sented the county in the Assembly, and had held 
other offices, and the other, J. A. Filcher (D), editor 
of the Placer Herald. The Workingmen's candidates 
were John R. Winders, a printer connected with the 
Dutch Flat Forum, and Lee D. Thomas, a merchant 
at Roseville. Judge James E. Uale was nominated 
by the Non-Partisan Convention as a representative 
of Placer County in the Second District, as delegate 
at larije. 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



137 



The election was held as ordered, resulting in the 
election in the State of a majoritj' of Workingmen 
from the counties, which was overbalanced bj' the 
election of the thirty-two ^'on-Partisans at large. 
The vote in Placer County was as follows: — 

Delegates to Constitutional Convention — J. A. 
Filcher (C), 848; S. B. Burt (C), 888; J. P. Winders 
(W), 784; Lee D. Thomas (W), 753. Total vote in 
the county, 1,636. 

Thirty-two delegates at large were voted for in 
Placer County, with majorities in favor of the Work- 
ingmen over the Non-Partisan ranging from ten to 
120, with one exception, that of Ex-(TOvernor H. H. 
Haight (X P), received a higher vote than P. S. 
Dorney (VV). The average majority was 85 in favor 
of the Workingmen. 

The Convention met September 28, 1878, at the 
Capitol at vSacramento, and organized by the election 
of J. P. Hoge, of San Francisco, as President, and 
J. A. Johnson, of Santa Barbara, as Secretary. The 
pay of the delegates had been fixed at §10 /^er diem 
for a period of 100 daj's, but the session continued 
for 157 days, in which the Con»titution as now exist- 
ing was prepared and submitted to the people. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1879 — CONSTITUTION ADOPTED. 

The first Wednesday of May, 1879, was fixed by 
the Act calling the Constitutional Convention, as 
the day when the people should vote upon the 
adoption of the instrument prepared as the Consti- 
tution of the State, or its rejection. The new 
organic law was regarded as very obnoxious by cor- 
porations and people of large wealth, and extraordi- 
nary efforts were made by such classes to prevent 
its adoption. The result of the election in the 
State was in favor of the adoption by about 9,000 
majority. The vote in Placer County was: — 

For the new Constitution, 1,649; against, 969. 

Total vote in the county, 2,618. 

POLITICAL CAMPAIGN. 

With the close of the Constitutional campaign 
began the political campaign for the election of offi- 
cers under the new instrument. The most ardent 
advocates assumed that the duty of giving the Con- 
stitution a fair trial devolved upon them, and thus 
organized a New Constitution party. Besides this 
were the Republican, Democratic, and Working- 
men's organizations, making a quadrilateral contest. 
This, however, was in part simplified by the adop- 
tion of a poi'tion of the nominees of the New Con- 
1 stitution party by the Democrats, and a combina- 
I tion of these two parties in Placer County. 
j Conventions of the several parties were held and 
I candidates nominated as were called for in the New 
i Constitution, viz.. Governor and State officers, a Leg- 
j islature, including Senators — as the New Constitu- 
I tion cut ofi" the terms of all previously elected — 
] four Congressmen, Chief Justice and six Associate 
I Justices of the Supremo Court, three Railroad Com- 
missioners, four Members of the Board of Equaliza- 



tion; Superior Judge for Placer County, and for all 
the counlic-4, and Assessors for each district. 

THE ELECTION. 

The election was held September 3, 1879, resulting 
in the success of the Republicans in the State by the 
following vote: — 

Governor — George C. Perkins (R), 67,695; Hugh 
J. Glenn (Ij and N C), 48,695; William F. White (\\), 
44,484; others, 119. 

Total vote, 160,993. 

In the Second Congressional District, H. F. Page 
(R), was re-elected over T. J. Clunie (D and N C), 
and H. P. Williams ( W). In the First District, Hor- 
ace Davis (R), was elected; in the Third, Campbell 
P. Berry (D), and in the Fourth, Romualdo Pacheco 
(R). 

The vote and candidates in Placer County are 
given as follows: — 

Governor — George C. Perkins (R), 1,213; Wm. F. 
White (W), 828; Hugh J. Glenn (D and N C), 759. 

Congress— H. F. Page (R), 1,185; T. J. Clunie (D 
and N C), 919; H. P. Williams (W), 693. 

Superior Judge — B. F. Myres (all parties), 2,643. 

Senate— S. B. Burt (R), 1,153; J. A. Filcher (D 
and N C), 947; B. K. Lowe (W), 695. 

Assembly— T. L. Chamberlain (R), 1,129; C. A. 
Barrett (W), 833; L. S. Moftatt (D and N C), 827. 

Sheriflt— J. C. Boggs (R), 1,146; A. Huntley (D 
and N C), 1,006; A. J. Soule (W), 646. 

County Clerk— T. J. Nichols (R), 2,079; H. Bock 
(W), 700. 

Recorder- F. D. Adams (R), 1,488, J. B. Watters 
(D and W), 1,262. 

District Attorney— W. B. Lardner (R), 1,320; 
Peter Singer (W), 750; James Moore (N C and D), 
725. 

Treasurer— J. G. Bisbee (R), 1,140; V. Y. Mann 
(D and N C), 956; John Thorp (W), 713. 

County Surveyor — £. C. LTren (R and W ), 1,056; 
C. W. Finley (D and N C), 837. 

Superintendent of Schools — O. F. Seavey (D and 
N C), 1,195; F. H. Wales (R), 866; S. J. Pullen (W), 
745. 

Public Administrator and Coroner — J. D. Redfern 
(R), 1,165; C. H. Leavitt (D and N C),840; — Mc- 
Donald (W), 778. 

Chinese Immigration — For, 9; against, 2,778. 

Supervi8or.s— E. J. Sparks (R). 1,347; J. B. Russell 
(R), 1,373; Thomas Dodds ( W and D), 1,427; J. A. 
Culver (R), 1,297; A. G. Oliver (W), 755; E. D. Shir- 
land (D and N C), 752; D. Stephenson (W), 744. 

Total vote of the county, 2,800. 

Assessors elected were: J. H. Mitchell (D and 
N C), in District No. 1; W. L. Munson (R), in Dis- 
trict No. 2; and A. C McKcnley (D, N (' and W), 
in Distinct No. 3. 

STATE OFFICERS. 

State officers elected wore: Lieutenant-Governor, 
John Mansfield; Secretary of State, D. M. Burns; 



138 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Controller, D. M. Kenfield; Treasurer, John Weil; 
Attorney-General, A. L. Eart; Surveyor-General, J. 
W. Shanklin; Clerk of Supreme Court, Frank W. 
Gross; Superintendent of Public Instruction, F. M. 
Campbell, Republicans. Chief Justice, R. F. Mor- 
rison (D); Associate Justices, E. W. McKinstry 
(D), for eleven years; J. D. Thornton (D), eleven 
years; M. H. Myrick (R), seven years; S. B. McKee 
(D), seven years; E. M. Ross(D), three years, and J. 
R. Sharpstein (\V), three years. 

Railroad Commissioners — George C. Stoneman 
(D), C. J. Beerstecher (W), J. S. Cone (R). 

Board of Equalization— M. M. Drew (R), J. L. 
King (R), Warren Dutton (R), and T. D. Heiskell 
(R). 

The Legislature under the New Constitution met 
the first Monday in January. The most important 
bill of the session was entitled, " An Act to Promote 
Drainage," providing for restraining the flow of min- 
ing debris by building dams, and protecting land by 
constructing levees. 

The partisan representation was, in the Sen 
ate, 22 Republicans, 5 Democrats, 8 Workingmen, 
and 5 Workingmen siding with either Democrats or 
Republicans, and in the Assembly, 39 Republicans, 
15 Democrats, 11 Workingmen, 3 New Constitution, 
6 Workingmen and New Constitution, and 6 Work- 
ingmen and Republicans. Several of the Working- 
men elected to the Assembly from San Francisco 
constituted a very disorderly element, and that body 
was noted for its confusion and inability to proceed 
with business from that cause. 

FRANK D. ADAMS, 

Son of Thomas T. and Sarah E. S. (Drew) Adams, 
is a native of Massachusetts, having been born at 
the Town of North Chelmsford, Middlesex County, 
August 25, 1851. His early recollections do not date 
as far back as the days he lived in the old Bay 
State, for, at the age of one year, he removei with 
his parents to Colesburg, Delaware County, Iowa. 
In this latter place he remained until in the month 
of May, 1855, when the family removed to Fort 
Snelling, Hennepin County, Minnesota. Mr. Adann 
is a thorough scholar; his education was received in 
the common and high schools, and was of a nature 
to fit him for the responsible positions he has held 
and consistently filled during his period of life in 
the West. In 1881, at the age of ten years, he entered 
a school at Norlhfield, Rice County, Minnesota, and 
took a four years' course of study in the common 
branches of education. In the month of October, 
1865, he accompanied his parents on their removal 
to Monticello, Wright Count}' j;and there entered the 
high school, from which he graduated with high 
honors. In 1868 he was engaged as book-keeper for 
a Government supply train, and went to Dakota Ter- 
ritory, where he passed several months, and was 
concerned in several engagements with " the dusky 
sons of the forest," but managed to retain his hair. 
After his return home in the fall of that year, his 



health failed to such a degree as to warrant his 
remaining under the parental roof, which he did 
until the spring of 1870, at which time he went to 
Duluth, St. Louis County, and was engaged in teach- 
ing in the public schools of that city, until June, 
1873, when he resigned his position. 

In the month of October, of the latter year, he 
resolved to seek new fields for his labors, and, hav- 
ing California for his objective point, he came to 
the Golden State. His first location was his present 
one, and he has since his arrival been a resident of 
the town of Auburn. In December, 1873, he entered 
the Recorder's office as Deputy, under C. C. Crosby, 
a position he held until March, 1876. 

When the new officers — Recorder, Auditor and 
Treasurer — assumed the responsibility of their 
offices, in 1876, Mr. Adams, from his thorough 
knowledge of the duties pertaining thereto, received 
the appointment as deputy for them all, a position 
he was well qualified for, and which he filled in 
a manner acceptable to all concerned. In March. 
1878, he received the appointment as Deputy Sheriff, 
under C. C. Crosby, and served in that capacity 
until the time arrived for him to assume the 
responsibility of the office he now holds, that of 
County Recorder and Auditor, to which he was 
elected, on the Republican ticket, in 1879. His 
opponent, J. B. Watters, being on three tickets. 
This last demonstration of public sentiment speaks 
volumes in favor of Mr. Adams, who, though young 
in years, carries a well-balanced head and holds 
the respect and good will of all who have the 
pleasure of his acquaintance. Among his many 
accomplishments there is one of which he has reason 
to be proud, and that is his expertness with the 
rifle. He is, in fact, an artist with that weapon, 
and has no equal in the section of country in which 
he lives, and very few in the world. He has a record 
of 96 out of 100, and 59 out of 60. at glass-ball 
shooting, which denotes a quick eye and a steady 
nerve. The rifle is his favorite weapon, and he 
has achieved some decided victories with it. O ne 
circumstance in particular will tend to illustrate his 
science. During his trip through Dakota, in 1868, 
he was matched against the best shots to be found 
in that section, being, in fact, but a boy at the time, 
and in one contest completely " walked away " with 
his opponents, thereby winning a purse of 6300. 

He was married, October 1, 1873, to Miss Ella N. 
Leland, daughter of E. B. Leland, a native of Winn, 
Penobscot County, Maine. Their union has been 
blessed with two children, named and aged respect- 
ively, Mabel C, born September 3, 1875; Stella, born 
September 6, 1879. 

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1880. 

The New Constitution of California provided for 
the election of Members of the Assemblj^ and county 
officers in 1880, and every two years thereafter. 
At this election the people were also required to 
cast their vote for President and Vice-President, 



POLITICAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



130 



and Representatives in Congress. The Republican 
State Convention met at Sacramento April 28lh 
and appointed delegates to the National Convention 
at Chicago, which met June 2, 1880. The principal 
candidates for the Presidential nomination were 
Gen. U. S. Grant, James G. Blaine, John Sherman, 
and James A. Garfield, the latter receiving the nom- 
ination, and Chester A. Arthur for Vice-President. 

The Democratic State Convention met at Oak- 
land, June 19th, composed of 357 delegates, of which 
number 72 were from San Francisco and 5 from 
Placer. Electors were nominated and delegates 
appointed to the National Convention, which met at 
Cincinnati June 22d and placed in nomination Gen. 
Winfield Scott Hancock, of Pennsylvania, for Presi- 
dent, and William H. English, of Indiana, for Vice- 
President. 

A third party, styled the National Greenback 
party, entered the field, and at a Convention held in 
Chicago June 2, 1880, nominated Gen. James B. 
Weaver, of Iowa, for President, and Col. Benjamin 
J. Chambers, of Texas, for Vice-President. These 
last nominations were endorsed by the Workingmen's 
Party of California. 

The Republican County Convention met at Auburn 
August 9th and nominated Assemblymen and county 
officers, and appointed the following delegates to the 
Congressional District Convention, recommending 
them to vote for Hon. H. F. Page as candidate for 
Representative to Congress: J. D. Pratt, O. W. Hol- 
lenbcck, G. D. Aldrich, John Butler, G. Griffith, A. 
D. Hathaway, James Borland, and A. F. Jewett. 

The Democratic County Convention met at Auburn 
August 14th, nominated Assemblymen and county 
officers, and appointed delegates to the Congressional 
District Convention, with instructions to favor the 
nomination of J. A. Filcher as candidate for Con- 
gress. 

The eftects of the Workingmen's agitation in 
arousing opposition to Chinese immigration bore a 
heavy influence in this campaign in California. Both 
parties professed opposition, but the declaration that 
Garfield had written a letter in which expressions 
favorable to the employment of Chinese, was used 
to the advantage of the Democracy. 

THE ELECTION. 

The election was held November 2, 1880, resulting 
in the election of James A. Garfield as President of 
the United States, he receiving 218 electoi-al votes, 
and W. S. Hancock 151. Of the electoral vote of 
California five were cast for Hancock and one for 
Garfield, one Democratic elector, David S. Terry 
being defeated, and Henry Edgerton, Republican 
elector, receiving a higher vote, was chosen in his 
place. The total vote was 163,970, the average 
Democratic majority being G4. Of these Hancock 
received 80,322; Garfield, 80,267; Weaver, 3,381. 

The election returns of Placer County show the 
names of candidates and the ^ote each received as 
follows: — 



President— James A. Garfield (R), 1,641; W. S. 
Hancock (D), 1,414; James B. Weaver (G and 
W), 58. 

Congress — H. F. Page (R), 1,645; J. H.Glasscock 
(D), 1,418; others, 46. 

Assembly — James E. Hale (R), 1,554; Jo Hamil- 
ton (D), 1,521; A. F. Jewett (I), 35. 

Total vote in the county, 3,113. 

Shortly preceding the election the Supreme Court 
had rendered an opinion that the county officers 
should hold their positions until the next general 
election, and therefore no change was made. 

Representatives in Congress elected were: First 
District, Gen. Wm. S. Rosecrans (D); Second, Hon. 
H. F. Page (R); Third, Campbell P. Berry (D); 
Fourth, Romualdo Pacheco (R). The Assembly 
elected consisted of 42 Republicans and 38 Demo- 
crats. 

The Legislature met on the first Monday in Janu- 
ary, 1881, and organized by the election of Wm. 
Johnston President pro (em. of the Senate, and Wm. 
H. Parks as Speaker of the Assembly. January 
12th the Legislature met in Joint Convention and 
elected John F. Miller, of San Francisco, United 
States Senator to succeed Newton Booth, whose 
term expired March 3, 1881. 

Much of the time of the session was expended in 
attempting to repeal the " Act to Provide Drain- 
age," and to apportion the State in Legislative and 
Congressional Districts, but failed in both, and an 
extra session was called with similar results. 

Supervisor Thomas Dodds dying, a special elec- 
tion was ordered to be held January 25, 1881, to 
fill the vacancy. At this election J. A. Culver, of 
Colfax, received 925 votes, and Fred. Grohs, of 
Auburn, received 607 votes. 

P0PUL.\TION OF PLACER. 

The population of Placer County, as ascertained 
by the census of 1880. was 14,226, of which 7,125 
were white males, 4,923 white females, 1,843 Chi- 
nese, 235 colored, and 100 Indians. This shows a 
population of about four and one-half to each voter, 
a very favorable increase since the early years of 
its history, when more than half were voters. 

JOHN CRAIQ BOGGS, 

Son of John and Isabel (Allison) Boggs, was born at 
Greencastle, Franklin County, Penn.sylvania, Octo- 
ber 18, 1825. The father of our present subject was 
a physician of considerable note, and was well and 
favorably known throughout the section of country 
in which he lived. John C, the subject of this 
biographical notice, deceived his education in the 
common schools of his native town, and at the age 
of about twenty years was appointed manager of 
the Southampton Iron Works, near Shippensburgh, 
Cumberland County, a position he filled nearl3' four 
years. Inspired with a desire to behold the grand 
sights of the Pacific Coast, and to seek the fort- 
une he believed was in store for him, he determined 



140 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA 



to join the grand army that waw seeking wealth 
in the newly-discovered gold-fields of California. 
Consequently he bade adieu to the scenes of his 
youth, and on the 3d day of February, 1849, 
failed for the " New El Dorado " in the ship Xylon, 
Captain Brown, commander. Between Balti- 
more, Maryland, and Rio Janeiro the treatment of 
the passengers was such, by the commander, that 
they resolved to try and obtain relief through the 
American Consul at the latter port. Upon the 
arrival of the ship at the latter place the larger 
portion of the passengers made affidavit before the 
Consul of the inhuman conduct of Captain Brown, 
and the result was the appointment of Capt. M. 
Bowers, who took command during the remainder 
of the voyage. Captain Brown was sent home in 
disgrace. On the 14th of September, 1819, Mr. 
Boggs landed in the city of San Francisco, and on 
the 28th of the same month he arrived at Auburn, 
Placer County. During his first two months' resi- 
dence at this camp he mined in the placers, and then 
engaged in the general merchandising business, his 
place of business being directly opposite the present 
site uf Andrews & HoUenbeck's Bank. After a few 
months' trial this business was closed out, the high 
price of freights being a damaging feature to the 
trader in those days. His partner in this venture 
was T. B. Kennedj^ now the President of the Cum- 
berland Valley Railroad, in Pennsylvania. They 
often paid as high as one thousand dollart per ton for 
freight from Sacramento Mr. Boggs again sought 
his fortune in the mines, until 1853. He was the 
first night-watchman in the town of Auburn, a posi- 
tion he filled until October, 1854, at which time ho 
returned to his home in Pennsylvania. The follow- 
ing spring he came again to the Pacific Coast, and 
soon afterward went to Los Angeles after a band of 
cattle for Lieut.-Gov. Joseph Walkup. Upon his 
return from the southern country he received the 
appointment as Depaty Sheriff under W. T. Han- 
son, and this might be called the commencement of 
his official cai'eer, as he has held some office most 
of the intervening time to the present. For ten 
years he was a Constable, and accomplished more in 
arrests and convictions of criminals than any man 
that has ever served the people of Placer County. 
Mr. Boggs was Marshal of Auburn during its 
incorporation, and figured conspicuousl3Mn all matters 
pertaining thereto. 

In 1867 he was elected District Assessor, and in 
1869 was elected as County Assessor of Placer. 

Upon the expiration of his last term of office he 
determined to devote his time and energies to the 
raising of fruit, and accordingly repaired to his 
ranch, located near Newcastle. While thus engaged 
he was aearly ruined by that ruthless destroyei-, fire, 
losing nearly everything he had saved through years 
of toil. With his characteristic energy and pluck 
he soon found himself upon a firm basis once again. 
Immediately after the election of 1877 he was 



appointed LTnder-Sheritf by C. C. Crosby, which 
position he held until he was elected to the office of 
Sheriff of Placer County, a position he now fills, he 
taking charge of the office in March, 1880. In poli- 
tics Sheriff Boggs is a staunch Republican. 

In his official capacity Mr. Boggs has always been 
a terror to the criminal portion of the inhabitants of 
Placer County, and to him is " honor due " for the 
faithful discharge of his duties upon all occasions. 
The last words of the noted robber, " Rattlesnake 
Dick," illustrates the feeling of that class of men 
towards one whom they feared. They were these: 
" If John Boggs is dead, I am satisfied," "Dick" 
thinking the unfortunate Martin was his enemy, 
Boggs. Whole volumes might be written of the 
hairbreadth escapes and bloody fights in which 
Sheriff' Boggs has figured, and a perusal of the crim- 
inal and other chapters in this work will explain 
some of his doings in the discharge of his duties in 
various offices. 

He was married, November 2, 1857, to Miss L. C. 
Harrington,* a native of Thomaston, Knox County, 
Maine, and they have been blessed with two chil- 
dren — Isabella A., born August 29, 1858, and John 
G., born January 1, 1861 — both of whom are living. 

.lOHN GOULD BISBEE, 

The present County Treasurer of Placer, is a son 
of Arza Bisbee, who was a native of North Adams, 
Massachusetts. The subject of this biographical 
notice was born in Lisbon, Androscoggin County, 
Maine, March 31, 1837. In early life he removed to 
Lewiston, in the same county, where he remained 
until twelve years of age. About that time he had 
the misfortune to lose his mother by death, and soon 
after his Aither came to California, leaving his son to 
the care of an uncle. During the succeeding four 
years our subject was an inmate of his uncle's house, 
but at the age of sixteen he departed therefrom, and 
for two years was a resident of the State of Rhode 
Island. From the latter State he went to Philadel- 
phia, and leased a business in that city of another 
uncle he had there. It was the manufacturing of 
kindling wood. After leaving the city of " brotherly- 
love " he was for some time an engineer on the 
steamers plying the waters of the Mississippi and 
Ohio Rivers. In 1858 he went to Kansas for the 
purpose of locating land, and remained about one 
year. On the 7th of November of the last-named 
year he was married, at Leavenworth City, Kansas, 
to Miss Mary E. Madden, and started the next day 
for California, via New Y''ork City, thence by steamer 
to San Francisco, arriving in the latter city Decem- 
ber 28th. After a few days' stay in San Francisco, 
he came to Placer County, and located at Iowa Hill, 
where his father was then living. Mr. Bisbee made 
this latter place his home during the succeeding 
twenty j^ears, engaged in various kinds of business, 
machinist and blacksmithing'predominating. Subse- 
quent to 1866 he was engaged in the mining districts 



POLITKJAL HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. 



141 



as a mechanical engineer, constructing and putting 
in position machiner}- for mills of various kinds. As 
a practical machinist Mr. Eisbee stands second to none 
in the county, and has few equals on the Pacific 
Coast. In the fall of 1879 he was the recipient of 
the nomination for the offic'e of Treasurer of Placer 
County by the Republican party, and was hand- 
somely elected. This last demonstration on the part 
of the people of this county illustrates the standing 
of our subject in the community. In Mr. Bisbee we 
find a warm-hearted, genial man, whom to know is 
to respect. 

W. B. LARDNER. 

The young and industrious District Attorney of 
Placer County, whose full name is William Branson 
Lai'dner, was born on his father's farm near the 
flourishing city of Niles, Berrien County, Michigan, 
December 12, 1850. 

His father, Lynford Lardner, was a native of 
Philadelphia, born in 1808, and his mother, whoso 
maiden name was Sarah K. Moore, was born near 
the same city in 1818. Lynford Lardner was 
educated for the business of a merchant in the 
" Quaker city," and upon attaining his majority 
removed to the flourishing city of Cincinnati, then 
the- metropolis of the West. There for several years 
he was the discount clerk of one of the leading 
banks, and afterwards, in company with his cousin, 
Harry Lardner, became a wholesale grocer. About 
1836, with his brother William and cousin Harry, he 
removed to Niles, Michigan, and became engaged in 
manufactures, establishing saw, woolen and carding 
mills, and subsequently engaged in farming. In 184(1 
he married, and upon his pleasant farm near Niles 
reared his family. There he remained until 1865; he 
then removed to Linn County, Iowa, and in 1874 to 
California, establishing himself on a fruit farm near 
Penryn, Placer County, where now in his old age he 
enjoys his otium cum dignUate beneath his own vine 
and fig-tree. The celebrated financier, Nicholas 
Biddle, was a full cousin of Mr. Lardner, and in the 
old United States Bank at Philadelphia, under the 
instruction of the great banker, he received his train- 
ing in business, enjoying the entire confidence of 
Biddle, who intrusted him with large amounts of 
money as his messenger. The following anecdote is 
related of him, occurring at that time. He was 
familiarly called Old Nick Biddle, and was the great 
man of the United States Bank, then the chief feature 
in politics. About the bank as an indulged servant 
was an old negro who spent his time mostly loafing 
about the premises; One day, in a social mood, 
Biddle said to the darkey, " Well, what is your name, 
my old friend ? " " Harry, Sir — Ole Harry," said 
the other, touching his seedy hat. "Ole Harry?" 
said Biddle; " why, that is the name they give to 
the Devil, is it not?" Yes, sir," said the colored 
man; ''sometimes Ole Harry and sometimes Ole 
Nick." 



Mr. Lardner traces his ancestry in a distinguished 
line far back into the mother country, in connection 
with the family of William Penn, the founder of 
Pennsylvania. His great-great-grandfather was Dr. 
John Lardner, a physician of London, England, and 
graduate of Cambridge. Di*. Lardner had five chil- 
dren, one of whom — -Hannah — married Richard Penn, 
second son of VYilliam Penn, and in En:;land the 
coats-of-arms of the Penn and Lardner families are 
quartered on the same shield. 

Lynford Lardner, a son of Dr. John Lardner, and 
brother-in-law of Richard Penn, came over to Penn- 
sylvania in 1740, as agent of the Penn heirs, and to 
manage their estate. Near Philadelphia he married 
Elizabeth Branson, whose father was extensively 
engaged in the manufacture of iron. Six children 
were the issue of this marriage, and one of the sons 
— William — married Ann Shepherd, of North Caro- 
lina, sister to the mother of Nicholas Biddle. From 
this marriage sprung twelve children, one of whom 
was Lynford, the father of our present subject. 
James and Lynford Lardner were twin brothers. 
The former entered the United States Navy in his 
youth as midshipman, remaining in the navy until 
his death. 

John, another of William's brothers, also married, 
and had twelve children, but of all the numerous 
daughters of these prolific families, even to the pres- 
ent day, only three ever married. These have been, 
Kitty, sister of Lynford Lardner, who married Dr. 
John Gibbon, of Philadelphia, who subsequently 
removed to North Carolina, and, for many j-ears, 
was assaycr and manager of the United States 
Branch Mint of Charlotte, in that State. A sister 
of W. B. Lardner, Ann Elizabeth, married in Iowa, 
in 18G0, and Margaret, a cousin, was married in 
Philadelphia, in 187G. 

Owing to the distance from public school, the 
duties of the farm and poor health in youth, the 
early education of Mr. Lardner was neglected, and, at 
the age of sixteen, he found himself with his thumb 
on the multiplication table. After moving to Iowa, 
in 1865, his health improved, and he spent two terms 
in the public school. In 1868 he entered Cornell 
College, Iowa, and attended two years steadily. 
Then began a struggle of teaching a term alternat- 
ing with college a term, and making up the lost 
time by hard study to keep with his class. He 
was enabled to get a school certificate in 1869, and 
continued as a teacher most of the time until 1876. 
He received his diploma of graduation in the Scien- 
tific Department of the college in 1875, and, in the 
fall of 1876, entered the Iowa State University, in 
the Law Department, and graduated valedictorian, 
in June, 1877, the first time the valedictor}- had ever 
been awarded to any but an Iowa student, Mr. 
Lardner then being a resident of California. He had 
been a resident of California since 1872, when he 
first came to this State, and began teaching school 
at Penryn, in the fall of that year, and, early in 



142 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



1873, taught througlj a term of six months at Gold 
Ran; returned again to Penryn, in the fall of 1873, 
and taught in the school until in the summer of 

1874, when he again went to the college in Iowa. 
In August, 1875, he was again in California, and 
resumed his teaching at Penryn through the winter 
of 1875-76, when he again went East, in company 
with George I. Paine, a fellow teacher, and starting 
from Louisville, Kentucky, he took a pedestrian 
tour through the South with a view of finding a sit- 
uation as teacher, while his companion was seeking a 
location as a lawyer. They traveled with knapsacks 
and blankets on their backs, and camped on the 
ground where night overtook them. In their tour 
they walked about 400 miles and rode 200 to their 
objective point, which was Greenville, South Caro- 
lina. Not finding the location to suit they returned 
via Philadelphia, where Mr. Lardner spent eight 
weeks at the Centennial Exposition. In September, 
as befoi'e stated, Mr. Lardner entered the Law 
Department of the Iowa State University, gradu- 
ated, returned to California in July, 1877, and 
entered upon the practice of the law at Auburn, 
where he has since resided and prosjiered. 

With the laudable determination to succeed, he 
struggled through adversity, and, by his own unaided 
efforts, acquired a collegiate education and a profes- 
sion, but has always felt the lack of early and per- 
fect training. In early youth he aspired to a mili- 
taiy career, and sought an appointment to the West 
Point Militaiy Academy, and was seriously dis- 
appointed when his Congressional Representative 
declined to favor him with the coveted eadetship, 
giving as the reason that the family was already 
well represented in the Military and Naval Service 
of the United States, four of his relatives having 
graduated form the Military and Naval Academies. 
Thus left to his own resources, he struggled through 
poverty to education, a profession, and success, a 
fair example of what a young man can do when 
impelled by ambition, courage, and energy. He 
began the practice of the law in Auburn with no cli- 
ents, but with college debts amounting to over 
$600, as his start in life. 

Mr. Lardner has been u Republican from educa-' 
tion and inclination, but, while doing his share of 
work for party success, cares more for the good of 
the country than for mere party, believing that 
the future prosperity of the country depends more 
upon good citizens than good partisans. His maiden 
political speech was delivered at Sheridan, in the 
fall of 1877, assisting the candidate who had beaten 
him in the nomination for Superintendent of Schools. 
In 1879 he was elected to the office of District 
Attorney, and entered upon its duties in March, 
1880, and is also Notary Public by appointment from 
Governor Perkins. 

Mr. Lardner was married to Miss Jennie Mitchell, 
of Forest Hill, Placer County, January 11, 1881, at 
Auburn. 



The bride was a native of New York, whence she 
removed when quite young, with her parents, to Cal- 
ifornia. Although reared as an Episcopalian, his 
general surroundings in late years have been of the 
Methodist Church. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lardner are 
fond of society, attending the pleasure parties of 
their locality, and take great interest in gatherings 
for social and literary improvement, also in the 
observance of National holidays, and in all matters 
of public works. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



Sutter County Debt — Financial Condition in 1S52 — Treasurer's 
Report 1852 — Court House Ordered Built — Tre.asurer's 
Report 1853 — Taxable Property — Mining Investments — 
Assessments in 1853 — Tre.asurer's Report, December, 1853 — 
("ommon School Money — Hospital Fund — Defective Revenue 
Laws — Gr.-md .Jury Report May, 1854 — Grand Jury Report 
August, ISo-i — Difficulties in Collecting Ta.xes — Sam Astin's 
.Joke — A Tax — Collecting Controversy — The Financial 
Power — Grand Jury Report November, 1854 — Taxable 
Property — Comparative Statement — Financial Reports Feb- 
ruary, 1S55 — Rate of Taxation — -Supervisors* Statement — 
The Increasing Indebtedness — Supervisors' Statement in 
September — Assessors' Report 1855 — .Supervisors' Report 
185G — Treasurers' Report 1851) — Unofficial Statement — 
Assessors' Report 1856. 

When Placer County was created by the Act of 
the Legislature in 1851, Sutter County, from which 
a portion of it was segregated, was in debt, and thus 
the new county inherited its quota of the burden. 
April 20, 1852, the Ijegislature appointed W. S. Sher- 
wood, of Butte, Thomas J. Henley, of Saci'amento, 
and Benjamin F. Keene, of El Dorado, Commissioners, 
at a salary of 88.00 per dion, to ascertain the amount 
of the debt justly chargeable to Placer. This Com- 
mission met at Nicolaus on the first Monday of July, 
1852. 

No statement exists of this allotment, but the 
Treasurer's report, dated December 2, 1852, shows 
Placer Countj-'s indebtedness to be 86,525.42; and in 
the same report is the amount of $42, paid B. F. 
Keene, as Commissioner to adjust the debt of Sutter 
and Placer Counties. In the June statement of 1853 
of the Treasurer, the amount of $79 is charged as 
paid to the Commissioners. Sutter County brought 
suit against Placer for an amount claimed, in which 
judgment was rendered in March, 1855, in favor of 
Placer, for costs. 

FINANCIAL CONDITION, 1852. 

The financial condition of the county at the close 
of 1852 was very favorable. The amount paid into 
the Treasury the last half of the fiscal year of 1852, 
as shown by the Treasurer's report, dated December 
2d, was, for county purposes $19,1.'(5.29; on hand 
June 2, 1852, $693.50; total $19,828.79. For State 
purposes, $22,164.52— making a total of $41,993.31. 
Comparisons made at the time with others showed 
Placer to be the banner county in its collections as 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



143 



compared with population. While El Dorado had 
double the population, its collections exceeded those 
of Placer only S-465.G1. The amount paid for poll 
taxes from May 19, 1852, to October 2, 1852, was 
$7,409.80. The population of Placer at that time 
was 10,784. 

treasurer's report, 1852. 

The semi-annual statement of Treasurer Abram 
Bronk, December 2, 1852, contains the following: — 

Being for the first siz months of the second fiscal 
year of said county, commencing the second day of 
June and ending with the first day of December, 
1852. 

1 

RECEIPT.S FROM ALL SOURCES FOR COUNTY PURPO.SES. 

Cash on hand June 2, 1852 -..$ 693 50 

From county licenses, trading, hotels, etc. 6,042 32 

Property tax paid over by Collector. ; 2.976 98 

Poll tax collected by Assessor and Sheritt' 2,549 78 

Fines from Justices' Courts - 277 35 

Foreign miners' tax . . . 6,908 46 

One-fourth of gaming license . 342 50 

Auction fees 190 

Fees received in Probate and County 

Courts. " 36 00 

Amount S19,828 79 

11. 

DISBURSEMENTS. 

Amount of county orders redeemed (see 
Schedule A, below) during the six 

months $16,103 24 

Interest on same . 665 73 

Paid legal representatives of J. Scobee, 

deceased 238 56 

Bills allowed and paid in cash (see Sched- 
ule B, below) 894 65 

Percentage of Treasurer. . 1,530 82 

Cash on hand December 2, 1852 . 395 79 

Amount $19,828 79 

III. 

INDEBTEDNESS OF THE COUNTY, DECEMBER 2, 1852. 

Total amount of orders drawn upon the 
Treasurer and accepted, from the 
organization of the county to the 
present time . $38,965 63 

Redeemed of same and re- 
turned to the Auditor. . $32,044 42 

Cash on hand December 2, 

18.52 . 395 79—32,440 21 



Amount of indebtedness ... 6,525 42 

IV. 

SCHEDULE A (referred to above). 

Showing amount of orders redeemed, and on 
account of whom. 

H. Fitzsimmons, County Judge.. $ 2,250 00 

S. C. Astin, Sheriff, including e.Kpenses of 

jail and board of prisoners 4,210 86 

Willis Burnett. Deputj' Sheriff and Jailor 734 00 

H. R. Hawkins, Deputy Clerk. 399 25 

H. R. Hawkins, Deputy Auditor 545 50 



Fees of Grand Jurors . . . 684 50 

Fees of Trial Jurors . . 454 00 

Fees of Officers of Election 90 50 

Fees of Constables in criminal cases 977 60 

Bridge at Ophir, balance .. 295 00 

Bridge at Auburn 100 00 

For building Sherift^'s office 350 00 

A. Lewis, Assessor. 963 00 

R. D. Hopkins, District Attorney 890 00 

H. P. Judd, acting Coroner 30 00 

Wm. Jordan, acting Coroner . . 29 37 

Wm. Jordan, Justice of the Peace . S09 00 

Wm. Jordan, Associate .Judge 90 00 

P. W. Thomas, Justice of the Peace. 291 00 

P. W. Thomas, Associate Judge 132 00 

P. W. Thomas, counsel fees for criminals. 50 00 

B. F. Myres, counsel for criminals . . 240 00 

J. L. Christy, counsel for criminals 120 00 

O. L. Bridges, counsel for criminals. 150 00 

H. 0. Ryerson, counsel for criminals 50 00 

Isaac A. Avery, Justice of the Peace 63 20 

P. Lynch, Justice of the Peace 5 00 

E. G. Smith, Justice of the Peace 8 00 

E. G. Smith, Associate Judge. 36 00 

J. C. Hawthorne, Justice of the Peace.. 16 00 

J. C. Hawthorne, Associate Judge 18 00 

Rent of Court House previous to pur- 
chase 100 00 

Balance of purchase money of Court 

House . 1,100 00 

Repairing Jail and fixtures 69 00 

Stationery 8 00 

Rent of jury room 15 00 

Digging grave. Carter, deceased 10 00 

A. Bronk, Ti'easurer, allowed by Court of 

Sessions 218 00 

Amount 816,103 24 

V. 

SCHEDULE B (referred to above). 

List of bills and accounts paid in cash. 

Bills for printing $177 30 

Paid for stationery for Clerk's and Treasur- 
er's offices .... 54 92 

Adams & Co's Express 25 86 

Gregory's Express 800 

Wells, Fargo & Co's Express 12 50 

John Charbonneau, services as Assistant Sur- 
veyor 48 00 

Map for Clerk's office 8 00 

Board of witnesses 34 00 

Work on Jail . 67 97 

Fuel, lights, and Clerk's office, cleaning Court 

House, etc .. 60 91 

Money refunded, erroneou.sly paid in 84 00 

Expenses of Treasurer in consulting Attor- 
ney-General 50 00 

Paid order of D. Bingham, former Treasurer. 3 00 
Paid B. F. Keene, Commissioner for settle- 
ment of claims of Sutter County. . . 42 00 
Treasurer, allowed by Court of Sessions. . . . 218 19 

Amount §894 65 

VI. 

SIATK FUNDS. 

During the six months ending December 2, 1852, 
settlement has been made with the Treasurer of 
State for account of— 



144 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Foreign ininei-s' licenses - - - $ 9,856 38 

Poll tax . - 6,747 35 

Property tax - - - 1,807 85 

Three-fourths gaming licenses 2,628 75 

Auction duties - . . ...... — 7 24 

Express licenses...- - 50 00 

Delinquents of 1851 ... 185 07 



^21,282 64 



On hand belonging to the State as follows: 
Propertj- tax 8671 88 



Gaming license. 



210 00 



881 88 



Amount collected for State during the 

current year $22,164 52 

A. Bronk, Treasurer of Placer County. 

COURT HOUSE ORDERED BUILT. 

In June. 1852, the Court of Sessions, then the 
financial authority of the county, advertised for 
sealed proposals to build a Court House. The struct- 
ure to be of wood, two stories high, 40x60 feet in 
dimensions. Upon this the Herald remarks, " This is 
very much needed. The present building is entirely 
too small for the purposes of the county, besides 
being in such a situation that if a tire should 
occur it would be destroyed in a few minutes, and 
with a great probability of destroying all the val- 
uable records of the county. At the present time 
there is no proper place in which to secure the valu- 
able documents, such as land titles, miners' titles, 
etc., etc. With the erection of the new building it 
will be different. It will be disconnected from all 
others, and will have ample room for all the county 
offices and jury rooms. There will also be in it 
a large fire-proof vault." The building was erected 
in the summer and fall of 1853, on an eligible 
site commanding a view of the whole towH of 
Auburn, and was highl}' praised and approved by 
the Grand Jury in their report in December. 

Upon its completion, the Herald of December 10, 
1853, remarks: ■' This fine building was used by the 
Court of Sessions for the fii'st time this week. It 
is an edifice that the county may well be proud of. 
Aside from San Francisco, Sacramento, and San 
Joaquin, there is no county in the State that has as 
fine and well-furnished a public building as Placer. 

The lower story is finished off for the different 
offices of the county and the Grand Jury. The 
upper story is the court room, and connecting with 
it at one end are two jury rooms. 

The whole building is neatly plastered with Auburn 
lime. In the Clerk's and Treasurer's rooms, con- 
nected by a strongly-built vault, is a huge safe, in 
which to deposit the books and monoj'S of the 
countJ^ 

The court room is finely furnished — even taste- 
fully. The floor, within the bar, is carpeted, and the 
iH'iitcr window, behind the Judge's chair, is decor- 
ated with long curtains reaching to the floor of the 
desk. 

The whole cost of the builduitr. finished and furn- 



ished, including lot, fencing, outhouses, etc., was 
$15,052.54, of which 89,528.10 was paid previous to 
January 1, 1854. 

Up to that date the county had expended on roads, 
since its organization, S689.74, and for Coroner's 
fees, physician's fees, funeral expenses, and for the 
sick, $863.46. There was at the time a large and 
busy population in Placer County, as those were the 
flush times of surface inining, and these small fees 
and expenditures are in great contrast with those of 
later days. To enable further contrasts to be made 
a few full reports in the beginning and ending of 
this history will be published. 

tre.\surer's report, 1853. 

Semi-annual statement of the Treasurer of Placer 
County, for the six months commencing the 2d day 
of December, 1852, and ending June 1, 1853. 

I. 

KBCEIPTS FBO.M ALL SnURCE.S FOR COUNTY PURPOSES. 

Cash on hand. December 2, 1852 $ 395 79 

From trading and liquor licenses 6,752 28 

Peddling licenses. 238 00 

From billiard tables. 220 0(1 

From ball alleys 170 00 

From exhibitions 30 00 

From bridges and ferries 215 00 

From balance poll tax, for 1852 189 03 

From poll tax on account, of 1853 ... 2,585 68 

From balance property tax, 1852 75 80 

From property tax on account, of 1853. . 3,683 73 

From foreign miners' license. . . 3,656 70 

From fines. Justices' Courts and Courts of 

Sessions . 595 10 

From forfeited recognizances. ... 1,500 00 

From fees. Probate and County Courts ... 26 00 

One-fourth gaming licenses 601 37 

From estates of deceased persons 569 51 

Overpaid by Treasurer 32 20 

Amount $21,486 24 

II. 

DISBURSEMENTS. 

Amount of county orders redeemed during 

six months, (see Schedule A, below). .116,899 55 

Interest on same 409 70 

Amount paid in cash, (see Schedule B) 1,280 65 

Amount carried to Court House Fund. -- . 1,211 24 

Treasurer's percentage . 1,685 10 

Amount $21,486 24 

III. 
SCHEDULE A (referred to above). 
Showing amount of oi'ders redeemed, and on what 
account. 

11. Fitzsimmons, County Judge. . $ 1,500 00 

S. C. Astin, Sherift' ^ .... 2.29S 45 

S, C. Astin, board of prisoners. 1,581 62 

R. D. Hopkins, District Attorney 2,890 00 

II. R. IIawkins,Deputy Clerk and Auditor 1 ,403 00 

Fees of Grand Jurors . 330 00 

Fees of Trial Jurors . . 348 00 

Fees oi' Officer.s of Election 440 20 

P. AV. Thomas, Prosecuting Attorney 15 00 

C.T. H. Palmer. •' ■ ... 15 00 




Photoqrapmeo by J. M. Ja( 



l/V. B. Lardner 



FINANCIAL HISTORY 



145 



George M. Hill, " '' 

C. J. Hillyer, ^' •• .. 

B. F. Myres, counsel for prisoner 

H. 0. Ryerson, " " " ...... 

E. G. Smith, Associate Justice 

P.W.Thomas, " '■■ ... 

\Vm. M. Jordan, " " 

Wm. M. Jordan, Justice of the Peace 
H. A. Scofield, " " '^ ^' . 

H. A. Scofield, Associate Justice 

H. A. Scofield, Coroner _ 

J. C. Hawthorne, Associate Justice . 

J. C. Hawthorne, Justice of the Peace 

Smith Herrick, Coroner . 

Alfred Lewis, Assessor. 

J. J . Hay good, Deputy Assessor 

A. Wheeler, Constable 

— Riddle, '■ 

R. M. Wagner, '■ .- 

J. M. Bass, " 

M. P. H. Love, Deputy Sheriff 

W.H.Dillingham, " " 

E. B. Boust, 



"Wm.McCarty " " 

Wm. L. Wheeler, " " ... 

Wm. Gunn, " " 

Patrick Cannej-, " ■■ 

J. M. Tidd, drafting plan of Court House 

Rent of Jurj' room 

Iron work on jail . . . . .. 

Guarding jail 

Blankets for jail _ . 

Burying dead . 

Harper & Thomas, Physicians . 

Joseph Walkup, Witness... 

A. Bronk, Treasurer 

Amount . . 



15 


00 


25 


00 


50 


00 


50 


00 


54 


00 


18 


00 


42 


00 


97 


00 


66 


00 


60 


00 


78 


00 


54 


00 


43 


00 


10 


25 


2,619 


17 


354 


00 


125 


50 


133 


50 


33 


00 


50 


00 


414 


50 


156 


50 


187 


75 


68 


00 


55 


00 


32 


50 


30 


00 


to 


00 


114 


00 


527 


70 


140 


00 


78 


00 


42 


00 


48 


00 


50 


00 


80 


00 


816,899 


55 



.scHEDnLE B (i-eferred to above.) 
j Amounts paid in cash. 

! Fees of witnesses in criminal cases. .S 

Fuel, light and stationery for Clerk's office 

I Printing ..... . 

I Postage and express expenses .... 

; Commissioners to adjust debt of Sutter 

I and Placer Counties 

' Paid for fencing Court House lot 

I Paid for burj-ing dead . 

I Money returned erroneously paid in 

j Paid legal representatives of W. T. Med- 

bury 

I Paid legal representatives of S. A.Lake. . 
1 Allowed by order of Court of Sessions for 

issuing licenses. 



235 


00 


135 


40 


84 


00 


17 


91 


79 


00 


55 


65 


55 


70 


30 


77 


45 


30 


256 


92 



285 00 



Amount «1,280 65 

V. 

INDEBTEDNESS OF COUNTY, JUNE 1, 1853. 

Amount of outstanding and accepted or- 
ders - - t ..... . . 84,605 48 

Issued b}- the Auditor, but not presented 

to the Treasurer for acceptance. . . 200 00 



Amount due Jurors uncalled for. 
Amount due Officers of Election uncalled 

for 

Due legal representatives of John Pember- 

ton, deceased ..... 

Amount due Treasurer 



482 00 



780 00 



210 84 
32 20 



Amount _ $6,310 52 



VI. 

During the 3'ear ending June 1, IS."io, 
there has been collected, and paid into 
the Treasury, from all sources $72,693 29 

Of which sum the amount for county pur- 
poses has been .... 40.919 15 

And for State purposes 31,774 14 

Under the provisions of "an Act to provide for 
the erection of Court Houses," passed in 1850. the 
Court of Sessions have ordered that one-fourth of 
one per cent, be collected on the taxable property, 
and set apart for the erection of a Court House. The 
amount collected thus far, and set apart, is 81,211.24. 
(Signed.) A. Bronk, Treasurer of Placer County. 

TAX.VBLE PROPERTy-.MlNE I.VVESTMENT.4. 

The taxable property of the county, as fixed bj' 
the Assessor in 1852, was 81,365,935.36. 

The census returns of 1852 show the whole amount 
of money then invested in mining enterjjrises of every 
kind, including ditches for conveying water from the 
rivers, canons, etc., to the flats, gulches, etc., to 
amount, in the aggregate, to 81,427,567; divided as 
follows: 8858,037, classed as '• Temporary Invest- 
ments," which was in flumes, dams, canals, etc., on 
the rivers; 813,530, invested in quartz mines; and 
8556,000 in water ditches, classed as " Permanent 
Investments." These estimates of amounts of capi- 
tal invested irj ditches, and other classes of mining 
property, were based upon calculations of absolute 
cost of enterprises then completed and in course of 
construction. The " Temporary Investments," rep- 
resenting river mining generally, vanished with the 
rising waters of the rainy season. The principal 
ditch in the county, at that time, was the "Bear 
River and Auburn," then in course of construction, 
and upon which 8300,000 had been expended before 
October, 1852. The estimated cost to complete it 
was 8500,000. 

ASSESSMENTS IN 1853. 

The total amount of assessments upon real and 
personal property, in Placer County, for the year 
1853. was 81,728,104. An increase over the assess- 
ment of 1852 of 8362,168.64 

treasurer's report, DECEMBER, 1853. 

Semi-annual statement of the Treasurer, of Placer 
County, for the six months commencing the 2d day 
of June, 1853, and ending December 5, 1853. 

RECEIPTS FROM ALL SOURCES FOR COUNTY PURPOSES. 

From business licenses $11,281 19 

" foreign miners' licenses 8,101 10 

' poll taxes. 2,148 72 

" gaming licenses 568 50 

" property tax 565 28 

" fines in Justices' Courts _ 277 49 

" public lands 45 00 

" estates of deceased persons .... 400 

Amount. $22,99128 



146 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



DISBURSEMENTS. 

Amount of county orders redeemed dur- 
ing six months - - - - - ^ . - $16,138 80 

Interest on same . 292 70 

Amount paid in cash 2,003 57 

carried to Court House Fund . 392 31 

" account of State 228 38 

Ex-Treasurer, on settlement - - 29 58 

" commission - 1,820 80 

" issuing licenses. - 360 00 

Cash on hand 1,724 69 



Amount - $22,291 28 

PAID IS CASH. 

Furniture for Court House - . $ 578 30 

Two large safes for Court House .... 493 92 

Lights, stationery, fuel, etc., 279 26 

Court House lot and fence 179 20 

Placer HeraM., printing . 150 00 

Witnesses in criminal cases 115 00 

Cash refunded to J. H. Phillips 15 00 

Fine remitted to R. O. Cravens 100 00 

Locks for jail - . 44 00 

Postage and box rent — 20 65 

Auditor's duplicate of tax list 18 24 

J. Birch, transporting prisoners . . . 10 00 



Amount $2,003 57 

INHEBTEHNESS OF COUNTY, DECEMBER 5, 1853. 

Amount of outstanding and aecejjted 

county orders $11,049 14 

Due legal representatives of John Pember- 

ton deceased . . 210 84 



Total . 



.$11,259 98 



TOTAL COLLECTIONS. 



During the six months ending December 
5, 1853, there has been collected and 
paid into the Treasury, from all 
sources, the sum of .... $ 41,742 38 

Of which sum the amount for county pur- 
poses has been 22,991 28 

And for State purposes 18,075 (!7 

Amounts collected for the erection of the 

Court House ... 675 43 



Total 



...$41,742 38 

F. G. Smith, 
Treasurer Placer County. 

The list of county orders redeemed is not here 
given, being of the same character as in the preced- 
ing re])orts. 

COMMON SCHOOL .MONEY. 

The tirst report of school money received appeai-s 
in iho Placer Herald, of January 7, 1874: "The 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, J. G. Marvin, 
Esq., has made up a statement of the amount of 
money due to the various counties of the State for 
school purposes. Placer County receives $529.59, of 
which the Ophir District gets $267.59, and Auburn 
District the balance. In relation to this matter, we 
append the following extract of a letter received 
from Senator Tattle last evening; 'There is now 
lying in the office of the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction some $60,000 belonging to the School 



Fund, and which has to be distributed among the 
different counties under the School Act of 1853. 
Only a portion of the counties in the State have 
complied with the law by organizing schools so as 
to entitle them to any portion of the money. Placer 
County should have received some $4,000, if she 
had complied fully with the law. This amount of 
money would go far toward sustaining several 
schools at the principal villages in the county.' " 

hospital fund. 

The Court of Sessions at the October term of 1853 
authorized the County Treasurer, Mr. E. G. Smith, 
to draw the Hospital Fund due the county from the 
State Treasury. How much this was is not reported. 

In the following year, October 2, 1854, the Con- 
troller of State informed the Treasurer of Placer 
that the sum of $1,407.04 in cash was in the State 
Treasury, belonging to Placer County for the support 
of the indigent sick. This was gladly received by 
the county, as it was considered to go far towards 
building a county hospital, where the indigent sick 
could be properly cared for. 

DEFECTIVE REVENUE LAWS. 

In the collection of revenue, business licenses were 
payable to the County Treasurer, who was required 
to remain at his office at the county seat, conse- 
quently, as no one was empowered to press the pay- 
ment by individual presence and importunities, many 
neglected to pay. Under the instructions of the 
County Judge, the Grand Jury, at the October term 
of 1853, presented to the Court of Sessions the 
names of 150 citizens as delinquent tradei's, doing 
business without a license. In the Judge's charge 
to the Grand Jury, in May, 1854, he says that: 
" Upon complaint of the District Attornej', a Justice 
of the Peace had issued warrants upon which many 
who had licenses, as well as many who had not, at 
the time of trading, were arrested; that the countj- 
had been i-endered liable for about the sum of $2,000, 
whereas, the full benefit accruing from fines, etc., was 
about $400," &c. 

These expenses, and this neglect to collect the 
usual revenue, probably, were the causes, in part, of 
the great increase of debt during the year, which is 
shown in the 

tiRANU JURY REPORT, MAY, 1854, 

Which says: ^Ve find in cash now in the Treasury 
the sum of $805.78 belonging to the county, and 
$1,800 belonging to the State, together with the 
further sum of $681.67 belonging to the County 
School Fund. * * * 

And on a thorough investigation of the indebted- 
ness of Placer County, find the amount to be as 
follows: — 

Dr. 
Amount of scri]) issued up to May 30. 

1853 .". $ 54,678 76 

Amount of scrip from May 30, 1853, 

to May 1 , 1854 48,335 56 

Making a total amount issued. - ..$103,014 32 



FINANCIAL HISTORY 



147 



Cr. 
By vouchers of cancelled scrip, amount S 75,681 51 

Scrip on hand in Treasurer's oflSce 5,568 50 

Cash on hand in Treasury . 805 78 

Making a total amount of -8 82,055 79 

Which being deducted from the amount 
of scrip issued, leaves a balance of an 
outstanding debt to amount of $ 20,958 f);) 

And we further report, that on investigation we 
find the amount of revenue collected for the last 
year to be 845,314.00, and that in our opinion, 
although the pro rata of taxation for this year has 
been increased, yet when we take into consideration 
the decrease in the value of property since the 
assessment for 1853, we think that the revenue col- 
lected for the present year will not reach the amount 
stated above as collected for the last, and that at the 
end of the present fiscal year the finances of the 
county will be in nearly the same position thej' are 
at the present time. * * * 

J. D. Carpenter. 

Foreman. 

GRAND JDRV REPORT, AUGUST, 1854. 

The following extract from the report of the 
Grand Jury, August, 1854, shows the condition of 
the county debt at that time. The gi'eat amount 
of criminal business, the decline in values and neg- 
lect of the Sheriff in turning money into the Treas- 
ury, causing the increase. The report says: — 

From a careful inspection of the exhibit (of the 
Clerk, Auditor, and Recorder) we find the indebted- 
ness of the county to be as follows: — 

Total amount of scrip issued since the 

county organization to be 8124.448 04 

Total amount of scrip redeemed 95,178 14 

Amount of outstanding scrip 8 29,269 90 

Amount of cash on hand 678 39 

Amount of present indebtedness $ 28,591 51 

DIFFICULTIES IN COLLECTING TAXES. 

The soui-ces of revenue, and the coui'ses] pursued 
in collecting it may afford a theme to some future 
Buckle when writing the history of civilization in 
America. The difficulties attending the collection of 
taxes were many, and gave rise to many incidents 
of dangerous and amusing expei'ience to the Col- 
lectors. In the eai'ly history of the county property 
had, only in a slight measure, crystallized into reality, 
and the public revenues were derived almost entirely 
from licenses, foreign miners' tax, 'and poll taxes, 
each collected on short notice and in an arbitrary 
mannei', and, as all such taxes press the subject 
most severely, were strongly opposed and their pay- 
ment avoided by every possible means and subter- 
fuge. 

The matter of raising a revenue by a tax upon 
foreigners working in the gold mines was one of 
the earliest considered by the law-makers of the 
State, and few or no objections, were made to the 
enactment of a statute providing for such a tax. 
No country was known where all people were 



allowed to extract the precious metals at will, and a 
moiety always went to the sovereign. Here a step 
in advance was made, and only the foreigner, or 
alien, was required to pay over to the State a por- 
tion of the " royal " metals he extracted from the 
soil. This was considered exceedingly magnanimous 
and generous in accordance with the ideas of a free 
and Democratic liepublLc. 

While this appeared so feasible and just in theory, 
it was very difficult to put in practice. The for- 
eigners it was intended should pay for the privilege 
of mining were then (1850) chiefly Jiuropeans, Eng- 
lish. Irish, and Canadians, and they strenuously 
objected to paying 88.00 a month, when their neigh- 
bors and partners, being natives or naturalized, paid 
nothing, and these neighbors and partners, partic- 
ularly if of the same nationality, sympathized with 
the alien, and would oppose at the polls any officer 
who enforced the collection of the monthly tax. 
Thus, because of the voting power of the miners, 
the law became a dead letter upon the statute books, 
so far as it related to one of the Caucasian race. 
Subsequently it was so changed as to apply to those 
not eligible to citizenship, and the tax fixed at 84.00 
per month. The Chinese, against whom it was 
levied, were comparatively defenseless, were an 
objectionable element (to some), and had no vote. 
They thronged the river bars and banks in great 
numbers, and were gathering the last vestige of gold 
from all localities of easy access, where labor, only, 
was required. The returns of the Collectors are 
evidence of the large numbers engaged in mining 
in the S'ounty, but in all probability three-fourths, 
by concealment, contract, or inability, failed to pay 
their taxes. 

To collect these, extreme measures were often 
taken, punishment inflicted, and pi'operty destroyed. 
An incident is related in the Placer Herald of Sej)- 
tember 24, 1853, in answer to a serious accusation of 
the officers in the Sa.cramenfo Union: — 

In regard to this matter, an erroneous impression 
seems to have got abroad in the public mind. It is 
well-known by many of our citizens that manj- of 
the Chinese trj' every way in their power to evade 
the payment of their taxes, and that Messrs Wheeler 
and Shannon, the Deputy Sherifts and Collectors, 
have been put to a gi'eat deal of trouble by their 
course. They cannot leave Auburn and go up in 
the mountains, or on the rivers, to perform their 
duties as officers, but that the Chinese camps are 
informed of it by runners from Aubui-n. The Celes- 
tials immo liately scatter; many come to town and 
loaf about their gambling bouses until they got 
word that the Collectors are returning, when the 
Chinese again return to their mining operations. 
To stop this evasion of the law, and to collect the 
taxes justly due the State, the Collectors, on last 
Saturday evening, procured the assistance of several 
of our citizens and went to the houses whore they 
were mostly congregated. Mr. Wheeler went in 
and laid his papers down on one of the tables and 
told Ah Sing, the proprietor, what he had come 
there for and who ho was. As soon as the China- 
men who were in the house were informed of the 



14S 



HISTORY ()F PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



object of Mr. Wbeeler's visit tliey refused to pay 
their license, and, after a siiort consultation among 
themselves, made a rush at him, but he succeeded in 
keeping them off with bis cane until some gentle- 
men came to his assistance. It was then the Chi- 
nese fled — some jumped through the windows, and 
in doing so cut themselves severely with the glass. 
The report of one, or two, or three Chinamen being 
murdered is without foundation. 

That the Collectors werb only in the discharge of 
their duties there is not a doubt; and that there is 
a combination among the Chinamen to evade the 
law is well known. If they would act like honest 
men should there would be no necessity for the 
officers to call in citizens to stand at the doors while 
they went in and collected the taxes; and if they 
will not do what is right they must be made to do it. 

In a paper of the same period, published in another 
locality, the editor says: " While in Auburn last 
week we saw thirteen Chinamen that Sam. Astin 
had 'corralled' in front of the stage stable, and 
from whom he was endeavoring most energetically 
to procure the sum of .S4.00 each under the late 
license law." 

SAM. astin's joke. 

S. C. Astin, while yheriff of Placer County, and 
ejo officio Collector, did, personally, a large share of 
the collection of the foreign miners' tax, and thus 
became well known to the Chinese, and was regarded 
by them as one in high authority whom they must 
implicitly obey. Astin was contemplating retiring 
from the Shrievalty — visions of his friend Broderick 
as Senator, or Walker as President of Nicaragua, to 
elevate him to greater honor.s, possibly inducing his 
resignation— and he conceived the idea of a joke 
upon his successor. Upon his last round as Col- 
lector he called at a Chinese camp upon the North 
Fork, near Green Valley, which contained numerous 
Celestials, and, after receiving their taxes, told them 
that down the river at another China camp some 
fellow had been around personating him, and by 
pretending to be a Collector of foreign miners' taxes 
had swindled their brethren out of a considerable 
amount of money. To prevent any further depre- 
dations by such impostors he requested them, should 
any one at any time in the future come into their 
camp anil ask for taxes that they should seize upon 
such individual, bind his hands, and bring him a 
prisoner to Auburn. This the Chinamen promised 
faithfully to do. In due time Astin's successor 
arrived at the camp where Sam. had left his instruc- 
tions. Demanding '• chinchee" (money) from 
"John," he was astonished at their flat and positive 
declining to pa)'. Becoming exasperated at their 
continued refusal, the official proceeded to the usual 
methods in vogue in those days for the compulsion 
of the heathen delinquents. This was enough for 
John. The signal was given; in rushed an over- 
whelming host; the supposed bogus Collector was 
overpowered and bound. All expostulations and 
threats on the part of the discomfited officer were 
in vain. He was in reality a prisoner of the heathen 



horde. No explanations were admitted. The Chi- 
nese had their instructions from Astin, the highest 
power they knew, and they were determined to obey 
them. The poor Collector, in his galling bonds, was 
forced to march into Auburn in his sad plight, and 
it was only then that the mistaken Chinese were 
convinced that Astin was no more in power and that 
they had unwittingly carried out for him a stupen- 
dous joke, which, but for the fact of its being a 
good joke, and instructions faithfully followed, might 
have consigned them all to prison. 

A TAX COLLECTING CONTROVERSY. 

The Flacer Herald of March 18, 1854, relates the 
following: — 

■One of our tax-collectors called upon a German 
of our town named Marcus AUmayer, a few days 
since, for the purpose of collecting of him his tax for 
the present year. Marcus took the money out of his 
pocket and shook it at the Collector, with the tantal- 
izing remark, "Don't you vish you gets him?" 
This provoked the officer, who in return gave him a 
slight slap in the face, whereupon a complaint was 
made before Justice Hawkins, the Collector was 
arrested, and fined $1.00 and costs. This was glory 
for the delinquent taxpayer; as he left the court 
room he turned to the Collector, with a broad grin 
upon his face, and exclaimed, " Now, by Godt, you 
sees vat a Dutchmans can do ! " 

But Marcus relates his side of the story in a letter 
to the HeroM, in the following language: — 

Two men kums and asts me I shall pay mine tax. 
I tells dem how much moonish I have mit me. Den 
dey shwears me dat I ave not more moonish as I 
tells dem. Dey den tells me as I shall mine tax pole 
pay. 1 spheaks dem I can mine poard not pay — tam 
de tax pole. Den de Collector spheaks me he shall 
swab mindt head mit de gutter up, and take mine 
pocket out of all money. Dey den toard mine coat 
nearl}' off ov de tail, and peat me all de same as de 
ty vel. I den tooks dem up, when dey findhs him for a 
tollar and a quarter. Den shays for de last of it, 
now ten poys vat you trinks. Dat is hell for shoostus 
for de poormans. Mine handt and sheal, 

Marcus Allmayer. 

the financial power. 

Previous to October, 1854, the Court of Sessions 
exercised the power of supervising the finances, but 
in that month a decision was rendered by Judge 
jMunson, of the Sixth Judicial District, that such 
power was beyond the duties of the Court, after 
which all matters relating to financial afi'airs 
devolved upon the Auditor. This decision left the 
counties'almost without a financial agent, until at 
the subsequent session of the Legislature an Act was 
passed creating Boards of Supervisors, upon which all 
the duties devolved respecting levying of taxes and 
the management of the business affairs of the coun- 
ties. 

GRAND JURY REPORT, NOVEiMBER, 1854. 

The Grand Jury's Heport of November, 1854. 



FINANCIAL HISTORY 



149 



shows the following condition of the finances of the 
county at that time: — 

Dr. 
Since the organization of the county to 

November 18, 1854. . _ . . $146,347 43 

Cr. 
By cancelled scrip produced as vouchers 109,226 25 
Cancelled scrip and cash in the hands of 

the Treasurer 4,228 33 

$113,454 58 
Leaving the total indebtedness of the 

county at this date $ 32,892 85 

There has been foreign miners' tax collected of 
8,555 persons since January, a. d. 1854, at $4.00 each, 
$34,220.00. 

TAXABLE PROPERTY. 

The valuation of all the taxable property in the 
county, as returned bj^ the Assessors for the year 
1854, was $1,551,757, or $176,347 less than the year 
preceding. 

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT. 

By a statement made by the State Treasurer of 
the total amount of money received into the Sub- 
Treasury up to May 1, 1854, the sum total was given 
at $2,158,099.85. Of this sum Placer had contributed 
$63,043.29; there being but five counties, San Fran- 
cisco, Sacramento, El Dorado, Yuba, and Santa 
Clara, paying greater sums. The State indebtedness 
at the time was: Civil Debt, $2,558,666.07; and $900,- 
483.12, War Debt, assumed by the United States. 

The amount paid into the State Treasury by Placer 
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1854, was $28,- 
302.73 — only the counties of San Francisco, El 
Dorado, Sacramento and Calaveras paying more. 
The amount received from the foreign miners' tax 
was estimated at §150,000. 

FINANCIAL REPORTS, FEBRUARY, 1856. 

The county officers made statements to the Grand 
Jury at the the February session, 1855, of the finan- 
cial transactions since November 6, 1854, which ag- 
gregated, in cash on hand, at the beginning of the 
quarter, $1,631.97, and collections $14,556.07, or a 
total of $16,189.04. 

The statement of the Auditor showed the total in- 
debtedness to be $43,570.61. 

The amount received during the year beginning 
February 5, 1854, and ending February 4, 1855, was 
$52,362.54 — as follows: Foreign miners' tax, $12,- 
315.90; poll tax, $5,170; property tax, $3,122.28; 
School Fund, $271.77; Court House Fund, $2,257.26; 
merchandise and liquor licenses, $22,697.26; Indigent 
Fund, $1,294.28: miscellaneous, $1,001.88; cash on 
hand, February 4, 1854, $4,231.11. 

Of this amount $47,333.49 was used in purchasing 
scrip, and $747.58 was on hand at the date of the 
report. 

The increase of the county debt from $32,892.85 
in November to $43,570.61 in the February following 
appears to have arisen from the ordinary and ex- 



tra-ordinary expenses of the county. Of the extra- 
ordinary expenses, some $10,000 may be accounted 
for as follows: On the 23d of December, 1854, the 
citizens of Iowa Hill, and vicinity, executed \Vm. M. 
Johnson by "lynch" court, and warrants were issued 
for the ai'rest of citizens who were accused of partic- 
ipating in the act. The Sheriff was resisted in mak- 
ing these arrests and summoned a po-»se at Auburn 
to go to his assistance. Of this the Grand Jury say: 

■'We have had our attention called to certain bills 
and accounts charged against the county — filed in 
the office of the Auditor — in all, amounting to $10,- 
000, exclusive of Sheriff's fees, for services alleged to 
have been performed by individuals forming a Sher- 
iff's /lOSi's for horse hire and other expenses incurred 
by that officer in making certain arrests at Iowa 
Hill. We believe that for all the services alleged to 
have been performed, exorbitantly high prices have 
been charged — at least 100 per cent, more than the 
actual value. We would, therefore, recommend that 
no bill be audited except those which are strictly 
legal and allowable under the Statute, for our 
county is already largely in debt. 

RATE OP TAXATION. 

May 7, 1855, the Board of Supervisors, consisting 
of five members met and organized according to 
law, and assumed control of the business of the 
county. With other transactions, the Board fixed 
the rate of taxation for the year at fifty cents upon 
each $100 worth of property assessed, to be applied 
and paid into the General County Fund; twenty- 
five cents upon each $100 to be paid into the Court 
House Fund; twenty-five cents upon each $100 to be 
paid into the Indigent Sick Fund, and five cents upon 
each $100 to be paid into the Public School Fund, 
making a total county tax of $1.05 upon each $100 
worth of property assessed. The State tax was 
sixty cents upon each $100, making a total of $1.65 
on each $100 of valuation. 

supervisors' STATEMENT. 

The Boai'd of Supervisors, in compliance with the 
Statute under which they were organized, made 
their first examination of the county finances, and 
reported May 19, 1855, of which the following is a 
synopsis: — 

County of Placer in acct. viith the World: 
1855. Dr. 

Feb. 17. — To amount of indebtedness of 
county to date for report there 
rendered $43,570 61 

March 1. — Scrip issued H. Fitzsimmons 

as County Judge . 1,958 32 

March 1.- - Amount issued to F. W. Thom- 
as, District Attorney, one-quar- 
ter salary 500 00 

May 19. — Total amount issued to date 
upon orders of Board of Super- 
visors, inclusive of $1,333.34 
issued to County Judge upon 
judgment of District Court 22,379 87 

S 68,408 80 



150 



HISTORY OF PLACER COItntY. CALIFORNIA 



March 1 to May 12— By canceled scrip- $ 7,784 23 
May 19. — Amount to "balance being the 
indebtedness of the county at 
this date ,-.. - 60,624 57 



$68,408 80 

The County Treasurer reports 811,775.68 receipts, 
of which he had on hand May 5, 1855, $5,662.25. 

Sherift' S. C. Astin was reported as indebted to the 
county in the sum of SI, 992.76. The Deputy Sherift; 
Wm. H. Dillingham, was reported indebted to the 
county on account of foreign miners' licenses, due 
$4,000; and James T. Griffith indebted on account of 
poll-tax receipts, due §1,344. 

These sums of cash on hand and bills due would 
reduce the indebtedness to .S47,625.56. 

The amount received from the State as the county 
portion of the Common School Fund was 6354.09, 
being the allotment due for 300 school childi-en in the 
county. 

THE INCKE.iSING INDEBTEDNESS. 

The rapid increase of the debt was becoming 
alarming. The system of transacting the county 
business by issuing scrip, or on a credit of an indefi- 
nite period for all expenses was one that encouraged 
debt making from the facility with which it was 
issued, the high prices it enforced for all bills ex- 
cept fixed salaries, and the approval given it by 
speculators. The value of the scrip in October, 1855, 
was but half of its stated sum, and consequently 
double prices must be paid for all purchases, thus 
the debt as long as it was permitted to exist in 
this form compelled its own increase. The revenue 
was continually increasing, but the scrip, which in 
1854 was six months in advance of the money to 
redeem it, in the fall of 1855 was hopelessly in the 
distance. This was the result of simply allowing it 
to get the start. In the session of the Legislature 
of 1854-55, Senator Hawthorne had endeavored to 
pass a funding bill in order to place the business of 
the county again on a cash basis, but the citizens of 
Auburn objected to the measure and it was defeated. 
October 20, 1855. the Placer Herald says: — 

The debt of Placer County now stands at 8100,000, 
and scrip is at a discount of fifty per cent, in the 
market.. This last fact alone has induced many of 
late to urge the necessity of funding the debt. The 
county, with its paper so greatl}^ depreciated, is com- 
pelled to submit to heavy prices for all work that is 
requirred to be done for it. 

The recei])ts of the county are estimated at about 
$52,000 per year, and the expenses for the same 
length of time at 845,000, leaving a balance of some 
87,000 annually, to bo applied towards liquidating 
the present indebtedness. * * * 

All our public buildings will have been completed 
by the time the Legislature meets, and the Funding 
Act can become a law, and then we need be at no 
expense in the future, only that which will have to 
be incurred in carrying on the business of the 
county. 

This did not compare favorably with the adjoin- 



ing county of El Dorado, which at that time was out 
of debt, had near 810,000 in the Treasury, and levied 
no property tax for county purposes; licenses and 
foreign miners' tax supplying the necessary funds. 

supervisors' statement, SEPTEMBER. 

The Supervisors of Placer County oft'er the follow- 
ing financial statement, which is a continuation of 
the statement made and published in May, 1855: — 

Amount of reported indebtedness, May 

19, 1855 860,524 57 

Amount of bills audited and scrip issued 
upon demands due prior to date of 
report . - 14,983 68 

Probable amount of Interest accrued to 
yU\y 19th. estimated to be equal to 
four months' interest on the whole 
amount outstanding. . , 2,516 94 

878,025 19 

Amount allowed for ordinary expenses to 
this date, for which warrants are 
drawn , or liable to be on demand . . . .815,925 82 

Amount of warrants advanced on jail 

contract .-. ....'.._ 2,500 00 

Interest on amount due May 19th to date, 

4i months " 2,817 56 

899,268 57 

Amount county warrants redeemed since 

May 19th - .8 5,697 72 

Amount of interest paid on ditto 505 89 

Cash in Treasury September Ist 524 19 

Received in Treasury, since September 1st, 

estimated at- 2,500 00 

8 9,227 80 

Present indebtedness 890,040 77 

To which add expense of late election 1,685 00 

Balance of June contract . - 7,300 00 

Expense of Board this session- - . - 527 00 

Total liabilities yet ascertained - . 899,552 77 

A. L. BOTDEN, 

Chairman of Board. 

The financial statement made November 20, 1855, 
showed the outstanding warrants remaining unpaid 
at that date to be 880,019.63; with a balance of 
8750.27 in the County Fund. The allowance of 
81,128 to the Sheriff', as Superintendent of the con- 
struction of the jail, was severely commented upon 
as a political grant and an improper tax upon the 
county. The building of a jail, costing 816,525.91, 
was one item adding to the debt. 

assessor's report, 1855. 

November 26, 1855, the County Assessor, Mr. A. 
S. Smith, reported to the Surveyor-General of the 
State the statistical information he had gathered 
from which the following is obtained: — 

Ranches. — There are 143 improved ranches in 
the county, many of which have good and perma- 
nent buildings and fences; others are only inclosed 
with brush, while some are only surveyed and 
staked. 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



151 



The improvements and stock on these are assessed 
at S21 9,000, paying a State and county tax of 
S3,613.50. 

The tax valuation of this property has gradually 
increased, and but for the conflicting interest between 
the farmer and the miner, would be double what 
it now is. The decision of the courts, giving the 
miner the right to enter and dig upon any lands in 
the mineral districts, is a check upon improvements 
Du this kind of property. 

Canals. — Auburn and BearKiver Water and Min- 
ing Company — Capital, $050,000; length of canal and 
laterals, 175 miles; office at Auburn. 

American Eiver Water and Mining Company — 
Capital stock, §300,000; office at Carrolton; length. 
32 miles, of which 20 are in Placer County; takes 
water out of the American liiver at Tamaroo Bar 
and leads to Mississippi Bar in Sacramento County. 

Gold Hill and Bear River Water Company— Capi- 
tal stock, §96,000; length of main trunk, 32 miles, 
lateral 26 miles; office at Gold Hill. 

Yankee Jim Union ^Vater Company — Capital 
3tock, $90,000; office at Yankee Jim's. 

El Dorado Water Company — Capital stock, 
S60.000; length of canal and laterals, 30 miles; office 
at Michigan City. 

Todd's Valley Water Company — Capital stock, 
532,000; length of canal, 12 miles; office at Todd's 
Valley. 

The above list includes the principal incorporated 
sanals of the county. Aside from these there are 
23 others of smaller capital and capacity. Many of 
them are of great value to the minors as well as to 
Lhe capitalists, and pay a better interest on the 
amount invested than some of the larger companies. 

The assessed value of the 29 canals in the aggre- 
y;ate is $375,000. 

Saw-mills. — There are about twenty saw-mills in 
operation in the county. The trade is one of the 
most important in the county, and one which is 
increasing in growth and prosperity. The assessed 
value of these'mills is §86,000, paying §1,-1:19 State 
and county taxes. 

ToLL-ROADS AND BRIDGES. — There are nine toll- 
roads and bridges in the county, the assessed valua- 
tion being $71,000, paying $1,171.50 Slate and county 
taxes. 

Capital Invested in Gold Mines.- -The amount 
assessed on capital invested in gold mines in the 
county is §100,000, which has been assessed only 
on productive claims. The total State and county 
tax on the same is $1,650. 

There are but two successful quartz mills in the 
county, both of which have gone into operation 
within the present year. They were both built as 
experimenters or prospectors, with steam power only 
sufficient for six stamps. Messrs. Strong & Co., near 
Humbug Canon, in the extreme eastern part of the 
county, have the honor of putting into operation the 
first successful quartz-mill, and Messrs. Hancock & 
Watson the second, which is located at Sarahsville, 
near Michigan Bluff. 

Total Assessments. — The assessed value of the 
taxable property of this county for the year 1855 is 
$1,700,000. Rate of taxation $1.65 on each $100. 

supervisors' report, FEBRUARY, 1856. 

The Board of Supervisors of Placer County made 
the following report of the financial affairs of the 



county from February 17, 1855, to January 1, 1856: — 

Warrants outstanding unpaid February 

17, 1855 $ 43,570 61 

Warrants issued since February 17, 1855 75,943 24 

$119,513 85 
Warrants redeemed to date of January 

1, 1856 . - 32,906 61 

Balance outstanding _ S 86,602 24 

Estimate of interest accrued .... 4,750 00 

Due Murphy & Co. from Court House 

Fund 3,229 79 

$ 94,587 03 
Cash in Treasury, January 1, 1856 3,022 73 

Total liabilities to date. ... $ 91,564 30 

At the session of the Board making the above 
report, February 4, 1856, bills were allowed aggre- 
gating $5,980.32. This allowance was for the ordi- 
nary expenses, salaries, criminal transportation and 
prosecution, without any indication of extravagance 
or corruption, showing a careful administration of 
county affairs. Notwithstanding the lack of evidence 
of any willful extravagance or corruption, the con- 
tinual increase of the debt and the low value of the 
county scrip shows a want of competent business 
ability in those having charge of the county finances. 

The Board of Supervisors created forty-three road 
districts, and appointed a Supervisor to each, with an 
allowance of $5.00 a day, not to exceed six days in a 
month, and all men liable to poll tax were required 
to do certain days' work, or commute for the same by 
the payment of a tax of $4.00; but notwithstanding 
this all the principal roads and bridges were private 
property, and toll-gates with heavy tolls were very 
frequent. 

An effort was made to check the decline of scrip 
and the accumulation of the debt by the passage of 
an Act of the Legi-slature, approved March 11, 1856, 
which empowered the Supervisors of Placer County 
to levy a special tax annually, in addition to other 
taxes, of one per cent, on all taxable property. This 
to be applied, one-half in the payment of stationery, 
fuel, lights, board of prisoners, and repairs, etc., of 
public buildings and the payment of Murphy & Holmes 
for labor and material on County Jail, and the other 
half to go into the General Fund. 

treasurer's report, 1856. 

The County Treasurer reported the following net 
receipts during the year beginning June 2, 1855, and 
ending June 2, 1856: — 

Property Tax - § 31,055 44 

Foreign Miners' License - - 40,691 5_ 

PoUtax - .,l-?-oS 

Licenses • -- ^N-^n 

Fines from J ustice of Peace 1 ,lo» au 

Military Tax .-- - JH,^. 

Sale Court House lot .11, 

Hospital Fund from State - ^ oo 

School Fund from State a4< 19 

Total Receipts §102,412 56 



152 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The State's portion of this was . - 8 SG.-ITS 40 

County Fund - 53,026 26 

To El Dorado County - - 93 00 

To Nevada County . . 57 00 

Hospital Fund... 4,974 91 

Court House Fund ... 3,732 58 

School Fund... ... 1,493 55 

Special Fund 2,568 26 

Road Fund . . 85 60 

§102,412 56 

UNOFFICIAL STATEMENT. 

The Herald, as an argument against the party in 
power, October 15, 1856, in showing the indebtedness 
of the county, made the following statement: — 

Amount of county debt, as published by 

the Supervisors May 19, 1855 S 60,524 57 

Amount of scrip issued from June 2,1855, 

to October 1, 1856 77,366 91 

Interest for ten months 11,031 20 

Special Fund Debt... 2,555 42 

Due Murphy & Co 1,227 63 

Unaudited Debt (estimated) 15,000 00 

Total... ... $167,705 73 

From which deduct a credit of . 66,140 63 

Making total debt, October 1, 1866 8101,565 10 

assessor's report, 1856. 

The Assessor, in his report to the Surveyor-Gen- 
eral, dated October 24, 1856, furnishes the following 
items connected with the wealth and finances of the 
county: — 

Cultivated Lands. — There are 5,844 acres of 
cultivated lands in the county, and about 12,000 
inclosed. All lands in this county are claimed under 
the I're emption Act, the Spanish grants terminating 
at our western boundaries. 

Canals. — There are twenty-four canals assessed in 
the county, the value aggregating 8399,100. 1 
reported the assessed value of the canals last year 
at 8375,000. It exceeds that sum this year $24,100. 
As a general rule canal stock has not paid capitalists 
in this county, and it is owing to this fact so many 
canals are assessed at so low a figure. The original 
cost of one of these canals was double the present 
cash value of the whole number. The united orig- 
inal capital of six of these companies amounts to 
the sura of 81,228,000, and now assessed at 8344,600. 

Lu.MBER and Saw-Mills. — There are twenty-two 
saw-mills in the county, cutting an aggregate of 
12,500,000 leet per annum. The value of rough lum- 
ber at the mills is estimated to average about 820.00 
per M., which amounts in the aggregate to $2,500,- 
000 per annum. There is no one business in the 
count}-, except mining, that affords more employment 
than this. 

Turnpike Roads and Bridges. — Seven toll-roads 
and bridges are assessed at §84,000. The roads have 
a total length of 17 miles. 

There are four quartz mills in successful operation, 
and several quartz ledges are worked with arastras. 
The placer mines have been productive, and it is 
estimated that 86,000,000 of gold has been produced 
in the county in the past year. One lime kiln in 
o])eration produces an excellent quality of lime, and 
large quantities are shipped to Sacramento and 
Marysville. 



Assessed Property. — The total amount of assessed 
valuation in the County of Placer is §2,200,000; last 
year it was 81,700,000. Notwithstanding the depre- 
ciation of many kinds of property I have been 
enabled to increase our property tax half a million 
dollars. The increase is owing to more diligence in 
searching out invisible property, consisting of money 
and gold-dust, solvent debts, and money invested in 
mining claims. 

Solvent Debts. — The total amount of solvent 
deWfe assessed in the county amounts to: — 8130,000 

Coin and gold-dust 114,000 

Capital in claims 125,000 

Merchandise 205,000 

Total 8579,000 

Rate of taxation: State, 60c.; county, 65e.; special, 
81.00; total, 82.25 on each 8100 of valuation. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

FINANCIAL HISTORY. 
(continued.) 

Board of Supervisors February, 1S57 — Relief Measures — Asses- 
sors Report 1S57 — Redemption of County Warrants — Finan- 
cial Report 1858 — Reducing tlie Debt — Assessor's Report 1858 
— Supervisors' Report Februarj', 1859 — County Debt— Assess- 
ment Roll 1859 — Supervisors' Report 1859 — Reports and Taxes 
1860 — Finances in 1861 — Taxation in 1862 — The Finances in 
186.3 — Finances in 1864 — Contest with the Railroad for Taxes 
— Tax Levy 1863 — Railroad Assessment — Legal Distances — 
Taxation in 1860 — Tax Levy in 1867 — Central Pacifio Contro- 
versy — Great Wealth of the Railroad Company — Assessment 
and Taxes iu 1868 — Robbing the Treasurer — Taxation in 1869 — 
Exorbitant Bills — Railroad Suits Compromised — Taxation in 
1870 — Sale of the Railroad Stock — Sources of Revenue — Taxes 
in 1871 — Proceedings against the Railroad Company — Property 
in 1871— William Van Vactor. 

At the session of the Board of Supervisors in Feb- 
ruarj', 1857, it was ordered that the rate of taxation 
for county purposes bo fixed at 81.65 upon each 
$100 of valuation. The State tax was seventy cents 
upon the same, making a total of $2.35. The rate 
of payment to the Jailer was fixed at 8150 per 
month, instead of 8200 as formerly. The forly- 
tbree road districts were abolished and each township 
made a road district, with a Supervisor to each, and 
the road tax changed from 84.00 to 83.00. Com- 
plaints were made that the allowance of 810.00 per 
week, as the board of prisoners in the County Jail, 
was exorbitant, when hotels furnished board at 
87.00 per week. 

A serious soui'ce of expense was the care of the 
indigent sick, the contract for which was let at 
$20.00 per week, if not exceeding ten patients, or 
818.00 each per week if more than that number. 
Under this system the care of the sick cost the 
county 84,248 for the quarter ending April 1, 1857, 
or, at the rate of 816,992 a yeai*. To remedy 
this, the Legislature passed an Act which limited 
expenditures to 812 00 per week for each patient, 
forbid the creation of any debt for the purpose, and 
permitted the Hospital Fund only to be drawn upon 
for its support. 




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FINANCIAL HISTORY, 



153 



RELIEF MEASURES. 

The rapidly accumulating debt and the heavy 
taxation admonished the people to take all possible 
measures for relief that their skill as financiers or 
feelings of economy suggested. Special laws were 
enacted for Placer by the Legislature of 1857, one 
approved February 4th, reducing the Board of 
Supervisors to three members, and another amending 
the "Special Tax" Act of 185fi, approved February 
7th, by which a " Redemption Fund " was estab- 
lished. The Special Tax Act ordered a levy of one 
per cent,, to be devoted to paying contingent 
expenses, etc. The amendment changed the course 
of this money, and added to it one-half the county's 
share of the money received from the foreign 
miners' license, and devoted it to the redemption of, 
or purchase at agreed rates, of outstanding warrants. 

assessor's report, 1857. 

Mr. A. S. Smith, the County Assessor, published in 
September, 1857, a most elaborate and interesting 
report of the condition of the county, earning him 
the commendation of being the most efficient Asses- 
sor Placer ever had. The total amount of taxable 
property returned for the year 1857 was §2,169,504.- 

1 88, upon which the State tax was 615,189.53, and 
the county tax -$33,627.33, the rate being seventy 
cents for State and .'51.55 for county purposes on 

I each iJlOO of valuation. An abstract of the report 
classifying the various proj)erties, vrill give an idea 
of the progi'ess of improvements, or the decline in 
values in the county. 

! Ranches. — In my report of 1855 I returned 143 
improved ranches, which, including stock were 
i assessed at .§219,000. I am able this year to report 
226, being an increase of nearly 100, and the improve- 
ments alone, exclusive of stock etc., is assessed at 
.?131,585, and in the aggregate, improvements and 
stock !?522,911, being an increase of 100 per cent. 
: The number of acres claimed and located upon by 
( one or more occupants is about 400,000, about one- 
( fourth being fenced. 

I Houses and Buildings. — In the county, I have on 
I my tax roll 832 buildings — hotels, stores and dwell- 
I ings, assessed at sums varying from $50 to .810,000. 
, The aggregate taxable valuation of this property is 
I $243,154. 

I Merchandise. — The assessed valuation of merchan- 
dise is 8179,543. 

Money. — The bulk of the amount assessed under 
/ this head was in the hands of miners, and to whose 
' account I want the amount credited. The cash 
j capital as on the assessment roll, amounts to 8140,688. 
I Money at Interest. — Again the bulk of this tax- 
S able property is in the hands of miners. This 
( amounts in the aggregate to 8116,391. 
t Mining Capital. — Of no tax is there so much com- 
j plaint as that levied upon money invested in mining. 
, The amount taxed under this head is 8179,543. 
i Solvent Debts. — After deducting offsets of amounts 
1 due creditors either in Placer Countj' or outside of 
* it, the amount assessed of solvent debts is .8165,000. 
Stock.— Horses 960, value 8101,303; mules 373; 



834,545; cows 2,194, 8111,448; swine 4,763, .$12,681; 
yearlings 1,052. §22,825; beef cattle 635, 813,815, 
work cattle 472, 830,886; sheep 3,835, 813.823. Total 
14,264, assessed valuation 8301,326. 

The value of cattle, sheep and hogs slaughtered 
in the county will amount to over $600,000 in the 
year, nine-tenths of which are driven from the lower 
counties and pay no taxes here. 

Canals. — There are in the county thirty-four 
canals, or ditches, variously assessed at from §100 to 
§100,000, having an aggregate length of 512 miles, 
conveying 8,760 inches of water, and assessed at 
$325,600. The principal of these are the American 
River Water and Mining Companj^ carrying 2,000 
inches, and assessed at 6100,000, and the Auburn 
and Bear River Water Company, with 200 miles of 
main and laterals, carrying 2,000 inches, and assessed 
at §75,000. There had been expended upon the 
latter about §100,000 during the year, still it is 
assessed at much less than the previous year. 

Quartz Mills. — There are eight quartz mills, 
assessed at §27,400. 

Toll-Bridges and Turnpike Roads. — Of toll- 
bridges disconnected with turnpike roads there are 
nine, assessed at §14,600, six of which are half 
assessed in El Dorado and one in Nevada Counties. 
Of turnpike roads there are eight, three of which 
have costly bridges, assessed at §56,750. Total, 
871,350. 

Saw-Mills. — Total number of mills, twenty-four, 
producing annually 29,035,000 feet of lumber. 
Assessed value of machinerj^, §65,000. 

Flouring-Mills. — I am gratified to be able to 
report the erection of two flouring-mills within the 
past year — the Placer County Flouringmill, by S. 
W. Lovell, a few miles above Auburn, and the Auburn 
Steam Mill, by Gatter & Scharpf, at Auburn. 

The assessed value of property in the six principal 
tovvnsofthe county was as follows: Auburn. §365,858; 
Michigan Bluffs, 8132,003; Yankee Jim's, §129,1.56; 
Todd's Valley, §121,723; Iowa Hill, 8105,391; Gold 
Hill, 872,169. Iowa Hill was assessed subsequent to 
the great fire in that town, which was the cause of 
the light valuation. In the towns where the offices 
of the ditch companies are located the ditches are 
included with other property. 

The amount of money paid into the State Treasury 
for the year ending June 2, 1857, was §16.446 74 
from property tax, and 832,748 25 from all other 
sources, making a total of §49,192.02. 

redemption of county warrants. 

Under the law creating a " Redemption Fund " 
there had accumulated for the purpose, bj- May, 
1857, the sum of §6,092.83, and proposals were made 
for the surrender of county warrants, and §14,032.95 
were offered at prices ranging from 74 to 90 cents, 
and §7,304.66 worth were purchased at prices rang- 
ing from 74 to 87 cents on the dollar, making a 
saving to the county of 81.211.83. This not only 
saved the county in the payment of the warrants, 
but raised their value from 55 cents before the Act 
went into operation to 77i cents selling in the mar- 
ket. The Acts regulating the hospital also effected 
a considerable saving, which, with others, aitfed in 



SO 



154 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



rapidly reducing the county indebtedness. In August 
another purchase was made, saving $1,023.32, and in 
November a third, saving 81,438.40, the price ranging 
from SO to 84J cents per dollar. 

FINANCIAL REPORT, 1858. 

The report of the Board of Supervisors shows the 
condition of the county indebtedness, on the 6th of 
January, 1858, as follows: — 

Dr. 
To amount of warrants outstanding: 

January 1, 1857 '. _ . « 82,810 12 

Issued to May 1, 1857, and interest 18.482 00 



«!101,292 12 
By warrants redeemed and cash in funds 18,822 29 

§ 82,469 83 
May 23d, statement warrants issued _ 17,058 26 

$ 99,528 09 
May 23d, warrants purchased by Re- 
demption Fund . 7,304 66 



Total indebtedness _ $ 92,224 43 

In June the indebtedness was reduced to $83,618.64, 
in November to .S81,913.30, and the statement of 
January 6, 185S, showed a total indebtedness of 
$74,-321.85. 

The I'esult of the agitation aroused by the rapid 
increase of the debt in 1855 and 1856 causing legisla- 
tion, new taxation and economy in the financial man- 
agement of the county is seen in the great reduction 
of the debt during the year 1857. At this time 
eighteen counties exceeded Placer in the assessed 
valuation of propertj^, nine of which were exclus- 
ively mining counties, and two partially so. 

REDUCING THE DEBT. 

The Legislature in 1857 enacted that warrants 
remaining uncalled for in the County Treasury 
exceeding one year should be canceled and destroyed 
by the Board of Supervisors, and in pursuance of 
this law the Supei-visors of Placer County, in 
May, 1858, canceled and destroyed $2,194.75, of 
scrip, some of which had been authorized in 1852, 
and canned as county indebtedness through the 
intervening period. With each meeting of the Board, 
other warrants thus remaining over were destroyed, 
and thus, with other reforming systems, the debt 
continued to decline. 

Upon this subject the Ihrakl of August 21, 1858, 
says: — 

As this is a subject of vital interest to the taxpay- 
ing voter, we propose to give a short review of the 
financial condition and prospects of the county. The 
books of the County Auditor show that on the 2d of 
June, 1857, the debt of the county in scrip, exclusive of 
interest on the same, was $83,618.94. This indebted- 
ness was subsequently increased by the allowance of 
bills of the old county officers, to an amount exceeding 
■18,000 making the actual debt, including the inter- 
est, not far from $98,000. To reduce this amount 
and pay up the accumulating interest is a heavy 
task, yet it has been done, and under most disadvan- 
tageous circumstances. 



It will be recollected the Legislature of '57 with- 
drew from the counties the revenues which up to 
that time they derived from merchants and liquor 
dealers, of what was Jfnown to the I'evonue laws, of 
the ninth and tenth classes. The amount thus taken 
from our county for the year 1857 is estimated at 
from $10,000 to $12,000. This law has been repealed, 
and in future we shall have this revenue. 

It is well known that the revenues derived from 
the tax upon foreign miners' licenses has fallen off 
until it does not equal twenty-five per cent of the 
former sum. The criminal business of our courts for 
the past year has been an expense of $24,807,81, 
exclusive of the salaries. Notwithstanding these dis- 
couraging facts, by reference to the records, we find 
our county debt has been reduced to $73,091.81, and 
there is every prospect that by the 1st of November 
next we shall not have outstanding county obliga 
tions to an amount exceeding $55,000. We arrive at 
this latter conclusion from verj' reliable sources. 
The property assessed in 1857 amounted to $2,169,504, 
and supposing the whole tax to be collected would 
yield the county a revenue to be applied to our own 
purposes of $33,647. The assessments this year 
amount to $3,170,693, probably to be increased. But 
suppose we calculate from the figures we have, as the 
law now stands, any one can sec that the county por- 
tion of therevenue will amount to $52,305; the State . 
j'Ortion of the revenue this year being sixty cents on 
the $100 instead of seventy cents, as last year. 

assessor's report, 1858. 

The Assessor, in his report to the Surveyor-Gen- 
eral in October, 1858, congratulated the people of 
Placer upon the increase of property, good business 
and continued prosperity. The number of far iis had 
increased to 300; the value of livestock had become 
$443,542; there were 35 canals, with an aggregate 
length of 550 miles, assessed at $283,160; 22 saw- 
mills, that cut 35,000,000 feet of lumber, and assessed 
at $58,400; 17 turnpike roads and bridges, 8 of 
which were assessed at $59,500; 13 quartz mills. 
11 of which were assessed at $32,000. There 
were 131 individuals and companies who paid taxes 
on $4,000 and upwards, being assessed in the aggre- 
gate $1,143,328. The total amount reported was 
$2,787,473, and the rate of taxation was 60 cents 
for State and $1.65, per $100, for county purposes. 

supervisors' report, FEBRUARY, 1859. 

The Board of Supervisors, February 7, 1859, 
ordered the tax levy to be fixed at $2.25 for the ensu- 
ing year on each $100 worth of property, being 60 
cents for the State, 40 cents for the General Fund, 90 
cents for the Special Fund, 25 for Indigent Sick 
Fund, 7 for School Fund and 3 for Road Fund. Dur- 
ing the last quarter warrants had been drawn to the 
amount of $11,737, and redeemed to the amount of 
$17,889.83. Bids for surrendering warrants to the 
RedemiHion Fund ranged from 81 cents to par, at 
which latter figure over $5,000 worth were pur- 
chased. 

COUNTY debt. 

June 2, 1859, occurred the change of officers of the 
county, at which time an account of the debt and 



FINANCIAL HISTORY 



155 



cash was made. The debt outstanding was found 
to be $60,94:3, and the cash on hand $7,648.56, leav- 
ing a total indebtedness of 653,294.44. Scrip was 
redeemed by the Redemption Fund at the rate of 
83f cents. 

ASSESSMENT ROLL, 1859. 

The assessment roll of the taxable property for 
1859 showed a total value, real and personal of •S2,- 
985,538. By a decision of the Supremo Court, min- 
ing claims were rendered exempt from taxation, and 
were not assessed in IS.'jO. There was also a decline 
in ditch property; the American River Water Com- 
pany's ditch, which in 1858 had been assessed at 
.-*100,000, was reduced to ¥75,000, and the Auburn 
and Bear River ditch from .?75,000 to !(?50,000. Live- 
stock was assessed at •ir529,441. Seven quartz mills 
were reported, worth S12,450. Thirty mining ditches 
with a total length of 592 miles, and capacity of 
carrying 7,150 inches of water, were assessed at 
•'?258,025. Ten turnpikes with an aggregate length 
of forty-one miles were assessed at •'?50,450. Not- 
withstanding the decline in ditch property, and the 
exemption of mines, the total assessment exceeded 
that of the preceding year !?1 98,065. 

November 7, 1859, the Collector paid into the 
Treasury .*31,000, being collections from property 
tax and foreign miners' licenses during the month 
of October, the largest amount ever paid in at one 
time in the history (;f the county. 

SUrERVISORs' REPORT, NOVEMBER, 1859. 

The Redemption Fund in November contained 
$15,828.41, for which scrip was surrendered at rates 
ranging from 95 to 98 cents on the dollar. This 
high rate of the county jjaper prevented any great 
saving to the county. 

By the report of the Auditor in June, there were 
outstanding warrants to the amount of 860,945.84, 
and issued up to November 1, 1859, !'?15,929.47, 
making a total of •'775,875.31. In the meantime 
there had been redeemed $17,910.84, leaving an 
indebtedness November Ist of $57,964.47. During 
the session of the Board, iifl0,573.23 of bills were 
allowed, and more than $15,828 redeemed by the 
Redemption Fund, and other payments reduced the 
debt to about $46,000, a large reduction from the 
debt of two years previous. This favorable condition 
was in bright contrast to most of the other counties, 
particularly the mining counties, whose dependence 
had been so much on the foreign miner's tax. El 
Dorado, which a few years before had boasted of 
entire freedom from debt, was at this time ii?103,000 
in debt, and Tuolumne, another of the counties that 
had surpassed Placer in population and revenue was 
$150,000 in debt, with a revenue of $45,000, and of 
Nevada with a debt of $112,274. 

REPORTS AND TAXES. 1860. 

The Board of Supervisors in February, 1860, fixed 
the rate of taxation at sixty cents for State purposes, 



and $1.40 for county purposes, making a total of 
$2.00 on the $100 of valuation. On the 2d of June 
the County Treasurer advertised that he would 
redeem scrip up to No. 2,618, which had been issued 
three years previously. Soon after that was issued, 
the Redemption Fund was instituted by which the 
amounts left outstanding were kept down. 

June 4th, the citizens of Auburn voted a subscrip" 
tion of $50,000 to the stock of the Sacramento. 
Placer and Auburn Railroad, but this did not become 
a county indebtedness. On the 27th of the same 
month, the people of the county voted adversely to 
a subscription of $250,000, part to the same railroad, 
and the remainder to other rail and wagon road 
projects, which matter is more fully noticed in the 
chapter on Railroads in this book. 

November 13, 1860, the Assessor made his report, 
showing a total assessment of $3,080,081, of which 
$889,953 was for real estate and improvements. 
$63,500 for eleven turnpikes and bridges, $5,000 for 
three bridges disconnected with turnpikes, $7,800 
for five quartz mills, $59,100 for thirteen steam and 
nine water-power saw-mills, cutting 20,056,000 feet 
of lumber, $217,000 for twenty three ditches having 
a total length of 394 miles, and $545,914 for the 
value of live-stock. Ditch property declined in value, 
although one large ditch leading from Canon Creek, 
a tributary to the north fork of the American 
River, had been added to the list. Agriculture and 
horticulture were rapidly increasing, although the 
number of acres reported as taken up was but 102.- 
503, a much le.ss amount than reported claimed bj' 
Assessor Smith several years before. The tax rate 
of $2.00 for county purposes brought a direct revenue 
of $61,601.62, less by near $6,000 than the revenue 
derived from the previous year's assessment, when 
the tax rate was $2.25 on the $100. 

An examination of the Auditor's books made in 
December showed the indebtedness to be about 
$25,000, and there were $8,000 in the Treasury at 
the same time. Upon this the Placer Ihmld says: 

We congratulate our taxpayers upon the healthy 
financial condition of our county, which is better 
than that of any other county in the State of like 
population and property, and would remind them 
that this state of things has been brought about by 
the Democraej^ who have held the reins of power 
for three years and a half During this lime rigid 
economy has been exercised, and as a result the debt 
is now comparatively small. Having discharged the 
trust reposed in them faithfully and well, the Democ- 
racy have now given way to the new regime, and 
we earnestly hope that thej^ will conduct county 
affairs as economically aud as successfully as their 
predecessors. In order to reduce the enormous debt 
that has hung over the county in the past, the Super- 
visors found it necessary to keep up the annual prop- 
erty tax to a high figure, and from the 3'ear 1854 to 
1860 the tax was held at $2.25 on the $100 valuation 
of property. For the year ISOO it was reduced to 
$2.00, and when fixing it at that amount the Super- 
visors believed that the debt would be so far reduced 
during the current year, that in 1861 the State and 



I5fi 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



county tax might be fixed at SL50 on the 8100. We 
think that the}' were about correct in their opinion, 
and that the present condition of oui» finances de- 
mands that the Supervisors should afford this relief 
to our long-burdened taxpayers. 

At the close of the year there were reported 1,440 
school children in the county, and the county's poi'- 
tion of the State School Fund was §1,224, being at 
the rate of eighty-five cents for each child reported 
by the Census Marshal. 

FINANCES IN 1861. 

The Supervisors in February established the rate 
of taxation i'or the ensuing year at S2.00 on the $100 
valuation, of which sixty cents was the State levy. 
Scrip was purchased by the Redemption Fund at 
rates ranging from ninety-three cents to par; at 
the former rate there being a bid to surrender S3. 00, 
while over $5,000 of the $7,775 was redeemed at 
par, showing the favorable condition of the county 
finances. 

The State Controller's report of January 1st, stated 
the entire amount received into the State Treasury 
since the organization of the government to be 
$9,454,964, of which Placer had paid $282,309.91, 
being the sixth county in order of amounts paid. 
The five counties whose payments had exceeded 
Placer were San Francisco, Sacramento, El Dorado, 
Yuba and San Joaquin. All of these counties' were 
formed in 1850, and until Placer was organized the 
citizens of the county had paid their taxes into 
Sutter and Yuba Counties, otherwise the payments 
would have exceeded those of San Joaquin, placing 
Placer fifth on the list. This was regarded as impor- 
tant, as the large agricultural cjunties were con- 
stantly complaining of the mining counties for not 
bearing their share of the financial burdens of the 
State. 

The County Treasurer, on the 30th of March, 1861, 
reported $7,814.08 cash on hand belonging to the 
county, and the amount of outstanding warrants to 
be $22,714.54. In May he reported $20,019.40 due 
on registered warrants, and $8,335.48 in the Treasury 
for county purposes; $5,039.82 belonging to the 
Redemption Fund, with which $5,306.07 of scrip was 
redeemed. Monthly statements were made through- 
out the year, showing a gradual redemption of the 
debt, and 1861 saw Placer County practically out of 
debt, and with a large surplus in the Treasury. The 
statement of the 1st of January, 1862, closing the 
year and eliminating the debt, was as follows: — 

Amount of cash received during the 

month from all sources $ 47,852 18 

For State purposes- 14,974 31 

For county purposes 32,877 87 

AMOUNT PAID OUT OF EACH FUND FOK COUNTY PURPOSES. 

General Fund ._.$ 6,977 42 

Redemption Fund 434 37 

Hospital Fund 220 97 

School Fund 50 00 



School District Fund 562 48 

Road District Fund 756 57 

County Judge Fund 48 

County Clerk's Fund 9 60 

Estates of deceased persons - 03 

Total amount paid for county purposes.. $ 8,961 92 
Amount paid the State. 14,900 00 

AMOUNT OF CASH ON HAND IN EACH OF THE COUNTT FUNDS. 

General Fund.... $ 3,681 14 

Redemption Fund 16,234 63 

Hospital Fund 3,935 08 

School Fund... 2,728 46 

School Districts Fund 1,532 33 

Road Districts Fund 1,518 10 

Indian Fund.... 37 60 

County Judges' Fund _ 25 29 

County Clerk's Fund 310 23 

Estates of deceased persons 120 81 

Nevada County 40 74 

Total amount belonging to the county on 

hand. ... $30,216 64 

Total amount of outstanding registered 

warrants 560 50 

The above statement shows the amount of $29,- 
056.14 cash on hand over the indebtedness. Placer 
County was out of debt, money in the Treasury, and 
pro])erty increasing in value. Only one other county 
of the State — Napa — could boast of the same condi- 
tion. This was a subject of great rejoicing, being 
accomplished while many other mining counties 
were rapidly accumulating indebtedness, resulting in 
their subsequent declining in population and wealth 
to the verge of bankruptcy. The means and acts 
bringing this fine result were the'constant discussion 
of the subject by an intelligent press, economy in the 
officers, industry and care in the Assessors and Col- 
lectors, and favorable special legislation. The 
Redemption Fund saved $2,600; the reduction of the 
salary of the County Judge from $4,500 to $2,000 saved 
$10,000; District Attorney's fees, $4,500; by division 
of the offices of Clerk and Recorder, and paying 
salary instead of fees and percentages, $33,000 was 
saved; reducing Board of Supervisors, $5,000 saved; 
and the restoration of licenses of ninth and tenth 
classes, $24,000 recovered; making an aggregate of 
$108,500, and paying the debt without an increase 
of taxation. 

By a statute of the Legislature, Assessors were 
elected in 1860 for each county, and these reported 
the assessable property of each for 1861 as follows: 

Township No. 1 $ 122,973 40 

" 2 - 236,066 69 

" 3... 687,007 50 

" 4 .. 414,404 00 

" 5 -. 591,626 20 

" 6 261,101 20 

"7 297,725 75 

" 8 . 54,053 70 

" 9... 151,781 75 

"10 408,528 97 

Total for the county. $3,225,248 96 

Increase for the year 145,167 96 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



157 



The classifications were: real estate, S503,033; 
improvements, §644,155.50; personal property, 
$2,078,080.40. The total amount of revenue received 
in the Treasurj^ for State and county purposes during 
the year 1861 was 8157,856.29. 

TAXATION IN 1862. 

The debt having been paid, and money accumulating 
in the Treasury, gave the opportunity for a reduction 
of the taxes, and accordingly the Board of Supervisors, 
at their session in March, 1862, levied a State tax 
of 62 cents on each $100, and for county purposes, 
73 cents, as follovcs: for the General Fund, 30 cents; 
Eedemption Fund, 10 centu; Hospital Fund, 15 cents, 
and School Fund, 18 cents, and a Federal tax of 15 
cents, or a total of $1.50 upon each $100, being 50 
cents less than the levy of the previous year, and 
without the Federal tax, a reduction of 65 cents. 

The exigencies of the General Government caused 
by the war of the Eebellion created a new system of 
taxation by the Federal Government, and under 
Federal officials. The system of Internal Eevenue 
was established, whereby every class of business, 
professions or incomes were licensed or taxed. The 
amount collected in Placer County between Septem- 
ber 1, 1862, and January 1, 1863, was about $50,000. 

The assessed valuation of the property for the 
year was $3,006,453.27, uj^on which a tax was levied 
of $18,640 for State purposes, and $21,947.10 for 
county purposes — a total property tax of $40,587.10. 
The total amount received into the County Treasury 
from all sources was $125,914.56. At the close of 
the j'ear there was of county money in the Treasury, 
$46,988.07, and $1,535.19 belonging to the State. 
The outstanding warrants amounted to $391.80. 
Eich Placer ! 

THE FINANCES IN 1863. 

At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors in Feb- 
ruary, 1863, the tax rate for the ensuing year was 
fixed at 35 cents for each $100, for county pur- 
poses, apportioned as follows: General County and 
Eedemption Fund, 5 cents; County Hospital, 10 cents; 
and School Fund, 20 cents. The State and Federal 
tax was fixed by the Legislature at 92 cents, making 
a total of $1.27. 

Irregularities, supposed from incompetency or 
carelessness, were found in the books of the Auditor, 
and suit was ordered against him and his sureties for 
a balance of $1,490.18, claimed as due. 

A road tax of $2.00 was levied on all able-bodied men 
in the county between the ages of twenty-one and 
sixty years. The Board of Supervisors also ordered 
an addition to the County Jail, and an expenditure 
sufficient to supply the county officers with such 
Federal Internal Eevenue stamps as the recent laws 
required. These were extra items of expenditure. 

An Act for the better protection of the Treasury 
of Placer County was passed by the Legislature, and 
approved April 6, 1863, under which the District 
Attorney and Supervisors were constituted a Board of 



Examiners to count the money in the Treasury and 
compare the result with the various books. 

The same Legislature passed an Act authorizing 
an election to be held May 12, 1863, on the proposi- 
tion for the county to subscribe $250,000 to the capital 
stock of the Central Pacific Eailroad Company. This 
election was held as ordered, and the proposition 
carried by a vote of 2,117 for, and 1,696 against, 
being a majority of 421 in a total of 3,813 votes. 
This subscription was paid in bonds drawing eight 
per cent, per annum interest from the date of their 
issue. In return for this the railroad company 
promised to add directly to the assessable prop- 
erty of the county $9,000,000, and indirectly much 
more from the profits arising in building it, and the 
impi'ovements that would naturally follow its con- 
struction. 

During the year 1863, 8200,000 of railroad bonds 
were issued, upon which the interest was paid in 
the February following, and payable every six 
months thereafter. 

The assessed valuation of all property for the year 
was §3,071,911.78, yielding a revenue of §38,898.26. 
The total amount received in the county Treasury 
during the year was §131,132.98, exclusive of com- 
missions and mileages to collectors amounting to 
§18,698.78; the largest amount from any one source 
being from foreign miners' licenses, of which the 
Board of Supervisors reported 15,000 sold, yielding 
a revenue of §60,000. The expenditures for county 
purposes was §84,350. January 1, 1864, there was 
§17,416.73 in the County Treasury, and of scrip 
outstanding §287.05 

EDGAR M. BANVARU 

Was born in the city of New York, December 31, 
1820, and, at the tender age of five years, 
removed with his parents to Cincinnati, Ohio, 
and five years later removed to Louisville, Ken- 
tucky. In the latter city he attended the High 
School, and laid the foundation for the education 
he acquired in after years. In October, 1834, 
he went with his parents to the State of 
Illinois, and located at Peoria, then a decidedly new 
country. The following year he was engaged as 
book-keeper and salesman for a general merchandis- 
ing establishment, a position he held until September, 
1852. Desiring a change, he concluded to join the 
throng who were seeking their fortunes on the 
Pacific Coast, and took passage in the steamer Inde- 
pendence, Captain Lucas, Commander, coming to Cali- 
fornia by the Nicaragua route. He arrived in San 
Francisco, November 10, 1852, and, unlike the major- 
ity of the pioneers, he devoted himself to agricul- 
tural pursuits. He engaged in farming on the 
Peralta gi-ant, situated on San Leandro Creek, in 
Alameda County. In May, 1855, he came to Auburn, 
Placer County, in company with his old Peoria 
friend, Dr. J. E. Craudall, and was afterward 
appointed Deputy County Treasurer, under that 



138 



HISTORY OF PLA.CER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, 



geiiiloman. Mr. Banviird received the same position 
under Piiilip Stoner, and, in 1860, was elected to the 
responsible position of County Treasurer, on what 
was known as the Union Democratic ticket, and 
re-elected in 1862. During the succeeding two years 
after the expiration of his term of oflBcc, he was 
engaged in various kinds of business, and, in 1866, 
removed to Alta, a station on the Central Pacific 
Railroad, where he purchased the Depot Hotel, and 
has since been the genial landlord of the well-known 
Banvard's Hotel. In 1869 he was elected State Sen- 
ator from Placer County, on the Democratic ticket, 
for a term of four years, and, during the two ses- 
sions, was Chairman of the Finance Committee. He 
now gives his whole attention to his hotel business. 
He was married in January, 1851, to Miss Abbie 
Shurtleflf, only daughter of Milton Shurtleff, of Taze- 
well County, Illinois. There are two children by 
this union, Louis H., born June 6, 1852. and Charles, 
born June 7, 1857. 

FINANCES IN 1864. 

The first statement of the Treasurer in February, 
1864. showed the total amount of railroad bonds 
issued, placing the county i?250,000 in debt. Of the 
amount of expenditures of the previous year, $2,250 
paid in aid of the military companies raised in the 
county, was returned to the county in 1864. 

This is distinguished as the year of heaviest 
taxation in the history of the county. Added to the 
ordinaiy expenses were the railroad bonds, for 
which a fund must be provided; the direct tax 
imposed by the National Government which the 
State had assumed; a fund for the construction of 
the State Capitol; a fund for the relief of soldiers, 
and for the insane, making a total of 83.71 (>n each 
§100. In addition to this was the general poll-tax 
of 82.00, a road tax of 82.00, military tax of §2.00, 
and a special head tax of 82.00, to pay the interest 
on the railroad bonds. The asse.ssed valuation of 
property was 82,977,061.50, a great decline upon 
the valuation of the preceding 3'ear. 

The County Auditor reported the net amount of 
revenue collected from all sources for the year 
ending December 31, 1864, to have been 8181,081.63, 
exclusive of commissions and mileage to collectors, 
equal to a tax of 847.66 upon each voter, and of 
about sixteen per cent, of the assessed valuation of 
all the property of the county. 

CONTEST WITH THE R.\ILRO.\D FOR T.\XES. 

With the assessments and collections of 1864 
began the financial war with the Central Pacific 
Railroad Company that has continued through all 
the intervening years and threatens a culmination 
disastrous either to popular government or corporate 
wealth and power. Another " irrepressible conflict " 
has arisen between the people as individuals, and 
incorporated bodies, wherein the latter, gorged by 
wealth and made arrogant by success, become crazed 
by insatiable greed until by their exactions and 



oppressions they force the remedy that brings their 
own ruin. 

In 1863, Leland Stanford, President of the Central 
Pacific Railroad Company had, as Governor of Cali- 
fornia, approved a bill which ordered an election to be 
held in Placer County on the 2d of April of that 
year on the proposition to subscribe 8250,000 to the 
stock of the Company, and while the election was 
pending used every eftbrt of personal and political 
power and the free use of money to carry it success- 
fully. In an address published by the authority of 
the railroad company, the assurance was given that 
the construction of the road would add 89,000,000 
to the taxable property of the county, which, at the 
low rale of thirty-five cents on the §100 for county 
purposes, would yield a revenue of 831,500, or 811,- 
500 per annum more than the interest on the 
8250,000 of bonds asked for. As so large a stock- 
holder,— $250,000 being more than any or all the 
corporators had paid — would, or should, give Placer 
an equivalent share in the road with all its property, 
grants, subsidies and profits, 89,000,000 worth of 
which would be within the county and taxable, 
making it the wealthiest county in the State, its 
individuals almost free from taxation, funds for 
schools, libraries, free roads and bridges, public 
buildings and improvements of every kind desired 
by an intelligent, progressive, well-governed com- 
raunitj'. The proposition was accepted. 

But such were not the results so plausibly prom- 
ised and so confidently hoped for. In 1864, sixteen 
miles of railroad, extending from the county border 
to Newcastle was assessed by the Assessor at the 
rate of 820,000 a mile, aggregating 8320,000, and 
upon other railroad property $78,815, making a total 
assessment of 8398,815. Instead of paying the tax 
upon this assessment, the officers of the company 
swore the property was worth but 86,000 per mile 
of road, and 843,000 as the value of all their other 
property in the county. Upon this the Stars (ind 
Stripes remarked: — 

On an examination of the books of S. M. Stevens, 
Assessor of Township No. 3, we find the sworn 
statement of Mr. Miller, Secretary- of the C. P. R. 
R. Co.. dated July 14, 1864, in which the sixteen 
miles of track in Placer County is valued at 86,ihmi 
per mile, and our county's proportion (0.516) of tli ■ 
rolling stock and other property at 843,000. W . 
must confess that this exhibit produced somewhat 
stunning and stupifjing eftects upon us. When wl' 
reflected that over and above State and county aid. 
forty-eitjht thousand dollars a mile had to be doubled 
to insure the building of the road, together with laml 
enough for a Principality, to result in the construe 
tion of property worth but six thousand, it seems 
very much like pouring water into a sieve. 

The sworn statements returned according to law 
to our Board of Supervisors, show an expenditure 
(for Placer County proportion) of 8724,914.22 up to 
October 22, 1863, since which time a large portion 
of the most expensive work has been done — enough 
probably to reach an aggregate of one million dollars, 
and yet this immense expenditure produces taxable 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



159 



property to the value of but one hundred and thirty- 
nine thousand dollars. 

The report that the Directors of the railroad 
company had issued millions of stock to themselves, 
was regarded as too groat a calumny to be enter- 
tained, and was scouted as ridiculous. Notwith- 
standing these expressed opinions, the Board of 
Supervisors were requested to, and did appoint a 
commission consisting of Felix B. Higgins and James 
B. Hale, to examine the books of the company and 
report the result, also to ascertain if the report was 
true that the Directors named in the grants by 
Congress had assumed said grants to be the individ- 
ual property of those named, and had sold the land, 
subsidies, franchise, etc. to the Company for large 
amounts of the paid up capital stock of the Company. 
The order of appointment was rescinded at a sub- 

■sequent meeting of the Board, and nothing resulted 
from the movement but to arouse the feelings and 
indignation of the people. 

The Supervisors, as a Board of Equalization placed 
the assessment of railroad property at $252,011. 
The company returned their property at §41,280 for 

i their rolling stock, |2,250 for buildings, and sixteen 

'miles of road at S6,000 per mile aggregating $130,- 

' 530. 

The conclusion of the various assessments . and 
equalizations left the total assessment of the property 
of the county for 18G-t at $2,977,061.50, upon which 
the State tax was $1.25, and county tax $2.46, total 
$3.71 on each $100 of valuation. 

TAX LEVY, 1865. 

The tax levy made in February, 1865, was as fol- 
i lows: By the State, for interest and general purposes, 
I 48} cents; for interest and Sinking Fund of 1857, 30 
I cents; for interest and Sinking Fund of 18C0, I] 
'cents; for State Capitol, 5 cents; for Soldiers' Relief 
[Fund, 4 cents; for aid to Central Pacific Railroad, 8 
' cents; for benefit of line officers California Volun 
I teers, 1 cent; for Soldiers' Bounty Fund, 12 cents; for 
school purposes, 5 cents, making the State tax $1.15: 
'county tax $1.25; railroad interest tax, 20 cents; 
I total $2.60. Besides the property tax there was 
j levied and ordered collected poll tax, $2.00; road tax, 
j $2.00; military tax, $2.00, and railroad interest tax, 
I $2.00, of all liable to poll tax. In addition were the 
I usual licenses, county, State and Federal, with reve- 
I nue stamps attached to all papers of business, and a 
{ tax upon incomes exceeding $600 of 5 per cent., and 
I over $5,000 10 per cent, making the burdens of gov- 
ernment severely felt. A slight consolation appeared 
in the fact that the property tax was $1.11 less than 
the one of the previous year. Those, however, were 
war times, as commonly remarked, greenback times 
with gold at a premium, recently of 246 per cent., 
railroad building times, Washoe and Keese River 
silver mining times, and high hopes, rushing busi- 
ness, and excitement ruled generally. 



RAILROAD ASSESSMENT. 

In September the Assessors made their returns of 
property assessed — personal at $1,529,268, and real 
estate at $1,034,711, not including the property of 
the Central Pacific Railroad Company or the property 
of the California Central Railroad Company, nor the 
Donner Lake Wagon Road. The property of the 
Central Pacific Railroad Company was assessed at 
$388,500, there being at the date of the assessment 
27A miles of road in the county. Against this the 
following complaint was made to the Board of 
Equalization by the District Attorney: — 

State of California, } , 
County op Placer, j '''*■ 
Charles A. Tweed, District Attorney of Placer 
County, says the valuation of the property herein- 
after described, assessed by the Assessor of District 
No. 2, of Placer County, in his assessment for the 
fiscal year a. d. 1865, to the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company of California, is too small. That the real 
estate and improvements in said assessment roll 
described as fifteen and one-half miles of railroad, 
commencing at the southwest boundary line of 
Placer County, running thence through Roseville, 
Rocklin and Pino to New Castle, and by said Assessor 
valued and so assessed at $156,000, is in fact of far 
greater value than that sum, and is, as the com- 
plainant believes, of the value of $232,500, and that 
the real estate in said assessment roll, described as 
twelve miles of railroad, commencing at New Castle 
and running easterly, passing Auburn Station, to 
Clipper Ga]), and by said Assessor valued and so 
assessed to said railroad company at $120,000, is in 
fact of far greater value than that sum, and is, as 
complainant believes, of the value of $180,000, and 
that the followin ; described personal property, also 
assessed to the said Central Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany of California, towit: Six locomotives and 
seventy-six cars, valued at $125,000. Whole length 
of railroad, thirty-one miles, of which Placer County 
is entitled to one-half, valued and so assessed by said 
Assessor at $62,500, is in fact of far greater value 
than that sum, and is, as complainant believes, of 
the value of $75,000, and complainant prays your 
honorable body to change and correct said valuations 
in accordance with the true value of said property. 

The additional assessments on property in the 
division below New Castle was depot building at 
New Castle, $1,750; raih-oad iron, spikes, etc., $3,000; 
railroad ties at Roseville, $17,500; twenty-five horses 
and carts, $2, 500; grading implements, !i?700, and the 
personal property above New Castle, $17,500, The 
complaint of the District Attorney brought on a 
controversy, and Leland Stanford, the President, and 
E. B. Crocker, the attorney of the railroad company, 
appeared before the Board of Equalization and 
insisted the road should be assessed at 86,000 per 
mile for the fifteen and one-half miles and that the 
assessment on remaining part of the road should be 
rescinded, threatening that if these demands were not 
complied with they would go into the next Legisla- 
ture and have a law passed exempting all persons 
working upon the railroad from payment of poll tax, 
by which the county woul;i lose more than the differ- 
ence in valuation. 



160 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



In response to this the action of the Board was as 
follows: — 

Board of Equalization, Tuesda}-, Nov. 14, 1S65. 

In the matter of the complaint of C. A. Tweed, 
Esq., relative to the assessment of the property of 
the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, 
after hearing the evidence in the case, it is hereby 
ordered that the assessment stand as given in by the 
railroad company to the Assessor in their statement 
made the 27th of March, the value of the road being 
fixed at SG,000 per mile, and that the assessment of 
property of said company in the county acquired 
since the statement given on the 27th day of March, 
and as regards the assessment of the road above 
New Castle be and is hereby ignored. 

At the date of this decree the company owned 
forty miles of railroad in the county, which they 
were operating at a great profit, and was com- 
monly estimated as worth more than §40,000 per 
mile. The result of the assessments and equaliza- 
tion left the value of the property of the county for 
taxable purposes at 82,825,208, taxed for State, 
County, and all purposes at S2.60 on each SIOO. 

TAXATION IN 1866. 

The tax levy for 1866 was State $1.13, and county 
•SI. 42, including all purposes, making a total of §2.55 
on each 8100. The Legislature authorized a special 
poll tax of §2.00 in Placer County, for the benefit 
of schools, and three other poll taxes were levied, 
the military poll tax law having been repealed. 

The valuation of proi>erty, as returned by the 
Board of Equalization, was, real estate and improve- 
ments, §1,710,805; personal property, §1,981,556.21. 
a total of §3,692,391.21. The Assessor had assessed 
the Central Pacific Railroad at the rate of §6,000 
per mile, and all property of the company aggre- 
gating §243,000. This amount was raised by the 
Board of Equalization to §607,500. upon which the 
railroad companj' refused to pay taxes, and suit was 
instituted against them. The California Central 
Railroad, assessed at §40,000, and the Yuba Railroad, 
assessed at §10,000, were also delinquent, and were 
sued for the payment of taxes. 

At that time, the California Central Railroad ex- 
tended from Folsom to Lincoln, although operated 
only from Roseville Junction to Lincoln; and the 
Yuba Railroad was the extension of the former, then 
in course of construction, by a company organized 
in Marj-sville, under the superintendency of Col. 
(jharles L. Wilson, the owner and builder of the 
California Central. 

In the suit for taxes a verdict was obtained in the 
Fourteenth Judicial District Court in favor of the 
countj', but the case was appealed to the Supi-eme 
Court by the railroad company. No decision was 
reached during the year, and in the following year a 
compromise was effected, placing the assessment of 
the Central Pacific Railroad at §6,000 per mile, and 
remitting all that had been raised by the Board of 
Equalization. With these results the property valu- 
ation for the year was §3,327,861.21. 



LEGAL DISTANCES. 



Legal distances for which jurymen could draw 
mileage and amounts allowed thereon, March 5, 
1866:— 



Beals Bar 

Carrollton 

Fountain House. , 

Dotans Bar 

Rofseville 

Rocklin 

Auburn- Station. 

Pine Grove 

Xew Castle 

.Stewart's Flat. . . 
F"rauklin House. . 

Ophir 

Doty's Fiat 

tJold Hill 

Virginia 

Lincoln 

Fullers 

Union Shed .... 

Cox Ranch 

Dunn Shed 

Wilsontown 

Neilsburg 

Lisbon 

Illinoistown .... 

Colfax 

Maddens Station. 

(Jold Run 

Dutch Flat .... 
Herberts Station. 
Zerts Ranch. ... 
Wils'in's Ranch. . 

Rattlosn.ike 

Rock Creek 



$i 80 

3 90 

4 80 

3 60 
6 00 

4 80 
•2 10 
2 70 

1 20 

2 10 
2 70 
1 20 

1 50 

2 40 

3 00 

4 20 
6 00 

6 30 
4 20 

7 20 
3 60 
1 80 
3 60 
6 00 

6 00 

7 50 
7 70 
9 60 

10 50 

12 30 

13 80 
1 50 

90 



Wells 

Orrs 

• irizzly Bear House. 
Butcher Ranch. ... 

Oregon Bar 

U. S. House 

Smiths Ranch 

Sp\ing Garden 

North Star House. 

Todds Valley 

Yankee Jim's 

Forest Hill 

Bath 

Bakers Rauch 

Michigan Bluff.. . . . 

Damascus 

Forks House 

Secret Spring House 
Upp.-r Horse Shoe Bar 

Birds Valley 

Deadivood 

Devil's Basin 

Last Chance 

Blacksmith Flat. . 

Antoine Canon 

Iowa Hill 

Monona Flat 

Grizzly Flat 

Wisconsin Hill 

Mineral Bar 

Green Valley 

.Sijuaw Valley 

Tahoe City . . 



SI 50 

1 80 

2 70 

3 30 
3 60 

3 90 

4 20 

4 80 

5 40 

6 00 
6 00 

6 60 

7 20 

7 80 
9 00 

10 80 

10 20 

12 00 

8 10 
8 40 

11 10 

11 70 

13 20 
13 SO 

12 90 
8 40 

8 70 

9 00 
9 00 
6 90 

10 20 
22 20 
24 00 



TAX LEVY IN 1867. 

The tax levied in February for 1867 was as 
follows: State tax, §1.13, County General Fund, 60 
cents. Redemption Fund, 20 cents, railroad interest, 
7 cents, schools, 12 cents, hospitals. 10 cents, a total of 
§2.25 on each §100. The poll taxes were the same 
as the previous year. 

Of the property reported by the As sessor were 20 
quartz-mills with 346 stamps, which had beea ere cted 
at a cost of §335,000; 26 mining ditches whose 
original cost was §1,628.000, 3 flouring-mills and 30 
saw-mills. 

The valuation of the property in the county, for 
the j'ear, as reported by the Recorder in October, 
from the returns of the Assessors was: For real 
estate and improvements §2,110,200, and for personal 
property §1,996,482, being a total of §4,106,682, being 
an increase over the preceding year of §414,291. 
Upon this the amount of tax levied was: For State 
purposes §46,405.30, and for count}- purposes §45,- 
094.95, a total of §92,400.25. 

CENTRAL PACIFIC CONTROVERSY. 

The suit against the railroad company tor the 
taxes levied in the year 1866 was still pending, 
awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court. The 
following pi'oceedings of the Board of Supervisors at 
their session held November 8, 1867, explain them- 
selves: — 




E. M. Banvard. 



FINANCIAL HISTORY 



161 



Board met as Board of Equalization of Supple- 
mental Assessment Rolls. 

Lcland Stanford, President, and Robert Robinson, 
Attorney of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, 
appeared before the Board and made the following 
statement and proposition in writing: — 

To ihe Board of Supervisors of Placer County — 
Gentlemen: The Central Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany of California, having become involved in 
litigation with the County of Placer, in relation to 
the taxes upon its railroad for the years 18G(i and 
18G7, the Company believe and are advised that no 
taxes for said years can be legally collected, but not- 
withstanding that they do not wish to escape the 
payment of their just proportion of the taxation, 
which should be paid upon all the property of the 
State. Its road-bed and superstructures there n 
were assessed for each of those years at S6,0(>0 per 
mile, which said Company consider a fair valuation 
of the same, and they propose to pay the taxes 
thereon at once, and as often as they become due, 
if the County of Placer, by its Board of Supervisors, 
will cancel the judgment against said Company, and 
remit all the additional amount of valuation and 
tax added by the late Board of Supervisors, acting 
as a Board of Equalization for said years 1S66 and 
1867, and all suits and proceedings at law between 
the said Company and State, in relation to said taxes 
to be dismissed and cancelled. 

E. B. Crocker and' Robert Robinson, 
Attorneys forC. P. R. R. Co. of Cal. 

And now, the Board having had the same under 
advisement and carefully considered the same, and 
being satisfied that the assessments, as made by the 
Assessor of Revenue District Xo. 2, of Placer County, 
of the property of said Central Pacific Railroad 
Company ot California, for the fiscal years 1866 and 
1867 cannot be collected hy law, said assessment 
having been made under and hy virtue of an Act of 
the Legislature of the State of C'alifornia entitled, 
" An Act regulating the assessment and taxation of 
railroads and other roads for revenue purposes, and 
other matters relating thereto," approved April 4. 
1864, and which said Act is believed to be unconsti- 
tutional. It is therefore, on motion, ordered that 
the aforesaid proposition of the Central Pacific 
Railroad Company of California be, and the same is 
hereby accepted, and the Board of Supervisors, acting 
as a Board of Equalization, do hereby agree to 
accept from said Central Pacific Company of Califor- 
nia, the sum of six thousand one hundred and ninety 
six and 50-100 dollars (66,196.50) in full, for all 
assessment or demands against said Railroad Com- 
pany on account of State and county taxes for the 
fiscal year 1866, and 't is further ordered that the 
judgment against said Central Pacific Railroad 
Company of California, in favor of the people of the 
State of California, in the District Court of the 14th 
Judicial District, for taxes for said year be cancelled. 
And it is, on motion, further ordered that the order_ 
made by the Board of Equalization of Placer County" 
on the 22d day of August, 1867. as entered on the 
records of said Board, on pages 665 and 666, increas- 
ing the valuation of the road-bed and superstructure 
of the railroad of the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company of California, from the sum of $6,000 per 
mile to the sum of §15,000 be, and the same is 
hereby rescinded, and the Clerk of this Board is 
hereby ordered to correct the Assessment Roll of 
Revenue District No. 2 of Placer County in accord- 
ance with the foregoing order. 



The costs of litigation, interest and all losses and 
expenses fell upon the county. 

OREAT WEALTH OF THE RAILROAD CO.MPANY. 

At the time the railroad company was contesting 
the payment of its taxes, and the officers were 
swearing it worth but $6,000 per mile, its agents in 
the Eastern cities were publishing the following 
advertisement as a recommendation of its first mort- 
gage bonds:- — 

The Central Pacific Railroad enjoys all the privi- 
leges, grants, and subsidies conferred bj- the Acts of 
Congress upon the other parts of the through line, 
and has in addition, several special exclusive advan- 
tages applicable onl}- to the western half. 

I. The coin|>any received from the State and chief 
cities of California, assistance in money, credit, and 
valuable property, worth over $3,000,000 in gold, in 
addition to the full benefit of tfie Government 
subsidy. 

II. The hardest and costliest part of its construc- 
tion has been successively overcome within the first 
150 miles. In a few weeks the track will be com- 
pleted entirely aero.ss the Sierra Nevada, after 
which progress to Salt Lake will be easy and rapid. 

III. The local business alone of this road estab- 
lishes its complete financial success, independently of 
the vast through traffic which must pass over it. 
The gross earnings for the months of June and July, 
upon the ninety-four miles then open for business, 
were upwards of $297,00;i in gold, of which four- 
fifths were net earnings. 

IV. It can have no competition, but will carry, 
besides its own lucrative traffic, the lohole volxme of 
through business, which is shared among its Eastern 
connections and their branches. 

v. The road lies wholly in territory yielding the 
precious metals, and its revenues are collected in coin. 
Its rates for transportation are very advantageous, 
being more than three times those of roads lying 
east of it, and the ratio of operating is less than 
twenty-two jier cent, of the gross earnings. 

VI. In consequence of the aid it receives from the 
General Government, from the State of California, 
and from municipal corporations, the annual interest 
obligations which the company are called upon to 
assume are very light. The not earnings upon an 
average of about seventy-five miles, in 1866, were 
nearly three times the amount of annual interest liabil- 
ities to be assumed in buil/ing it, and were $235,000 
more than tht annuil interest on the entire a<nount of 
First Mortgige Bonds which the compa7iy can issue on 
the first 150 miles. 

The statement was also made by the same parties 
that the First Mortgage Bonds of $48,000 per mile, 
payable in gold, were not one-third the cash value of 
the road, or that the road was worth $144,000 per 
mile. The net profits of the roid, 94 miles in opera- 
tion, as reported by the companj- for 1867, was 
$1,261,008. 

Placer County was a stockholder in the road, but 
received no dividends or shares in any profits of oper- 
ation or speculation. 

An effort was made in December, 1867, by the 
Board of Supervisors, as representing the stock held 



162 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



by Placer County, to examine the books of the rail- 
road company to ascertain the condition of its busi- 
ness, but the examination resulted in nothing. Two 
Supervisors of the Board were satisfied with the 
exphination given by the officers of the company, 
and the other attempting a more intimate investiga- 
tion was rudi'ly repelled. 

ASSESSMENT AND TAXES IN 1868. 

The tax levy for 1868 was fixed for State at -SI. 00. 
and for county purposes at $1.10 on each 8100. 
Total, -12.10 with the usual poll taxes. 

The value of property reported by the Assessors, 
in 1868, was as follows: Personal property, 82,184,327; 
real estate, 82,567,452; total valuation, 84,751,779. 
Amount of State taxes levied upon this, §47,517; 
ccunty taxes, 852,245, and dog tax, 81,228; total, 
$100,991. 

Of this amount the First Revenue District was 
taxed 828,421, and the Second District, 854,435, and 
the Third District, 818,176. 

The Central Pacific Railroad was assessed at the 
rate of 812,000 per mile of road, and the companj- 
refused to pay the taxes, being delinquent in conse- 
quence the amount of $23,247. 

The Assessors reported eighteen saw-mills in oper- 
ation, cutting 13,000,000 feet of lumber per annum; 
twelve quartz-mills; one steam flouring-mill with two 
run of stones; thirty-six mining ditches with an 
aggregate of 379 miles of ditch; thi-ee irrigating 
ditches, irrigating eighty acres; four railroads, 
aggregating IISJ^ miles; estimated total population, 
14,300; registered voters, 4,780; poll tax collected, 
85,051. 

In January following the assessment, and on the 
demand for taxes, the railroad company tendered 
the tax at their own rate of assessment, $6,000 a 
mile of road, and the tender was refused by the 
county authorities. The railroad company was 
sued for its delinquent taxes, and judgment was 
obtained against the company, but the case was cur- 
ried on appeal, first to the Supreme Court of the 
State, where the judgment was affirmed, and then on 
a writ of review to the Supreme Court of the Uni ed 
States. 

KOBBIN'U THE TREASURER. 

During the change of County Treasurers'in June, 
a robbery of $4,000 of the county money was 
etfected, but by what means, or by whom, was never 
ascertained. The bondsmen of the retiring Treas- 
urer, Mr. J. VV. Dickerson, at once prepared to pay 
the loss, but the Board of Supervisors allowed an 
extension of eight months time to the Treasurer to 
recover the money. This was regarded as relieving 
the bondsmen. The Treasurer afterwards paid a 
portion of the loss, and ineffectual efforts were made 
to recover the balance, until, in 1872, suit was 
brought against the bondsmen, and decided, in 
December of that year, by the Supremo Court, hold- 
ing the bondsmen liable, and the money was paid. 



TAXATION IN 1869. 

The Board of Supervisors at their meeting in Feb- 
ruary, 1869, levied the following taxes on each $100 
worth of propertj': — 

State Fund $0 97 

County General Fund 63 

Redemption Fund ._ 50 

County School Fund 20 

Hospital Fund 10 

Railroad Interest Fund 10 

Total $2 50 

This was an increase of forty cents on the levy of 
the preceding year. With increasing propertj' there 
came increasing taxes. One of the causes of this , 
was the payment of the interest and providing for 
the Sinking Fund of the Central Pacific Railroad 
Bonds; and a prolific source of expenditure was the 
great increase of criminal matters caused by the 
character of people laboring on the railroad and 
brought into the county by it. Another expenditure 
was the litigation forced upon the county by the 
refusal of the railroad company to pay taxes, thus 
showing that if the railroad was the cause of a 
great increase in property valuation and revenue, it 
was also the cause of the greatly increased expendi- 
tures. At the time taxes in Placer were $2.50, in the 
adjoining county of Nevada they were but $1.70 on 
each $100. 

The salaries and perquisites of officers were high, 
the county — as also the State — pajnng far more for 
services than was paid in business life. The Legis- 
lature of 1868 passed an Act regulating salaries 
which effected a saving of quite a sum, and also 
changed the system of electing District Assessors to 
a single Assessor for the county. Under the new 
bill Supervisors were limited to $350 per annum, and 
mileage at the rate of twenty cents per mile from 
their home to the county seat. The Assessor was 
allowed 86.00 per diem, and limited to 82,500 per 
annum. The District Attorney was allowed a salary 
of $500 per annum, and fees for conviction' — 825.00 
where the punishment was death; $12.00, felony, 
88.00, misdemeanor; $50.00 for conviction of gam 
biers, etc., out of the fines imj)osed, and other receipts 
not from the county. If his receipts from official ser- 
vice exceeded $2,000 per annum, the surplus was 
turned into the County Salaiy Fund. The salary 
of County Judge was $2,000; Sheriff, 84,000; Treas- 
urer, 81,500; Clerk, $3,000; and Recorder who was 
ex officio Auditor, 82,50o. 

EXORBITANT BILLS. 

In referring to the great expenses of the county 
in bills taxed by the Sheriffs, the Herald of August 
14, 1869, publishing a bill by J. H. Ncff, then Sherif!', 

says:— 

This enormous bill was footed up against the 
county for only seventy-six working days, and 
reaches a total of 84,573.18. A. \V. Poole drew from 
the county $29,448.81 for his term of two 3-ears as 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



163 



Sheriff. The county has paid for 8,507 miles 
travel in seventy-six days, or what would make 
34,500 miles a year. The simple truth is these miles 
were never traveled, but that thousands and thous- 
ands of miles have been charged, allowed and paid 
for that were never traveled. This is one of the 
reasons that taxes are higher and the county in 
debt. 830,000 a term for the Sheriff of Placer 
County for criminal business alone ! 

RAILROAD SUITS COMPROMISED. 

In the assessment of pi-operty the Central Pacific 
Railroad was assessed at $12,000 per mile. Against 
this the company objected, and applied to the Board 
of Equalization for a reduction to $6,000 per'mile, 
with which request the Board complied at their 
meeting September 2, 1869. 

On the 28th of September, 1869, the Board of 
Supervisors ordered the dismissal of the suit 
instituted in 1868 for the taxes of that year 
at the rate of 812,000 per mile, and accepted the 
tender of the railroad company of the taxes for that 
year at the rate of an assessment of 86,000 per 
mile. The case had been tried in the District 
Court, where it was decided in favor of the county, 
and was before the Supreme Court when dismissed. 
This withdrawal, however, was made too late, and 
the suit went on. In 1872 a decision was rendered 
affirming the decision of the District Court, which 
was for 824,409.35, of which 812,785.85 was for the 
countj' and the remainder for the State. But the 
railroad company did not pay, but appealed to the 
United States Supreme Court on a writ of review. 
There it was pending until April, 1873, when it was 
I'umored a decision was about to be made and the 
railroad company withdrew its appeal. In the 
meantime C. P. Huntington and other stockholders, 
as citizens of other States, commenced suit in 
the United States Circuit Court, at San Francisco, 
to perpetually enjoin the Collectors of several coun- 
ties from collecting tax on the railroad, claiming the 
United States held such an interest in it as to render 
it exempt. The amount of taxes the payment of 
which was thus postponed amounted to about 
$100,000, for the year 1872. As a result of the 
assessment the railroad company at once increased 
the rates of freights to all points -in Placer County 
about 40 cents per ton, thus more than recovering 
all sums paid in taxation. The increase was esti- 
mated to add 8200,000 to the costs of the freight 
in the county, or 8175,000 more than the tax. 

The assessed valuation of property in 1869 was 
$3,498,164, upon which the tax levied was 82.50 per 
$100. The total receipts in the County Treasury 
from all sources was 8127,492.54, of which 846,499.66 
was for the State. 

TAXATION IN 1870. 

The tax levy for 1870 was 86i cents by the State 
and.81.73i by the county, or 82.60 on each $100. 

SALE OP THE RAILROAD STOCK. 

Numerous statements were published dnring the 



j'ear 1869 showing the earnings of the Central 
Pacific Eailroad, and proving that Placer County, 
as a stockholder, was entitled to upwards of 8300,- 
000 in dividends of working profit, and some millions 
of dollars if sharing proportionately with the other 
stockholders. In view of this claim a movement 
was made for the purchase of the stock by the 
company, and an amendment to the Act of 1866, 
authorizing Placer to sell the stock, was passed by 
the Legislature in April, 1870, authorizing the sale 
of the stock "upon such terms and conditions as 
shall to said Board of Supervisors, to be declared by 
a unanimous vote thereof, be deemed expedient and 
for the best interest of said county, provided that 
said sale shall be for cash and in gold coin of the 
United States, or in exchange of said stock, or 
portion thereof, for the railroad bonds of said 
county," etc. 

In accordance with this Act the following pro- 
ceedings ofthe Board of Supervisors are recorded: — 

Auburn, April 13, 1870. 
Office of the County Clerk of Placer County, State 
of California, and ex officio Clerk of the Board 
of Supervisors of said County: 
It appearing to the satisfaction of the undersigned 
that it is proper and necessary that a special meet- 
ing of the Board of Supervisors of Placer County 
should be called and hold for the transaction of 
the business of said county, it is by them hereby 
ordered that such special meeting be called and held 
at the office of the County Clerk of Placer County, 
in Auburn, in said county, at the hour of 2 o'clock 
p. M. of this the 13th day of April, 1870, for the 
purpose of said Board taking action in reference to 
the sale of the 2,500 shares of the capital stock of 
the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, 
owned and held by said county, and for determining 
and fixing the price, terms and conditions of the 
said sale of said stock. 

Wm. Van Vactor, Chairman, 
W. H. Kinder. 
J. D. Pratt. 

The Board of Supei'visors met this Wednesday, 
April 13, 1870, in pursuance to the above call for the 
business above specified. 

Present: Wm. Van Vactor, Chairman, W. H. 
Kinder, J. D. Pratt and G. G. Sewell, Clerk. 

J. D. Pratt ottered the following resolution: 

Whereas, D. O. Mills & Co, bankers of the Citj- 
of Sacramento have this daj- proposed to purchase 
the 2.500 shares of the capital stock of the Central 
Pacific Railroad of California, now owned and held 
bj the County of Placer, at the price of 8250,000, in 
gold coin of the United States, the receipt whereof 
is hereby confessed, and upon the further under- 
standing and agreement on the ]>art of said county 
that the said D. O. Mills ct Co. may, and it shall be 
their privilege as a part of their contract, at any 
time within four months from the date of this order, 
and from time to time, present and deliver to this 
Board the outstanding railroad bonds of said county 
so many thereof as they may be able to procure 
within said time, and receive therefor from said 
county in gold coin of the United States, the full 
amount which said bonds may call for upon their 
face at the time of their presentation as aforesaid; 
now, therefore, be it 



164 



HISTORY OF PLACER 0<JUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



Resolved, And it is hereby ordered LhatLlio a:'oresaid 
proposition for the purchase of said stock be and the 
same hereby is sold, assigned and transferred to the 
said D. 0. Mills & Co., at the price and upon the terms 
and conditions aforesaid; and be it further ordered 
that William Van Vactor, the Chairman of this Board, 
be, and he hereby is, authorized and empovvered to pro- 
ceed to Sacramento and transfer said stock in the name 
off-aid county, upon the stock transfer books of the 
Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, and 
that a certified copy of this order be taken by him 
and filed with the Secretary of said comjianj', as his 
license and authority for making said transfer. 

This resolution was adopted unanimously. The 
sale relieved the county of the indebtedness and 
payment of interest on the §250,000 bonds, although 
the profits from the stock should have paid the inter- 
est and much more, yet no dividends were declared. 
The county had paid in interest about $120,000, and 
other payments aggregating about $170,000, which 
was in reality an expenditure for the sole benefit of 
the railroad company, and a total loss to the county. 
With the exception of about $5,000 in outstanding 
warrants, which was balanced by $18,786 of county 
money in the Treasury, Placer was again out of debt. 
At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors in May, 
1870, the three members voted themselves an allow- 
ance of $1,500 each " for services, expenses and attor- 
neys' fee in selling Central Pacific Railroad stock," 
besides their usual legal fees for services as Super- 
visors. Great indignation was expressed at this 
movement, as no expenses or attorneys' fees had been 
incurred, and from the further fact, that another 
party had previously made an oft'er of par value in 
gold for the stock, leaving the county to purchase 
the bonds on terms more advantageous to itself. 
The payment of the amounts voted by the Super- 
visors to themselves was enjoined, at the instance of 
Moses Andrews, and by the decision of Judge Rear- 
dan, rendered in August, 1870. the claim was declared 
illegal. 

The case was then appealed to the Supreme Court, 
where it was decided September 16, 1872, sustaining 
the decision of Judge Reardan. The decision was 
that the Board was not entitled to extra pay; that 
the sale in pursuance of the statute w-as in the line 
of their official duties, and that the allowance of pay 
was not only unwan'anted by the s:atute, but within 
its positive prohibition. 

August 18, 1870, a final settlement was made with 
D. 0. Mills & Co., who paid over to the Supervisors 
in lieu of money $221,000 in the county's railroad 
bonds, and surrendered in interest coupons, $22,629.- 
35, and the remainder, $6,370.65, in coin, leaving 
about $27,000 of bonds out, and bearing interest at 
8 per cent., yet an indebtedness of the county. 
About $3,000 of the bonds had been redeemed pre- 
vious to the sale to D. 0. Mills & Co., the presumed 
agents of the railroad company. 

• SOUKCES OF REVENUE. 

One of the gi-eat sources of revenue to the State, 



and particularly to the mining counties — the foreign 
miners' tax, or license — was cut off by an Act of Con- 
gress known as the " Civil Rights Bill," passed in 
May, 1870, which provided that " a^;/)e»-sor?.s within 
the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the 
same right in every State and Territory in the 
United States to make and enforce contracts, to sue, 
be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal 
benefits of all lajvs and proceedings for the security 
of personal property as is enjoyed by white citizens, 
and shall be subject to like punishments, pains, pen- 
alties, taxes, licenses and executions of every kind, 
and n'one other, every law, statute, ordinance, regu- 
lation or custom to the contrary notwithstanding." 

The assessed valuation of property in 1870 was: — 

T-IXES THEREON. 

District No. 1 . ..$1.545,.341 83 $ 40,178 88 

" 2 2,066.29134 53,723 57 

" 3 625,999 00 16,275 97 

Total... ...$4,237,632 17 $110,178 42 

The Central Pacific Railroad was assessed at 
$6, (100 per mile, and the assessment was raised by 
the Board of Equalization in August to $10,000 per 
mile, but at a re-hearing of the case in November, 
the order was rescinded and the assessment fixed as 
before on ninety-two and a quarter miles of road and 
telegraph. 

The report is extant of po'.l tax collections in Dis- 
trict No. 1 for the year ending March 1, 1871. Of 
State poll taxes, 1,004 of $2.00 each were collected, 
of school and hospital, 1,013, and of road, 1,099; 
making a total of 3,116. The vote at the recent 
election in the District had numbered 741, proving 
that poll taxes were quite thoroughly collected. 

TAXES IN 1871. 

The tax levy made in March, 1871, was as follows; 
State poll tax of $2.00, school and hospital poll tax 
of $2.00, and road poll tax of $2.00, levied on all 
able-bodied men between the ages of 21 and 50 years 
of age; State tax of 86i cents; County General Fund, 
60 cents; Redemption Fund, 3 cents; County School 
Fund, 28 cents; Railroad Interest Fund, 2 cents; 
Railroad Fund, J cent; and Hospital Fund, 5 cents; 
total, $1.85 on each $100. A tax of 10 cents on each 
$100 was levied in Township No. 7 for a Bridge 
Fund, a tax of 15 cents on each $100 was levied in 
Township No. 5 for a Bridge Fund, and a tax of 20 
cents on each $100 was levied in Township No. 10 
for a Bridge Fund in that township. 

A great controversy existed regarding the divi- 
dends supposed due the county from the Central 
Pacific Railroad Company, and in consequence the 
Supervisors, at their meeting on the 13th of February, 
1871, passed the following resolution: — 

Resolved, That C. A. Tuttle be and he is 
hereby authorized and empowered by the County of 
Placer to commence suit against the Central Pacific 
Railroad Company of California, to recover from 
said Company all dividends or other moneys due to 








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FINANCIAL HI8TORY 



16o 



the county by reason of the 2,500 shares of the cap- 
ital slock ot said company owned by said county, 
and which were sold to D. O. Mills & Co., on the 13th 
day of April, 1870. 

The further proceedings in this connection were 
taken on the 12th of June, when a I'esolution was 
passed appointing William Van Vactor and W. H. 
Kinder a committee to wait upon C. A. Tattle, the 
attorney appointed by the Board in the above resolu- 
tion, and with him to proceed, and " empowered to 
do any and every act they may deem proper on the 
part of the county in the furtherance of the collec- 
tion of said money claimed to be due said county 
from said railroad company, to the end that a speedy 
settlement of the matter maj^ be brought about." 

The assessed valuation of property in 1871 was 
$4,149,185, and the tax levy 86* for State, and 98J 
cents for county purposes. The tax collected on 
property, real and personal, was §71,723.31, and 
$3,125.30 of the delinquent tax of 1870, leaving 
16,403.55 delinquent. From poll taxes of the three 
several classes there was collected ^17,555, from 
licenses, §7,367, and received in the Treasury from 
other sources, §19,448.32. Deducting commissions 
I to collectors of poll taxes amounting to §2,428.45, the 
'total receipts of the Treasury were §113,665.18. 
The County School Fund received from all sources 
'$19,290; District School Fund, §5,196.36. The war- 
' rants redeemed by the School Fund during the year 
I amounted to §22,149.59, with a balance in the fund 
of §8,109.51. 

The county indebtedness was represented by 
j §4,641.50 of outstanding warrants on the County 
; General Fund, and §16,000 of outstanding railroad 
\ bonds — a total indebtedness of §20,641.50. In the 
Treasury at the close of the year was §31,648.33 
belonging to the State, §12,004 in the General Fund, 
and an aggregate of §57,571.22. 

j WILLIAM VAN VACTOR 

( Is a native of Ohio, born in Butler County, August 
I 26, 1828. When he was five years of age he i-emoved 
I with his parents to Shelby County in the same State. 
' Up to his twenty-sixth year he was a resident of 
; that county, engaged in teaching and agricultural 
I pursuits. In 1854 he came to California by way of 
I the Isthmus of Panama. He was a passenger on the 
I ill-fated steamer Georgia, at the time she was 
J wrecked off Cape Hatteras, and landed at Norfolk, 

Virginia. From this port the passengers were taken 
I to Aspinwall on the steamer Empire City. He 
I finally reached San Francisco in the month of March. 
i After a few days in that city he proceeded to Grass 
( Valley, Nevada County, and thence to Iowa Hill, 
1 PhK^cr County, reaching the latter place in the same 
I month of his arrival in California. He has made 

this his home since that time. He has always been 

largely interested in mines, which is the case at the 
1 present time. Mr. Van Vactor was one of the 
j projectors of the Iowa Hill Canal, of which he has 

been the superintendent since 1873. He was also a 



Supervisor from his District in 1869 and '70, and 
from 1860 until 1864, held the office of Justice of the 
Peace. In 1864 he was elected Assessor of his 
District, a position he creditably filled until 1869, 
He has spent two winters in southern California, 
having some valuable interests at Santa Barbara. 
He was married to Mrs. Elizabeth M. Blackburn, a 
native of Ohio, January 6, 1860. Their family 
consists of three children, two boys and one girl, 
aged I'espectively sixteen, twelve and six years. 

A view of his Iowa Hill residence will be found in 
this volume. 



CHAPTEE XXVI, 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 

(continued.) 

Taxation iu 1872 — Supreme Court Decision — Large Assessment 
— Railroad Assessment Contested^Property in 1873 — Joseph 
P. Hoge Eng<igecl — The Financial Problem in 187-t — Railroad 
Troubles Continue — V'aluations and Taxation — Financial Con- 
dition in 1875— J. T. Ashley— The Financial Condition in 1876 
— Compromise with Railroad Company — Sheriff e-X officio 
Collector — Willard Loring Munson — Assessment and Taxation 
— Taxation in 1877— Financial Condition in 1878 — Property 
in 1S7J— Financial Report in 1879 — A. .J. Soule — Financial 
Condition in 1880 — State Board of Equalization — Finances in 
1881 — Railroad Litigation — Receipts and Disbursements — 
Causps of Financial Embarrassment — Conclusion. Joseph 
Walkup. 

The system of levj'ing taxes was changed by the 
Legislature in 1872. By the new law, taxes were 
levied after the assessment was completed and 
adjusted by the Board of Equalization. The Legis- 
lature fixed the sum to be raised. Stamps were 
abolished after 1872; poll taxes went to the counties 
and to the School Fund. All licenses also went to 
the county, and all property was required to be 
assessed at its full cash value. 

SUPREME COURT DECISION. 

By a decision of the Supreme Court, rendered in 
the Tax Suit against the Central Pacific Eailroad 
Company instituted in 1868, the county and State 
recovered the tax as levied and assessed by the 
Assessor of that year, amounting to §28,070.75. 
This decision maintained the constitutionality of the 
Revenue Law, and the legality of the assessment, 
which was at the rate of §12,000 a mile. Through 
the neglect of Assessors, or the action of the Boards 
of Equalization in reducing assessments, the county 
had suffered an estimated loss of $288,000, and the 
State §264,000. From the amount recovered, the 
District Attorney of the time of instituting the suit, 
received a fee of $3,661.40. This case, however, was 
appealed by the railroad company to the United 
States Supreme Court. 

LARGE ASSESSMENT. 

The assessed value of property for 1872 was 
$8,146,336. This was an increase in accordance 
with the new law adopted in the Codes, ordering all 



166 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA 



])ro[jert3- :issos«e(l at its full value. The prior custom 
had been to assess at about one-third or one-half, as 
such assessment would produce sufficient revenue, 
the rate of taxation being fixed before the assessment 
was made. By the law of 1872 the rate of taxation 
would be fixed after the amount of property was 
ascertained. 

In this assessment the railroad and telegraph line 
was assessed at $12,000 a mile, but this was raised 
by the Board of Equalization to §25,000, aggregating 
for the Central Pacific 82,812,000, and for the Oregon 
Division from Eoseville to Bear River, 6264,000. 

The details of the assessment are as follows: The 
number of acres of land assessed in District No. 1, 
174,403; No. 2, G4.613; in No. 3, 1G,482, total in the 
county 255,588. The value of real estate, District 
No. 1, §916,132; No. 2, 82,077,516; No. 3, §421,265, 
total 83,414.813. improvements on real estate in 
District No. 1, 81,089,664; District No. 2, §1,128,037; 
District No. 3. §21.800; total §2,230,491. The value 
of personal property District No. 1, §850,238; District 
No. 2, §1,214,507; No. 3, §344,269; total §2,412,014. 
The amount of money assessed in District No. 1 
823,633; District No. 2, §1,170; District No. 3, §55,- 
205; total §80,008. The total valuation of all property 
in the several Districts was as follows: No. 1, §2,885,- 
667; No. 2, 84,418,230; No. 3, 8842,430; total §8,146,- 
336. A comparative statement shows Placer to 
rank as the fourteenth county in the State, in the 
assessed valuation of property. 

The rate of taxation was fixed in October as 
follows: For State Fund, 50 cents; County General 
Fund, 50 cents; School Fund, 10 cents; Hospital 
Fund, 20 cents; Railroad Fund, 2 cents; Railroad 
Interest Fund, 3 cents; total §1.35 on each §100. In 
addition to these, several special taxes were levied, 
on petition of the inhabitants of the different local- 
ities where levied, as follows: Road taxes in Road 
District No. 1, 8 cents; No. 2, 10 cents; No. 3, 10 
cents; Colfax District 10, cents; Dutch Flat District 
10 cents; No. 5, 12 cents; No. G, 12 cents; Last 
Chance District, 12 cents; Tahoe District, 15 cents; 
No 9, 6 cents; No 10, 5 cents, and for bridge pur- 
poses, 5 cents; No. 11, 10 cents. School Districts: 
Alta, 40 cents; Blue Canon, 35 cents; Christian 
Yalley, 40 cents; Coon Creek, 30 cents; Central, 25 
cents; Dry Creek, 40 cents; Excelsior. 25 cents; 
Franklin, 20 cents; Fair View, 25 cents; Gold Hill 
20 cents; Iowa Hill, 10 cents; Last Chance, 15 cents; 
Lincoln, 5 cents; Lone Star, 40 cents; Michigan 
Blufi", 13 cents; Neilsburgh, 40 cents; Mt. Pleasant, 
35 cents; Newcastle, 25 cents; Norwich, 13 cents; 
Pleasant Grove, 35 cents; Rattlesnake, 15 cents; 
Rock Creek, 35 cents; Rocklin, 7 cents; Smithville, 
35 cents; Stewart's Flat, 14 cents; Union, 20 cents; 
Vallej- View, 25 cents; Wisconsin Hill, 30 cents; 
Washington, 15 cents; Yankee Jim's, 10 cents, all 
on each §100 worth of property. 

These special taxes were declared unconstitutional 
by the Supreme Court, in October, 1872, but were 



generally paid in Placer before the decision was 
rendered. 

RAILROAD ASSESSMENT CONTESTED. 

The assessment of the Central Pacific Railroad at 
the rate of §25,000, as fixed by the Board of Equal- 
ization, was resisted as usual by the company and 
the case carried to the Courts. That part of the 
road in Nevada County had been assessed at $12,000 
per mile, and that was also objected to by the com 
pany, who refused to pay only on an assessment of 
86,000 per mile. ' In January, 1873, the railroad 
company gave bonds in the amount of 850,000, and 
enjoined the sale of the railroad property for the 
collection of taxes. In February, 1873, suit was 
commenced in the United States Circuit Court in 
San Francisco, against the Tax Collectors of the 
several counties through which the railroad lay, to 
declare a perpetualinjunction against their collecting 
taxes from the railroad company. In Santa Clara 
Count}- the assessment was at the rate of §7,000 per 
mile, but this was deemed too much and the pay- 
ment of the tax was refused. This suit forced the 
counties to defend, and entailing additional expense 
and trouble. The amount of tax at issue was about 
8100,000. In the following January the decision was 
rendered that the assessments of the railroad prop- 
erty was illegal, because assessed in a body and not 
as real estate and improvements separately. The 
decision was rendered by Judge Sawyer, continuing 
the injunction in force. 

PROPERTY IN 1873. 

The amount of property assessed in 1873 aggre- 
gated •S7, 145, 479. The railroad was assessed at the 
rate of 812,000 per mile, and this was raised by the 
Board of Equalization to §25,000 per mile. The tax 
was levied in October, as follows: State Fund, 50 
cents; County General Fund, 29 cents; County 
School Fund, 13i cents; Railroad Fund. 6 cents; 
Railroad Interest Fund, 2J cents; Hospital Fund, 4 
cents, making a total of 81.05 on each 8100 of valu- 
ation. This low rate was so fixed, for the reason 
that the railroad company had recently paid into 
the Treasury about 830,000 on back taxes, in accord- 
ance with the decisions of the Courts. The rate 
was the lowest of any county in the State excepting 
one, which was the same. 

By a decision of the Supreme Court, solvent debts 
including those secured by mortgage, were declared 
not subject to taxation, and the Assessors of Placer 
County were ordered not to assess that species of 
property. This deduction from the property of the 
county was one of the reasons why the assessed 
valuation appeared less than the previous year. By 
a subsequent decision of the same Court, in Decem- 
ber of the same year, the former decision was 
reversed. The finances at the close of the year were 
in a very favorable condition, there being §19,906.46 
of county money in the Treasury, and only 841.00 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



167 



of outstanding warrants, and 813,000 of outstanding 
railroad bonds. 

JOSEPH p. HOGE ENGAGED. 

The Supervisors, in carrying on the suit against 
the Oentral Pacific Eailroad Company, engaged J. P. 
Hoge, a lawyer of San Francisco, to aid the District 
Attorney, agreeing to pay him $2,000 for the service, 
§1,000 in advance and $1 ,000 when the case was won, 
excepting that he should not be required to attend 
to the suit or suits if appealed to the United States 
Supreme Court. The suit was, in this case, before 
the United States Circuit Court in San Francisco, 
where Mr. Hoge was a practitioner, and with the 
proceedings in which he was familiar. 

THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM IN 1874. 

The light rate of taxation and the large amount 
of property in Placer County in the past year placed 
it among the first in wealth and prosperity in the 
State. The very fact of its constant war with the 
Central Pacific Railroad Company brought the sub- 
ject of public business afi'airs very prominently before 
the people, who wei-e thus impelled to greater care 
in the selection of officers, and the officers were also 
held to strict accountability for their actions. For 
two j-ears the Board of Equalization had fixed the 
assessed value of the railroad and telegraph of the 
Central Pacific Company at i?25,000 a mile, but this 
was so firmlj' resisted by the railroad company, who 
would pay without compulsion only on 66,000 a 
mile, that no revenue had been derived from that 
source by the large assessment, although it was not 
what the law demanded, the full value of the prop- 
erty, nor more than one-half the comparative rates 
at which ordinary' property was assessed. 

RAILROAD TROUBLES CONTINUE. 

The Assessors of Districts Nos. 1 and 2, wherein 
lay the railroad, assessed the road and telegraph at 
the rate of #^12,000 per mile. Against this the rail- 
road company, as usual, protested, and asked that 
it be reduced to 66,000 per mile. 

Messrs. Hugh Burns and J. A. Filcher, taxpayers, 
applied to the Board of Equalization to have the 
assessment increased to -625,000 a mile. The appli- 
cations of both parties were denied, and the assess- 
ment fixed at 612,000 per mile by the votes of Super- 
visors V. V. Mann, A. J. Saule and S. B. Harriman. 
The following dissenting opinion by Supervisors E. 
Barrett and James Laird was put upon the records: — 

We dissent from the conclusion arrived at by a 
majority of the Board in the assessed valuation per 
mile of that part of the Central Pacific Railroad lying 
in and traversing Placer County for the following 
reasons: The Constitution says that all property 
within the State, not exempt by law from taxation, 
must be assessed at the full cash value, and the Code 
defines " cash value " to mean the amount at which 
the property would be appraised if taken in the pay- 
ment of a just debt due from a solvent debtor. 

This being the rule and principle governing the 



value of property, for the purpose of taxation, and 
it appearing from the sworn statement of its officers 
to the Secretary of State that its net earnings would 
pay 10 per cent, on a valuation of 618,000 per mile, 
including the value of peimanent improvements, it 
is manifest that the assessment of 612,000 per mile 
is 40 per cent, too low, and is unjust and oppressive 
to the rest of the taxpayers of the State and county. 

VALUATIONS AND TAXATION. 

The Assessors in 1874 reported 268,447 acres of 
assessable land in the county; value of i-eal estate, 
63,445,994; value of improvements on real estate, 
6892,937; value of personal property, exclusive of 
money, 62,321,811; amount of money, 6184,753; 
total value of property, 66,844,895. 

The rate of taxation was fixed at 64 -^^ cents for 
State purposes, and 85j\j cents for county purposes, 
a total of -81.50 on each -SlOO of valuation. By a 
statute of the last Legislature an increase of 25 per 
cent, was added to all taxes delinquent after the 31st 
of June of each year. 

The decreased assessment of the railroad brought 
the total assessment of the county below that of the 
preceding year, when, if it had been the same as 
that, the gross amount would have exceeded that of 
any year. During the year there had been man}' 
extraordinary expenditures, which necessitated an 
unusual rate of taxation. By the reports of the 
Treasurer and Auditor the average sum required 
during the preceding five years for county expend- 
itures had been §39,115.02, but the expenses for the 
year ending September 30, 1874, was §51,409.42. The 
extraordinary expenditures occurring were: Unusual 
expense of the election of 1873, §1,254.35; back 
salaries due Assessors, 81,869.35; Attorney fees in 
prosecuting suits for taxes against the Central Pacific 
Railroad Company, §2,265; collecting the money 
from the bondsmen of ex-Treasurer Dicker.son, §745; 
enlarging and refurnishing hospital, §3,905.65; quiet- 
ing title to hospital lot and fire apparatus, $350; two 
more Supervisors than before, salaries extra, §2,614: 
increased number of patients in hospital and prison- 
ers in jail, §4,189; increased expenditure of schools 
from §15,485.67 in 1873 to §19,733.26 in 1874; con- 
viction, etc., of criminals in extraordinary cases, 
§1 500, aggregating §21,202.89 of unusual expend- 
itures. 

The condition of the Treasury at the end of the 
year 1874 was as follows: Total cash on hand Decem- 
ber 31, 1874, belonging to the county §9,119,35; 
belonging to the State, 810,017,88; outstanding war- 
rants registered, §5,412,13; railroad bonds outstand- 
ing, §10,000, 

The county now appeared to have passed its j)eriod 
of greatest depression and was on the progressive 
road of prosperity. The year 1871 was regarded as 
the dullest business year since the Frazer River 
exodus, and from that time population, values, pro- 
ducts, improvements, children, schools, and general 
wealth have been steadily increasing, with a healthy 
growth from a substantial basis. 



168 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



FINANCIAL CONDITION IN 1875. 

The year opened with a slight debt against the 
coiintj-, principally for railroad bonds outstanding, 
which, drawing eight per cent., per annum, interest, 
were held as investments, having been issued for a 
term of twenty years. The struggle with the rail- 
road company for the collection of taxes still con- 
tinued. 

At a meeting of the Board of Supervisors on the 
3d of February, 1875, it was ordered that "the District 
Attorney furnish the Board with a certified state- 
ment showing the number of suits now pending in 
the courts of this State, in which Placer County and 
the Central Pacific Railroad Company are parties in 
interest; their titles, date of commencement, and the 
respective amounts involved; the amounts paid out 
by the county in prosecuting and defending said 
suits; to wLuiii paid, and by whom received, and 
their present stage for final adjudication before said 
courts." 

This resulted in ascertaining that $2,400 had been 
paid counsel in the railroad suits, and that suits for 
taxes in 1872-73 and 1873-7-4 were pending in the 
courts. Id the January following the Board peti- 
tioned the Legislature to empower them to adjust 
and settle the said suits with the railroad company, 
and to receive the taxes due the State and county. 

The Assessor's reports, made in July, furnished 
the following statistical information: — 

Number of acres of assessable land, 288,836. Saw- 
mills in the county, 28, of which 20 were steam and 
eight water-power, which sawed, during the year, 
25,000,000 feet of lumber. 

Value of assessable land S 999.210 

" improvements on said land . . . 454,561 

■• city and town lots 154,927 

" improvements on city and town 

lots 348,613 

railroad, 112-4 miles 1,433,677 

telegraph, 1061 miles 21,400 

mining ditches, 337 miles 348,350 

mining claims 436,650 

" improvements on mining claims 156,430 
personal property _ 2,545,263 

Total property - . . f?6,899,081 

The tax levj- made in October was as follows: — 

State Fund, 6O2 cents; County General Fund, 441 
cents; Hospital Fund, 10 cents; School Fund, 8 
cents; Railroad Fund, 5 cents; County General Road 
Fund, 2 cents; a total of $1.30 on each 8100. 

The railroad assessments were fixed at $12,000 per 
mile, while the railroad company asked a reduction 
to $7,500 per mile. 

J. T. ASHLEY 

Was in 1876 one of the financial officers of Placer 
County. 

The birth place of John Tyler Ashley was in the 
old Green Mountain State, he having been born at 
West Haven. Rutland County, Vermont. June 4, 



1830. His boyhood and early youth were spent on 
his father's farm, among the Green Mountains of that 
State. After having completed an academic course 
preparatory' to the study of medicine, he emigrated 
overland to California, arriving in Placer County 
August 14, 1853. 

Here he has followed the occupation of hotel 
keeper and miner alternately, having experienced 
the varied fortunes incident to all enterprising young 
men of pioneer days. In 1875 he was elected 
Recorder and Auditor of Placer County, as a Repub- 
lican, at an election when the Independent party Ij 
secured most of the county offices. At the expira- 
tion of his term of two years, he was re-elected for 
a second term. 

He now holds the position of Under-Sherifl:' of the 
county, and resides at Auburn, the county seat. 

THE FINANCIAL CONDITION IN 1876. 

The opening of the " Centennial Year " was bright 
to Placer County. Taxes had been light the past 
year, and the promise was equally good for the com- 
ing one. The Treasury contained $9,130.48, and but 
$18.00 of outstanding warrants, and $7,000 of rail- 
road bonds, leaving the county with all of its public 
buildings and other property, and a surplus of 
$2,112.48 in the Treasury. With the receipts of Jan 
uary, the Treasury contained the unprecedented sum, 
up to that date, of $65,753.41, of which $42,862.92 
belonged to the county, and the outstanding indebt- 1 
eduess was the same as at the beginning of the ' 
month. 

As a measure of economy, the Legislature had 
again reorganized the Board of Supervisors, and, in 
1875, but three were elected, and these, D. H. Long, 
W. A. Himes, and J. B. Russell, took possession of 
their offices and the business affairs of the county on 
the 7th day of February, 1876. 

COMPROMISE WITH THE RAILROAD C0MP.\NY. 

The Board of Sipervisors in 1875 had petitioned 
the Legislature for authority to settle the tax suits of | 
1872-73 and 1873-74. with the railroad company, 
and this petition had been indorsed by the Board in 
power. The Legislature, ascertaining that the rail- 
road company would compromise the cases then 
before the Supreme Court on appeal from decisions 
against the railroad company, gave the desired 
authority. The assessments, as has been stated in 
the preceding pages, had been at the rate of $12,000 
per mile, and had been equalized, by the Board of 
Equalization to $25,000 per mile; the payment of 
taxes at this rate refused; suits instituted by the 
company enjoining the sale of railroad property by 
the Tax Collectors; judgment obtained in favor of 
the county in the District Court, and appeal taken to 
the Supremo Court. As in a case some years before 
when on the point of a decision the matter was com- 
promised and the case withdrawn, each party pay- 
ing its own costs. At this time the Supervisors 
accepted the sum of $29,917.72 in full for the taxes 







'i-" 




r^r. 






FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



189 



of the two years, being at the rate of $12,000 per 
mile, and, on the 10th of May, 1876, this amount was 
paid into the County Treasury. 

Several suits had been instituted by the railroad 
compai.y and its stockholders against .James Moore 
and W. L. Munson, Tax Collectors of Districts Nos. 
1 and 2; first, in January, 1873, in the Fourteenth 
Judicial District enjoining the sale of the property of 
the Central Pacific Railroad for the taxes due the 
State and county for the year 1872-73, and in the 
United States Cii'cuit Court by C. P. Huntington 
and other stockholders, residents of other States, 
restraining the Tax Collectors from collecting and 
the railroad company from paying the taxes; and 
again in F'ebruary, 1874, for the same purposes that 
year. To defend these suits the Board of Super- 
visors authorized an advance, or loan, to the Collec- 
tors of 83,000, and the employment of J. P. Hoge 
at a fee of j?l,000 advanced and SI, 000 when the tax 
was collected. In these suits, the District Attorney's 
fees and traveling expenses, together with the assist- 
ant counsel's, aggregated §-1,138.20, besides the 
$1,000 to be paid to J. P. Hoge, and for which he 
! sued the county in 1877, but subsequently withdrew 
I the suit upon the receipt of S500, the county paying 
' the costs of action. 

SHERIFF EX OFFICIO COLLECTOR. 

J The Legislature, in 1875, abolished the system of 
( District Collectors in Placer County, substituting 
' therefor the Sheriff^ who was ex, officio Collector. 
\ One of the stalwart Assessoi's, who persisted in fix- 
ing a fair valuation upon the railroad, was 

WILLARD LORING MUNSON. 

I This gentleman is the fifth son of Jeremiah and 

Mary (Hill) jNIunson, who were both natives of the 

1 State of Maine. Willard Loring Munson was born 

] at Bast Machias, in the same State, on the 30th day 

; of November. 1827. He remained at, or near, the 

place of his nativitj- until he reached the age of 

twenty-two years. He received a fair education, but 

has since added to his stock of knowledge from con- 

I tact with the people, and remains a useful addition 

I to the population of Placer County. In 1849 he saw 

bright and golden prospects in California, and joined 

1 the stampede for the land of promise. Owing to the 

I great length of time consumed in his voyage making 

I the passage of Cape Horn, he did not arrive in San 

I Francisco until the 2d day of ilarch, 1850, thereby 

i lacking about three months of being a '4[ter. He 

I sailed on the brig '■ Oriental," which was laden with 

' lumber for Sacramento, and to that place he soon 

went. Mr. Munson immediately started for the 

mines, his first location being at what was then 

called "Negro Bar" (now Folsom), in Sacramento 

County. 

He followed the ups and downs of a miner's life 
until 1854, and from that time to 1862 was engaged 
in various kinds of business in Nevada and Placer 
Counties, la the winter of 1862-63 he removed to 



Grold Run, which was his home until 1879. In the 
year 1867 he was elected a Justice of the Peace, and 
also received the appointment as Postmaster at Gold 
Run. In 1870, he was elected Collector, which office 
he held four years. At the expiration of his term, 
he was elected to the responsible office of Assessor, 
which position he creditably fills at the present time. 
In 1879 he removed to Auburn, where he has since 
resided. On the 28th of May, 1859, he was married 
to Miss Lizzie Searles, at Little York, Nevada County. 
California. 

ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION. 

The assessed value of property in 1876 was •■?5,762,- 
570, and upon this the tax levy was, for the State 
731 cents, apportioned as follows: Greneral Fund, 
43 9-10 cents; School Fund, 23 4-10 cents; Interest 
and Sinking Fund, 6 2-10 cents on each .f 100. The 
total assessed valuation in the State was •'?594,620,- 
231. The county lev}' was 762 cents, apportioned as 
follows: General Fund,43i cents; Hospital Fund, 16 
cents; School Fund, 7 cents; Railroad Fund, 4 cents; 
General Road Fund, 6 cents; total State and county 
tax, §1.50 on each .§100. The Central Pacific Rail- 
road was assessed in District No. 1 at §10,000 per 
mile and in District No. 2 at $12,000, but all was 
equalized at §12,000 per mile. The property tax was 
collected with the exception of §5,283.07, reported 
delinquent by the Sherift', ex officio Tax Collector. 
The total amount received into the Treasury from 
all sources, reported for the' year ending September 
30, 1876, was §166,460.20, of which §54,783.20 went 
to the State, the remainder to the county. 

The final statement of the Treasurer, A. J. Soule, 
at the close of the year, reported §14,076.28 in the 
Treasury belonging to the county, against which 
stood $18.00 of outstanding warrants and .S4,000 of 
outstanding railroad bonds. 

TAXATION IN 1S77. 

The salaries and emoluments of the oftieers of 
Placer County were reported in the Herald of July 
14, 1877, as follows: — 

The Sheriff received, all told, about §lu,0O0 per 
annum, of which, after he pays his deputy and jailer 
and traveling expenses, he has left, under rather 
than over, about §5,000. The Recorder's salary is 
§3,000, out of which he has to paj' a deputj', leaving 
him net from §2,000 to §2,200 per annum. The 
County Clerk's fees and salary for the last year 
amounted to §3,098.83, out of which he has paid for 
help 8980, leaving him net per annum 82,118.83. 
The Treasurer receives 82,000 per year, and needs no 
deputy. The County Judge receives 82,000 per year, 
and does the work himself. The School Superinten- 
dent receives 81,200 per year, and the District Attor- 
ney's salary and fees this last year, under Bullock, 
amounted to 82,500, being, perhaps, less for this ofllce 
than for j-ears previouslj^. 

The tax levy for the year was 63 cents on each 
§100 for State purposes, and 87 cents for county pur- 
poses; total §1.50 on e^ch SlOO, 



170 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



FINANOIAI, CONDITION IN 1S78. 

With the bei,'inuing oi' the year 1878, the eouiity 
hud in its Treasury $47,125.31), of which $2,280. 27 
helongod to the State, and the county was out of 
debt. 

The assessed valuation of property was $5,586,105. 

The rate of taxation was, for the State, 55 cents, 
and for the county, $1.05 on each $100 — a total of 
$1.60. The county tax was apportioned as follows: 
General Fund, (i.S cents; Hospital Fund, 20 cents; 
School Fund, 12 cents, and General Road Fund, 10 
cents. In addition was the general poll tax, a school 
and hospital poll tax, and a road poll tax of S2.00 
each. 

PKOPEUTY IN l.S7'.l. 

The Assessors returned the value of proj)ci'ty in 
18711 as follows: real estate, $4,301,464; personal 
))roperty, §1,356,805; total, $5,658,269. 

The total number of acres of land assessed was 
:!l!l,988, which was assessed on an average of >';i.24 
and a fraction per acre. 

The tax levy was, for the State, 621 cents; County 
(feneral Fund, 47 cents; Hospital Fund, 181 cents: 
County School I'^und, 12 cents; General Ifoad Fund, 
1(1 cents; total for the county, 87^ cents, arid for 
State and county, $1.50 on each -^lOO. 

FINANCIAL REPORT l.\ l,S7!). 

The following statement is a clear and conclusive 
(exhibit of the receipts and expenditures of the county 
for the year 1870: — 

Money received from the following sources: 

Poll taxes _ _ _ $ 17,626 38 

Licenses. 5,620 00 

Auditor's commission on licenses . 502 50 
Treasurer's, Auditor's and Assessor's 

commissions refunded by the Slate. 1,922 31 

Property tax, 1878-711 83,790 22 

Delinquent property tax, 1878-79. ..... 1,578 03 

" 1877-78 116 80 

Migratory stock tax . . 290 20 

State school money . 19,976 62 

State lands 1,578 03 

Recorder's fees . 2,443 00 

Fines . . . . 688 60 

Kstrays. . 2 00 

Special school tax . . . ..... 1,580 52 

Total received in the year . . . $142,388 21 

This money was apportioned as follows: 

State Fund _ . . .$ 32,561 68 

County General Fund ... 46,729 70 

Hospital Fund 13,340 38 

(Jounty School Fund 36,060 24 

General Road Fund 5,538 57 

District Road Fund 6,111 70 

Migratory Stock Fund 463 42 

District School Fund 1 ,580 52 

Kstray Fund 2 00 



Total . 



$142,388 21 



There was expended during the year from each of 
these several funds the following several amounts: — 



State Fund . .- $ 32.680 91 

County (feneral Fund 40,020 88 

Hospital Fund 11,480 38 

County School Fund 134 50 

District School Fund 33,692 16 

( feneral Road Fund 7,983 39 

Migratory Stock Fund 162 10 

District Road Fund. 6,806 49 

Library Fund 1,029 19 

Total paid out during year $133,991 03 

Balance in several funds, October 1, 1878-$20,906 06 
" " " " " "1879. 29,354 14 

I'pon this statement the lUraltt of November 1, 
1879 remarks: — 

From the foregoing tigure.s, the reader will see 
at a glance the total amount collected from the 
jieojile of Placer County, in the waj- of taxes for all 
jnirposeB. He will see, also, what distribution is made 
of the aggregate; how much has been expended 
during the year from the several funds, and further, 
how much remains in the aggregate, and in each 
fund, to be applied on the expenses of the next fiscal 
year. The total amount paid out during the year is 
shown to be $133,991.03, of this $32,(i80.94, as will bo 
noticed, went to the State, leaving the expenses of 
the county for all purposes for the year, $101,310.09, 
or in round numbers the cost of the county govern 
mcnt may be set down at about $100,000 a year. 
The total cost of the county government last year 
was some greater than this, being $108,933.69. This 
discrepancy is due to the fact that last year the 
county was burdened with an unusual amount of 
criminal business. To illustrate: Last year the jury 
and witness fees amounted to $6,689.85, and this 
year the amount drawn from the Treasury for the 
same purpose was only $3,659.05. Altogether, con- 
sidering the improved and comfortable condition in 
which our count}' quarters are maintained, and the 
efficiency of our public service generally, the financial 
showing made by Placer. com])ared with the general 
run of modern governments, is rathei- encouraging 
than otherwise. 

The total receipts in the State Treasury for the 
year ending June 30, 1879, being the year preceding 
the operations under the now Constitution, was 
$3,543,610.77, and the estimates for the two succeed- 
ing years, not including the estimates for the Rail- 
road Commissioners and State Board of Equalization 
which the new Constitution ordered, was $6,044,724. 
This statement may be necessary in order to com- 
jiare the differences expected and promised by the 
advocates of that instrument. 

At that time the Treasurer of Placer County was 

A. J. .SOUI.K. 

Among the steadfast and honored names of the 
Pioneers of California and of Placer County, is that 
of Andrew Jackson Soule, who was born April 16, 
1818, in the town of Preeport, Cumberland County, 
Maine, of old Revolutionary stock. His grandfather 
was one of the heroes at the battle of Ranker Hill, 
where he was wounded, and for which the Govern- 
ment allowed him a pension dui-ing the remainder of 
his life. This veteran of the Revolution was a 
native of France, as the name indicates, but he 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



171 



married a lady from Wales. The town of Freeport, 
Maine, numbers many Soules among its inhabitants, 
Cornelius Soule being one of its officers in 178!1, and 
from that day the family has been prominent in 
ship-building, naval and military affairs, mercantile 
and manufacturing. Moses Soule and Moses Soule, 
Jr., and Bufus Soule were Selectmen in the early 
part of this centurj^, and George W., Benjamin F., 
Enoch C. and Charles Soule bore prominent parts 
in the Freeport Volunteers during the war of the 
Rebellion. 

The father of Andrew J. was James Soule, and 
his mother's maiden name was Sarah Brown; both 
born, lived and died in Freeport, and both members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The town, 
having the excellent harbor of Casco Bay, bordered 
by the Yarmouth and Cousin Rivers, and originally 
surrounded by great forests, afforded excellent facili- 
ties for ship-building, and in that enterprise was 
James Soule engaged. 

Andrew J. received the education the schools 
of the town afforded, finishing his scholarly training 
at the North Yarmouth Academy in his native 
county. Like the youth of the southern coast of 
Maine where excellent harbors abound, and where 
many stormy points and fishing shoals tempt to 
maritime adventure, he grew up a sailor, and in early 
life " went down to the sea in ships," making many 
voyages to all the Atlantic ports of America, to 
England, France, the Mediterranean and the Gulf of 
Mexico. He resided in Low<dl, Massachusetts, in 
1838, working in a machine-shop and cotton factor^'; 
in 1841 was in New Orleans; in 1843 was engaged 
selling drugs and medicines in Boston, and left 
Boston in December, 1848, for California, taking the 
route through Mexico via ('hihuahua, and arrived 
in the Golden State in May, 1840. Upon his arrival 
he sought the placers of the Sierra Nevada, and for 
twelve or fifteen years continued digging for gold, 
with the varied success usually attending the miner. 
At times a change to merchandising was tried, but 
at last he settled into farming, and now owns a line 
farm of 1,500 acres near the town of Ijincoln, Placer 
County. 

VVhile so successful in business he has had time to 
attend to public affairs, and has been prominent in 
all duties pertaining to the general welfare of his 
neighbors and the county. He is a prominent 
member of the Sacramento Association of Pioneers, 
and for six years has been Master of the Ijincoln 
Grange of the Oi-der of Patrons of Husbandry. His 
early political affiliations were with the Democrats, 
but in 18G1 he severed his connection with what he 
deemed a disloyal party, and joined the Union, as 
the new Republicans preferred to call their party at 
that time. As a compliment to his business ability and 
stability of character, he was elected Supervisor in 
1873, which office he held until March 1, 1870, when 
he took the office of Treasurer of the county, having 
been elected to it in 1875. In 1877 he was re-elected 



and served until the term expired March 1, 1880. 
Having ably and faithfully served the public, he has 
retired to his large estate in the western part of the 
county, near the pleasant village of Lincoln, and 
with his numerous farm hands cultivates the land 
and enjoys his leisure. 

FINANCI.M. CONTITTKIN IN 1880. 

Assessments wore made in 1880 under the pro- 
visions of the new Constitution and the Revenue 
Law of the first Legislature under it. The State 
Board of Equalization made the assessment on rail- 
road property where the road laid in two or more 
counties. In Placer were three such roads — the 
Central Pacific, the " Oregon Division " or Northern 
Railway, and the Nevada County Narrow Gauge. 
The Central Pacific for that poi'tion in Placer County 
was assessed at the rate of 820,264 per mile; the 
Northern Railway at .S13,0()0 per mile, and the 
Nevada County Narrow Gauge at §10,051 per mile. 

The Assessors reported the value of all the prop- 
erty of the county at §8,042,3(59, but this was changed 
in a slight degree by the County Board of Equal- 
ization, after whose action the assessment stood as 
follows: Acres of land assessed, 335,743; real estate, 
value, $2,329,144; improvements, §842,057; town 
lots, .§1(14,482; improvements on lots, §54(5,203; 
improvements on real estate assessed to others than 
owners, $41,480; personal property, §1,957,074; 
money, §117,177; railroads, §2,2S4,7(;(;; total .*7,999,- 
343. 

The State Board of I'^jualization fixed the tax 
levy for the State at (i4 cents on each §100, 5 cents 
being under the Act '' To Promote Drainage. ' This 
was regarded as extraordinary, being larger than 
the previous year, particularly as the assessed 
value of the property in the State exceeded that of 
1879 by §118,5(50,351. The State assessment included 
§24,(578,33(1 in money. Total assessment, §(10(5,202,- 
074. 

The promoters of the new (Constitution had hoped 
that by including franchises, solvent debts, and other 
species of property in the assessments, thereby call- 
ing upon all classes to bear their equal share of the 
burdens, that the percentage of taxation would be 
reduced. But the extraordinarily large appropria- 
tions, exceeding §4,000,000, by the Legislature, and 
the unusually large expense of that body, together 
with the costs of the Railroad Commissioners and 
the Board of Equalization, also the tact that another 
session of the Legislature was to be held the follow- 
ing year, made the heavy laxation necessary, di.s- 
appointing, as it was. to the people and advocates of 
the Constitution. The receipts into the State Treas- 
ury for the year amounted to §.5,848,958.04, and the 
expenditures to §4,180,917.24. exceeding the receipts 
§3.37,959.20, and exceeding the estimates upwards 
of §1,000,000. 

The tax levy by the Supervisors was, for the 
County General Fund, 39 cents; Hospital Fund. 15 



172 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



cents; County School Fand, 12 cents, and County 
General Eoad Fund, 10 cents, or 76 cents, which, 
with the State tax. made §1.40 on each $100. There 
was also levied the State poll tax of 82.00, special 
school and ho.spital poll tax, $2.00, and road poll 
tax of 82.00. Special taxes for schools were levied: 
For Colfax, of 30 cents; Iowa Hill, 27 cents, and 
Lincoln, 11 cents on each §100. 

STATE BO.\RD OF EQr.VLIZ.\TI0N. 

As assessed bj- the State Board of Equalization 
the Central Pacific Railroad Companj- was made 
responsible for about one-third the tax due the 
county. Ill December the company tendered the 
Sheriff, ex officio Collector, the taxes due on the per- 
sonal property of the company, but declined to paj' 
the taxes on the road, compelling the renewal of the 
litigation. 

K1N.\NCES IN 1881. 

The j-ear 1881 opened with fine prospects for the 
well-being of Placer County. Prosperity and health 
prevailed among the people, and the county was free 
from debt, with a careful and economical adminis- 
tration of public affairs; the assessment roll was 
large, and, provided collections followed the levy of 
taxes no emban-assments or debt could be antici- 
pated. In the latter a difficulty threatened. The 
railroad companj' refused to pay the taxes as levied 
by the State Board of Equalization, and enjoined 
their collection. The question now belonged to the 
State, but the county- was of course interested in tiie 
suits, and one of the first proceedings of the Board 
of Supervisors was to authorize the Tax Collector, 
Sheriff J. C. Boggs, to engage Judge A. L. Rhodes, 
at a fee not exceeding $500, to assist the Attorney- 
General in defending the cases. 

The usual taxes being much lower in Placer than 
in the neighboring counties was an inducement for 
the stock raisers of the Sacramento Valley to drive 
their cattle into the mountain pastures as early in 
the spring as the snow would permit, in order that 
they might there be assessed, and for this reason 
the county is reported as owning more stock than its 
people reall}' did, but the increased assessment was 
well received by the taxpayer. 

The assessed value of all classes of property in 
the county, after being equalized by the County 
Board of Equalization, was as follows: — 

Acres of land assessed, 330,298; value of real 
estate, 82,826,741; improvements, 8578,717; town 
lots, 8162,888; improvements on lots, 8461,949; 
improvements on real estate assessed to others than 
owners, 8350,289; personal property. 81,653,650: 
money, 8143,993; railroads, 82,852,230; total, 88,887,- 
921. 

Among the assessments were the following: South 
Yuba Canal Company's property at Dutch Flat, 
845,000; Gold Run Ditch Company, 830,000; Cedar 
Creek Company's Ditch, 841,250; Polar Star Mine, 
815,000; Southern Cross Mine, 811,250; A, A. Pond 



& Company's Ditch, 810,000; Dardanelles Mine, 
827,000; Bruce & Wheeler Mine, 830,000; Hidden 
Treasure Mine, 885,000; Morning Star Mine, 810,000; 
Indian Canon Claim, 8", 000; Neff & Colman's Canon 
Claim, 85,000. 

R.\ILROAD LITIGATION. 

The Central Pacific Railroad and the Oregon 
Division were assessed by the State Board of Equal- 
ization at the rate of 825,000 per mile, and the 
jSevada County Harrow Gauge at the rate of 89,000 
per mile. In the July meeting of the County Board 
of Equalization, composed of Supervisors Culver, 
Russell and Sparks, officers and Attorney of the Cen- 
tral Pacific Railroad Company filed petitions for a 
reduction of the assessment of so much as was in 
Placer County of the Central Pacific and Oregon 
Division from 82,818,750 to 81,408,656, or on the 
Central Pacific from $25,000 per mile to 813,075, and 
on the Oregon Division from 825,000 to 89,875. 

This involved the legal question whether a County 
Board of Equalization could reduce an assessment 
made by the State Board on property which the 
State Board was required to assess. The Attorne3-s 
of the railroad company argued that the Board had 
the right, basing their arguments on the clause in 
the revenue law saying that the County Board " has 
power to increase or lower any assessment con- 
tained thereon," meaning the assessment i-oll returned 
by the State Board. The Count}- Board did not 
reduce the assessment, but awaited the action of the 
Sacramento County Board, who made a test case 
and carried it before the Supreme Court for a decis- 
ion. A synopsis of the decision says: -'The State 
Bottrd equalizes values as betwen different counties, 
and the County Board equalizes valuations as 
between different articles or parcels of pi'operty in 
the same count}', the latter Board's power being 
limited to the equalization of the valuations of the 
local Assessors. With the exceptions named, the 
State Board has no original power of assessment. 
But it is the manifest intent of the Constitution that 
the valuation of the railroad property mentioned in 
Section 10, Article XIII. , shall be finally fixed and 
determined by the State Board, and it has the 
exclusive power to as.sess and equalize its value." 

The stockholders of the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company residing in New York had previously 
enjoined, in the United States Circuit Court of Cali- 
fornia, the Collector of Alameda County from collect- 
ing the tax on the railroad property, alleging that 
the assessment made by the State Board of Equaliza- 
tion was not only too high, but illegal. The suit was 
one of many brought against the several counties 
where the railroad lay, and was answered by demur- 
i-er, which was sustained on the ground that the 
stockholders had no standing in court, not having 
tendered payment of such tax as they acknowledged 
to be due. The court said, " It is clear that the road- 
bed within each county is liable to be taxed at the 
same rate that other property is taxed. Why have 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



173 



not complainants paid this tax ? It is said they 
resist the rule by which the value of their road-bed 
in each county is ascertained, and therefore resist 
the tax. But surely it should pay tax by some rule. 
Jf the rule adopted gives too large a valuation in 
some counties, it must be too small in others. What 
right have they to resist the tax in the latter case ? 
Is the whole tax void because the assessment is too 
large? >Should they pay nothing and escape wholly 
because they have been assessed too high ? These 
questions answer themselves. Before complainants 
seek the aid of the courts to be relieved of the exces- 
sive tax they should pay what is due; before they 
ask equitable relief they should do that justice which 
is necessary to enable the Court to hear them." 
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the 
United States, and there the decision of the Circuit 
Court was affirmed. 

These decisions, however, did not bring any money 
to the Treasury, nor did they settle the legal disputes 
with the railroad company. Afterwards tenders 
were made of such an amount as the company 
deemed to be due upon their own valuation of the 
pi-operty — for taxable purposes — and a receipt in full 
demanded, which the Collector declined to give, and 
the contest went on. 

The State and county tax levy for the year 1881- 
82 was as follows: State Fund, 65i cents; County 
General Fund, 'S-ih cents; County School Fund, IG 
cents; County Hospital Fund, 14 cents; County 
Eoad Fund, 10 cents; Total $1.10 on each $100. 
Special taxes were levied on each $100 in several 
School Districts as follows: Ophir School District, 
25 cents; Newcastle School District, 25 cents, Pen- 
ryn School District, 43 cents; and Dutch Flat School 
District, 20 cents. 

RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS. 

The Auditor reported the receipts and disburse- 
ments for the fiscal year ending October 1, 1881, as 
follows: — 

State poll tax $ 5,220 70 

School and hospital poll tax 5,351 60 

Eoad poll tax 5,272 20 

Delinquent State poll tax 543 15 

Delinquent road poll tax 526 50 

Liquor licenses _ 4,985 00 

Merchandise licenses. 1,321 50 

Brokers' licenses 318 00 

Theatre licenses 55 00 

Wagon licenses . . 75 00 

Packers' licenses 175 00 

Propagation licenses _ 80 00 

Fines 398 00 

State School Fund 3,736 56 

Treasurer's commission refunded by 

State _ _ 704 35 

Auditor's commission refunded by State 498 70 

Assessor's •■ '■ " 741 82 

Estrays . , 26 00 

Eecorder's fees 946 09 

Hospital pay patients 150 00 

Money refunded 237 59 

Migratory stock tax 133 20 



State school money. . _ 26,835 89 

Borrowed money. . 250 00 

Applicants for teachers' certificates ... 48 (tO 

Property tax, 1880-81 73,032 54 

Delinquent property tax, 1877-78 7 53 

■^ 1879-80 43 13 

•■ 1880-81 3,575 12 

Drainage tax 7,705 44 

Special School Tax 1,465 80 

Total received from all sources $144,454 43 

There was paid out during the fiscal year different 
amounts aggregating for each fund as follows: — 

State Fund . . $ 52,720 48 

County General Fund 36,762 70 

Hospital Fund 14,501 33 

County School Fund. ... 51 47 

District School Fund 35,348 49 

General Road Fund 5 ,922 56 

District Road Fund 6,389 5(i 

Library Fund 2,189 27 

Migratory Fund 245 46 

Total paid during year. $154,131 32 

These expenditures exceeded those of the preced- 
ing year, $18,612.09 

CAUSES OF FINANCIAI, E.MBARR.iSSMENT. 

The exceedingly large number of criminal cases. 
the refusal of the Central Pacific Railroad Company 
to pay its taxes, and the litigation forced upon the 
county by that company entailed expenses and 
embarrassments which exhausted the revenues of 
v\x county and compelled the issuance of scrip for 
the first time in manj' years — the issue aggregating 
about $10,000. At the close of the year the railroad 
company was delinquent in taxes about $70,000, and 
was still finding technicalities by which the collec- 
tion of the taxes could be avoided or deferred. 

Of the many criminal trials more than one-third 
were for offenses committed against the railroad com- 
pany. One of the most expensive trials wasihat of 
a number of men charged with attempting to wreck 
a train of cars near Cape Horn, August 31, 1881. 
This trial, occurring in October, November and 
December, cost the county near $15,000, during 
all which time the railroad company refused to pay 
its taxes, forcing a great indebtedness upon the 
county, and the disgrace of issuing scrip for its cur- 
rent expenses. 

CONCLUSION. 

A review of the financial history of Placer County 
gives evidence of a more than ordinarily well admin- 
istered condition of public affairs as compared with 
other county, State or municipal organization. The 
few errors committed appear to have been errors of 
judgment rather than of collusion, venality or crimin- 
ality, although some of the errors were quite serious. 
The transactions with the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company have been most embarrassing; fii-st. from 
the great promises made in inducing a subscription 
to its stock, followed by the refusal to pay taxes only 
upon rates of assessments made by the company's 



174 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



officers, the refusal to account to the county as a 
stockholder, the surreptitious manner of recovering 
the stock, the continued refusal to pay taxes, and 
the long and costly litigation enforced ujion the 
county thereby. In the suits with the railroad com- 
pany the countj' has always triumphed, only when 
compromises have been effected, and as this history 
closes the prospect is fair of a final success. With 
the large amount — some 870,000 — paid into the 
Treasury, the financial condition will again be good, 
and a new Court House, so much desired, can be 
built to replace the veteran building which was the 
pride of the people near a generation ago. 

JOSEPH WALKUP. 

To write the life of Governor Walkup would be 
to write the history of Placer County frooi 1849 to 
1873, the year of his demise; so active was he in all 
its public aitairs, partaking of its organizations and 
ttovernment, exercising throughout a supervisory 
care, as if the whole burden i-csted upon his stalwart 
shouldei's. and a trusting and confiding people 
depended upon him. upon his honor and abilitj^ to 
bear the trust, to labor for their prosperity and pro- 
tect their rights. So nobly and abl^" did he respond 
to the call, that he maj- well be called the " Father 
of his County." The history of l^lacer contains the 
story of his California life, even where his name is 
not mentioned, particularlj* in the preceding chapters 
on the political and financial history anterior to 1874. 

Joseph Walkup was born December 2r)th, the 
Christmas da}- of the year of our Lord 1810, at 
I'iqua in the County of Miami, State of Ohio. Ho 
w;is the third son of William and Sarah \Valkup, 
the family consisting of three sons and three daugh- 
ters. The father died in 183(5, after a long residence 
as a pioneer of Ohio, having settled in the pleasant 
valley of the ^liami early in the present century, 
when the Indian war-whoop and the names of 
Tecumseh, Pontiac. Black Hawk and Tippecanoe 
were familiar to the ears of the people. This was a 
stalwart family, as the blood of the ancestors proves 
in the high position and respectability of its numer- 
ous descendants. The elder brothers were, Hon. 
Hankin W^alLiup, who represented his native, Miami. 
District in several sessions of the Ohio Legislature, 
and Col. John Walkup. both distinguished men. In 
the daj-s of their youth, Ohio was a frontier State. 
having been a member of the Union but eleven years 
at the time of the birth of Joseph, and Indiana and 
Illinois just admitted, the former in 181(j and the 
latter in 1818, with populations sufficient to entitle 
I hem to representation iu Congress, then but little 
more than the population of Placer Count}' at the 
])resenl time. A vast wilderness f)f forest and 
prairie, of undulating hills and fertile river bottoms, 
abounding in game as deer, bear, wolves, foxes, rac- 
coons, srpiirrcls. turkeys, parti'idges, quail, grouse, 
pigeons and waterfowl as no other land of the 
invigorating north; making il a jiaradise to the 



sportsman, and the happiest of homes for the front- 
iersman wherein to i*ear a family to health, inde- 
pendence, courage and true manhood. In such a 
country, with such surroundings, Joseph Walkup 
spent his youth and grew to man's estate. 

In the society of the period, and in the far West, 
as was the country west of the AUeghanies, physical 
development, and moral and religious training were 
regarded as more important than scholastic culture: 
and the rudimentaiy schools of the country were 
regarded as sufficient to prepare youth for the 
aesthetic I'equii-ements of the world, the strong body, 
good habits, good sense, capacity for business, a 
manly trade, the country store or the farm being 
looked upon as the future dependence for livelihood, 
advancement and wealth; and one of the industrial 
courses all of respectability should pursue. The 
educational facilities were then very meager in com- 
parison to what they are at the present, but such 
as they were, young Joseph made the most of and 
acquired a fair knowledge of the elementaiy branches, 
which served him well in after years. At the age of 
seventeen he was left an orphan by the death of his 
father, and soon thereafter started in the world after 
that higher education, a tirade, to enable him to fight 
the liattles of life. Like his namesake of old, he 
became a carpenter. This trade he pursued indus- 
triously for a number of years, first in his native 
State and afterwards at New Orleans, adding ship 
and steamboat building to his art. In this he was 
engaged, acquiring a knowledge of the world and 
of business, when, in the prime of his strength and 
manhood came the news of the wonderful discoveries 
of gold in California, the newly-acquired territory on 
the distant Pacific slope. This exciting news aroused 
to enthusiasm all the enterprising and adventurous 
youth and young men of the land, and Joseph 
Walkup, then in his thirtieth 5'ear, Joined the throng 
for the regions of gold. 

Leaving New Orleans early in the spring of 1849, 
and procuring ox teams and an outfit in Missouri. 
crossed the plains, arriving in California in August 
of that year. Soon after his arrival in the fall of 1849, 
he located at Auburn, and in company with Samuel 
B. W'yman, engaged in business, establishing the 
mercantile house of Walkup & Wyman, so long and 
so favorably known to the people of Placer County. 
The acquisition of such a man, so upright in charac- 
ter, so steadfast in principle, so firm of purpose, yet 
genial, jovial, and of the manly cast as formed in the 
western and workingman's mould, was a fortunate 
circumstance for the place, as a light and standard 
of respectability, a magnetic influence and power of 
justice and good order. In those days of merchan- 
dising, when gold-dust was plentiful and prices high, 
the profits of business were large, and the firm was 
prosperous. As a merchant, an active business man 
and alive to public affairs, he soon became known 
to the people at large. 

In the ortranization of the State Government and 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



l7o 



sej^regation into countie.s, the County of Sutter was 
made to embrace all the western portion of Placer, 
including Auburn. In the Legislature of 1851, the 
County of Placer was created, and in the organiza- 
tion of this Mr. Wallvup was first called to official 
life. The Commissioners selected by the Legislature 
to designate the election precincts, appoint the 
officers of election, count the ballots and give com- 
missions to the successful candidates were Joseph 
Walltup, J. D. Fry, H. M. House, William (Jwynn 
and Jonathan Roberts. This duty was properly 
performed and the office ceased. 

While in business at Auburn, Messrs. Watkup & 
Wyman took possession of a large and fertile tract- 
of land where Auburn Ravine debouches upon the 
plain near the present site of Lincoln, and from 1851, 
devoted their principal time and energies to the 
development of that property as rancheros, cultivat- 
ing the land, raising and dealing in stock. The 
farming lessons of his youth, his skill as a carpenter 
and his business experience now came to the aid of 
Walkup, and greatly aided him in making the new 
enterprise a success, and this success led others to 
follow the example. As a pioneer and enterprising 
farmer he essayed the cultivation of wheat, and has 
the honor of harvesting the first crop of that cereal 
ever grown in the county. In July, 185:!, he reported 
as his harvest of that year, 1,100 bushels of barley 
and 1,600 bushels of wheat, realizing for the crop 
the sum of $7,000. His farming was diversified, 
cultivating the various garden vegetables, and plant- 
ing fruit trees and vines as well as producing grain, 
hay and cattle. Thus, for ten years he was the 
leading farmer of Placer. 

In August, 1852, he was unanimously nominated 
by the Democratic County Convention as the candi- 
date of the party for the State Senate, and at the 
election, which was held November 2d, received 
2,716 votes, his opponent on the Whig ticket, James 
B. Hale, receiving 2,l(i4, the majority for Walkup 
being 552. As a Senator, Mr. V^alkup at once took 
a high standing, which he maintained through his 
term of two years. After the close of his term of 
office in 1854, he made a visit to his- native home, 
remaining a few nionths and returning to the land 
of his adoption. Again in 1856 he was called to 
public life, being re-elected to the Senate over two 
opposing candidates, Hiram R. Hawkins on the 
American ticket, and Curtis J. Ilillj-er on the Repub- 
lican. At the meeting of the Senate, Mr. Walkup 
was chosen President /no /em., a complimentary 
expression of his dignity and worth. Daring this 
session he strove with all his power to enact laws 
that would enable his county to extricate itself from 
the heavy indebtedness that had accrued during 
the several years past, and in this he was successful, 
as is shown in the financial histoiy of the county. 
As a triumph of legislation, it is a brilliant example 
in the political history of California. Having been 
so instrumental in freeing his county from debt, and 



placing its business upon a cash basis, he struggled 
during the remainder of his life to so continue it and 
maintain its integrity. At this time the aftairs of 
the State Prison were in the worst possible condition, 
that institution being conducted under a lease and 
contract with (ien. James M. Estell, who had sub- 
let it to John F. McCauley and others. To rescue 
this from the grasp oi' the contractors, under whom 
it was costing the State an unreasonable amount of 
money and bringing humanity to utter degradation, 
was the aim and labor of Senator Walkup. In this, 
however, he did not immediately succeed, but the 
movement was afoot and subsequently the desired 
object was gained. 

So active, patriotic and drtcrniined an officer <lid 
not go unnoticed. Although not an eloquent s))oaker, 
he was a thorough business man, a clear-headed 
writer and earnest worker, therefore among his 
associates he obtained a high reputation, which soon 
became acknowledged throughout the State. Wirt, 
in his "Life of Patrick Henry," relates that when 
Mr. Henry opened the Continental Congress at Phil- 
adelphia, in 1774, with one of the grandest oratorical 
eiforts ever listened to b}' mortal ears, followed by 
the eloquent Lee, a Mr. (!hasc, a delegate from Mary- 
land, walked across the house to the seat of his col- 
league and said to him, in an under voice, " We 
might as well go home; we are not able to legislate 
with these men." But after the House came to 
details the same Mr. Chase was heard to remark, 
" Well, after all, I find these are but men, and in 
mutters of business but very roinmon men.'' 

As a worker did Joseph Walkup come to the 
front and make himself popular with the people of 
the State, and in the campaign of 1857 he was nom- 
inated as one of the standard bearers on the Demo- 
cratic ticket — John B. Weller for Governor and 
Joseph Walkup for Lieutenant-Governor. Upon 
receiving the nomination he resigned his position as 
Senator, having served one session, and in Septem- 
ber was triumphantly elected, leading the ticket by 
many votes. 

As Lieutenant-tTOvernor he was President of the 
Senate, over whose sessions he jiresidcd with dignity 
and great satisfaction to all. TTpon the adjournment of 
the Legislature the Sacramento Union, the leading 
paper of the State, and of opposite politics to Gov- 
ernor Walkup, said: — 

When the hour of 12 arrived yesterday ( .Monday 
April 26, 1858) Lieutenant-Governor Walkup rose, 
and, reading the joint resolution to adjoui'ii, ]irevi- 
ously adopted, declared the Senate adjourned .■<ine 
die. He exhibited the good taste not to make a 
speech on the occasion, but conducted himself like a 
straightforward, honest, business man. as he undoubt- 
edly is. Without making any pretension to extra 
qualifications, he is, as a ])residing otHcer, superior 
to any we have seen in that desk since the State was 
organized. The r;ieutenanl-Governor is a strong 
partisan, but he is, we believe, an honest one, and 
discharges his public duties without fear or favor. 



17G 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The Legislature had authorized a commission con- 
sisting of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and 
Secretarjr of State, to take charge of the State 
Prison, which was done, and Lieutenant-Governor 
Walkup was phiced in charge as Chief Warden. The 
condition of aft'airs at the prison, and of the prison- 
ers, was bad in the extreme, but with the enei-gy 
and business ability of Governor Walkup order was 
gradually restored, and the expenses greatly 
reduced, while the discipline of the prisoners and 
their condition were much improved. The leasing 
of the prison to Estell, its management, and the long 
controversy attending its recovery and settlement of 
damages, constitute imjiortant chapters in the polit- 
ical history of California. The expenditures at the 
prison, which had formerly been about i?25,U00 per 
month, were, under the management of Walkuj), 
brought down to $5,000. 

February 1, 1859, the Board of State Prison Com- 
missioners reported to the Legislature, adding the 
following note; — 

Great credit is due to Lieutenant-Governor Walkup 
for the rigid economy practiced in the management 
of the institution. He spent his whole time at the 
prison in discharging the duties of Chief Warden, 
and as there are some doubts whether the com- 
pensation allowed by the tenth section of the 
Act creating the Board can be legally drawn, we 
recommend legislating to remove the difficulty. He 
has received for his services only §7.5 per month, a 
compensation of course wholly inadequate to the 
position which he occupies. 

(Signed) John B. Weller, 

Fehrls Form an. 

In May, LS5'.l, the prison was returned to the 
keeping of the contractors under a writ of restitu- 
tion, the Act authorizing the Commissioners to take 
possession being declared unconstitutional, and Gov- 
ernor Walkup was relieved of further duties in that 
quarter. There remained, however, a controversy' 
regarding the payment of his salary while acting as 
Warden. The Statute under which the Board acted 
authorized the payment of §10 per diem to the 
Warden, and 175 per month for the expenses of each 
Commissioner. 

In the iiolitical campaign of 1860, Governor 
Walkup entered the list as a candidate for the Sen- 
ate, having received the nomination at the hands of 
the Democratic County Convention. In this cam- 
paign the Democratic party was divided into Breck- 
enridge and Douglas wings, Walkup adhering to the 
former as the i-egular nominee of the party for the 
Presidency, and, in his opinion, as representing the 
principles of the party and the Constitution. Four 
parlies were in the field, denominated Democratic, 
])ouglas Democratic, Eepublican and Union, and. 
notwithstanding the great popularity of Governor 
Walkup, which carried him largely ahead of his 
ticket, the honors were won by Philip AV. Thomas, 
as a Douglas Democrat. From this date his parly, 
for many years, was in a hopeless minority, yet he 



did not despair, but, believing himself right, contiu 
ued active in politics, and attempting such direction 
of affairs as he thought best for the country. 

In the spring of 1861 he again returned to the 
land of his nativity in the pleasant valley of the 
Miami, where he remained until the following spring. 
While there he formed a most happy matrimonial 
alliance, being married at Sidney, Shelby County, 
Ohio, on the 17th of April, 1862, by the Rev. W. B. 
Spence, to Miss Fjlizabeth A. Elliott, a resident of 
that place. Shortly after the marriage, he returned, 
with his fair bride, to Placer County, arriving near 
the close of May, 1862, most heartily welcomed by 
his many friends, and congratulated upon his happy 
change of condition, and Mrs. Walkup as warmly 
received, as a most gratifying addition to the society 
she was destined in the future to adorn. Governor 
Walkup now made his home in Auburn, where he 
continued to reside. 

As usual he continued in the poiiticiil arena, and 
in the Democratic County Convention of August, 
1862, represented Auburn as one of its delegates, 
liy this Convention he was nominated for the Senate 
as maintaining the organization of the party with- 
out hope of election, the Republicans being in the 
majority. Then the terrible war of the Rebellion 
was raging, and men's passions wore aroused to 
overpower their judgment. Walkup had grown to 
manhood and to maturity in the West and South, 
impressed with the sacredness of the Constitution 
and the constitutionality and patriarchal origin of 
the institution of slavei-y; devoted to the principle of 
the independence of the States in all domestic mat- 
ters and that this was essential to maintaining the 
liberties of the people from encroachment by the 
overwhelming votes of great States or the centrali- 
zation of power in a distant and unappreciative cen- 
tral government, and that the Democratic party was 
the embodiment of these principles. With these 
principles so deeply imbedded into his being so as to 
become his gospel of faith, he could admit of no rea- 
son or excuse for the rise of a party in opposition 
which threatened to overthrow and obliterate every 
tenet of his sacred dogmas. With manj^ Demo- 
crats of like education and belief, he maintained that 
coercion was unconstitutional and was unnecessary- 
to preserve the LTnion, and these principles he con- 
scientiously .maintained throughout the fearful strug- 
gle and through the period of reconstruction. 

l)uring several succeeding years Governor Walkup 
remained in private life, enjoying his well-earned 
honors and fortune in a happy domestic life, spending 
a portion of his time among his friends in the East, 
whither he went in 1865 with his family, now 
increased by a promising daughter. Miss Jeanette E., 
born at Auburn, February 23, 1864. A son, Charles 
Carrol Walkup, born at Auburn, on the 27th of Jan- 
uary, 1863; died in infancy. In November, 1867. 
Governor Walkup became editorially connected with 
the r/acer Jlerald, but did not announce himself as 




Photographed by J. M, Jacobs 



Joseph WalkiLp. 



FINANCIAL HISTORY. 



177 



editor and proprietor until the 11th of January, 1868. 
In his " Introductory" he expresses his lasting faith 
in the principles of ■' the great, everlasting, orthodox 
truths of the American Democracy," which he would 
continue to advocate, with what ability, nature, 
education, and experience had bestowed upon him. 
In conclusion he says: — 

" To the interests of Placer County we will devote 
much time and space. Her interests, her rights, and 
her welfare lie near our heart, we having been a 
citizen of her territory long before she was a coun- 
ty, and, having continued to make this our home 
for more than eiyhteen years, we feel that her inter- 
ests and prosperity are in a measure our own. 
Throughout her whole history we have labored 
with all the ability we possessed, for her honor, pi-os- 
perity, and welfare, advocating what we deemed for 
her good, and opposing (no matter who favored) 
every measure we regarded as being injurious to her 
or her citizens." 

With bis editorial responsibility, in the interest of 
the count}' which he regarded as his own, he assumed 
a task of Herculean magnitude. In this contest was 
the battle of his life. However much he has distin- 
guished himself in the politics of the State and in 
the restoration of his beloved county to a cash pay- 
ing basis, and placing her superior to any in the 
State, his career as an editor outshone all his former 
efforts in its ability, self-sacrifice, adherence to prin- 
ciple, incorruptiblencss and steadfast purpose in the 
interest of the people. A great and selfish monopoly 
dominated the politics and business of the county, 
aided by its money and enjoying its protection, yet 
adding burdens to its Treasury, and refusing its just 
quota of taxation. To correct this evil, and protect 
the interests of the county were the objects of his 
greatest efforts, and most vigorously and ably did he 
maintain the contest. Much he wod as the immedi- 
ate result of his labors, and his statements and 
arguments made such an impression as to effect the 
policy of his county and the State through many 
subsequent yeai's when the author had ceased life's 
contests and gone where the weary are at rest. 

This monopoly was the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company, whose contests upon the subjects of sub- 
sidy and taxation are related in the financial histoiy 
of the county. This controversy led to personal ani- 
mosities where friendship had formerly existed, and 
to annoying litigation. In the latter, however, he 
triumphed, but it embittered the closing years of his 
life. Bitterly did he denounce those who bowed 
down before the railroad power, either through fear, 
for the patronizing influences of wealth, in the hopes 
that thrift might follow fawning, or by the direct 
bribery of gold in hand. Whether friend or foe, 
Democrat or other, he spared none who dishonestly 
deserted a public cause for that of an oppressing cor- 
poration. As an example of his vigorous treatment 
of his derelict party is the following. In 1870 the 
State was governed by the Democracy, over whose 



success at the election in 1869 Governor Walkup 
rejoiced with exceeding great joy. The Democratic 
Legislature not only refused to pass any bill affect- 
ing fares and freights, or other measure demanded 
by the people, respecting the railroad, but enacted 
a subsidy law whereby certain counties were empow- 
ered to subscribe $6,000 per mile in aid of a rail- 
road through them, and had defeated a bill to pre- 
vent Chinese being employed in constructing the 
roads so subsidized. Upon the defeat of the last- 
named bill. Governor Walkup, in the Herald, said: 

How must these Senators feel after such an act of 
injustice against the very men who voted for them 
and pay the taxes they thus squander on Mongo- 
lian labor. The white men now ])ay $120,000 a j-ear 
to a single company that denies them employment, 
and pays their hard-earned taxes over to Chinese 
laborers. Some of those same Senators voted for 
bills to crush the white taxpayers in aid of railroads 
through the southern counties, and then turn and 
vote to allow the companies to employ Chinese on 
the works, to the exclusion of the very white men 
taxed to pay Mongolians. Could infamy be more 
infamous ? We have the names of these Senators, 
and shall publish them, that all white men may be 
warned against voting for them should they ever in 
the future aspire to public positions. These Senators 
were quite willing to vote a debt on the white tax- 
payers of Kern County of some ^480,000, but when 
asked to vote for a bill which would compel the 
recipients of this vast sum to expend the money on 
white laborers, they refuse. This was a bill to which 
there could be no constitutional objections, and cow- 
ardice, fear of a wealthy corporation, or downright 
treachery governed their action. Onc'Senator said 
he should like to vote for the bill, but that his desire 
for railroads was so superior to the white laborer (or 
language to that effect) that he must vote against it. 
Most assuredly the white voter will think too much 
of himself to vote for such men for office in the future. 
White men must be taxed to build railroads, but 
their money must be spent in the employment of 
Chinese to do the work, though their wives and 
children should beg for bread. This is the Democ- 
racy of a few Senators and Assemblymen now at 
Sacramento, whose constituents to a man, condemn 
them and their votes on this bill. The individual 
who uses his own money, has a right to employ 
whom he pleases, but when the taxpayer is forced to 
furnish the means, he has a right to a voice as to 
who shall perform the labor and receive the money. 
These Senators could vote to saddle a debt ou the 
white people of Stanislaus, Merced, Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern Counties, in magnitude nearly equal to the 
whole value of their real properly, and then vote in 
effect to prohibit these white people from getting 
work on the road, so as to get part of this money 
back. The doctrines of the Democracy in the last 
campaign, were the discouragement of Chinese 
immigration and coolie labor, but here is a direct 
bid for flooding the country with beastlj'. heathenish, 
coolie slaves, to the exclusion of white laborers. 
And professed Democrats support the infamous 
measure! Mark them, we say, that they may never 
again be placed in a position to deceive and betray 
the members of our party. The Democracy need 
no such men, and will be infinitely stronger, more 
powerful and numerous without such than with 
them. Their room is decidedly preferred to their 
company. Joy to these few proclaimed Democrats 



33 



178 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



— they have found their affinities, and should find 
comfort in Chinese association, for whom they legis- 
late. 

But the editorial labors of Governor AValkup were 
not confined to railroad and party matters alone, as 
all the interests and resources of the countj' were 
carefully attended to, and the miscellaneous matter 
of the paper was made very interesting and instruct- 
ive. Although entering the editorial chair late in 
life, he succeeded remarkably well as a writer, and 
made a readable and useful paper. With a strong 
mind in a large and strong body, he was enabled 
to do a great amount of work as the well-filled 
columns of his paper proved. In 1872, he suffered 
from a severe attack of sickness and in August, 1873, 
ho was prostrated with the malady that a few 
months later returned with fatal effect. On the 
15th of October, 1873, while engaged at his duties 
in the office of the Herald, Governor Walkup was 
stricken with paralysis, and died in about one hour 
from the moment of the attack, retaining conscious- 
ness a sufficient length of time to show those who 
flocked to his assistance, that he fullj' realized his 
condition and was resigned to his fate. His age was 
fifty-three years, nine months and sixteen days. 
He died in the same office, and in nearly the same 
manner as his most cherished friend, and ex-editor 
of the Herald, Hon. James Anderson, seven years 
and three days before. Of these deaths the Herald 
said, •• Both served the people of Placer in the State 
Senate and acquired reputations for honesty, 
integrity and ability." But they have •' crossed the 
river," and now they lie side by side in the same 
burial lot in the Odd Fellow's Cemetery, here in 
Auburn. 

" In lite tliere is death " — tnily 

" Leaves have their time to fall 
And Howers to wither at the nortli wind's breath, 

And stars to set — but all, 
Thou hast r;/? seasons for thine own; Death! 

We know when moons shall wane, 
When summer birds from far shall cross the sea, 

When autumn's hue shall tinge the golden grain — 
But who shall teach us when to look for Thee ? " 

The sudden death of Governor Walkup created a 
marked sensation at his home and throughout the 
State, dying, probably as he would have wished, iu 
the harness of his duties, laboring for the public. So 
his brother, Hon. Rankin Walkup had died at his 
home in Columbus, Ohio, December 27, 18G9, also in 
the fifty-fourth j-ear of his age, enjoying roBust 
health to the moment of his death, which was caused 
by the rupture of a blood-vessel in the brain. Gov. 
Walkup was not an aged man at the time of his 
death, but in that period which Victor Hugo defines 
as the youth of old age. He had lived an active 
and useful life, performing his duties as God had 
made him to see them, and in the nature of mankind 
could look forward to many years of usefulness, and 
an old age of happy content. With a most amiable 
and loving family, a well-earned fame and a compe- 
tencj' of worldly goods, a pleasant home in a lovely 



village, bearing the esteem and respect of all around 
him, there seemed much to live for, and universal 
regrets followed him to the grave. 

The journalistic career of Governor Walkup con- 
tinued through a period of about six years, during 
which time he spread his name and doctrines over 
the State; a powerful enemy to oppi'ession and 
wrong, and a bulwark of defense to the weak and to 
justice. From Augu.st, 1872, he was associated with 
and assisted by Mr. J. A. Fileher in the conduct of 
the Herald, this gentleman ably seconding his efforts 
and continuing in the course so ably marked out by 
his predecessor. 

Mrs. Walkup and Miss Jeanette E. Walkup, after 
their sad bereavement visited their friends in the 
East, and returned to their home in Auburn where 
they still reside, prominent and highly appreciated 
members of society. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

MINING. 



Antiquity of Mining History — Ancient and Modern Mining — 
Gold — Silver — Copper — Iron — Coal — Australia — California — 
Nevada — Idria Quicksilver Mine — Character and Uses of Gold 
—Of Silver— Of Copper— Of Iron— Tin-Chromium— Tellu- 
rium. 

Iron is heaped in mountain piles, 
And gluts the laggard forges; 
But gold-flakes gleam in dim defiles 

And lonely gorges. — Holland. 

The history of mining is co-eval with the earliest 
civilization on the earth. Far beyond all written 
history is the history of the rocks, of caves in the 
earth, of mounds built by human hands and of tombs. 
These simply tell us that in some remote period of 
undefined time, man lived, and in successive ages of 
development used implements of stone and then of 
metal to aid the work of his hands. Few of the 
metals that are abundant and of use, can remain in 
a pure state through unnumbered years. Copper, 
tin and gold exist pure in nature, and these would 
be the first to be utilized by man, but the gold being 
in small quantities, and not equal in usefulness in 
the manuflicture of weapons or other implements, 
would be most neglected by the savage. In caves 
tombs and mounds, are found implements of bronze, 
and archiBologists have given the name of the "Bronze 
Age " to the period when the first miners lived. 
Quite an advanced stage of civilization must exist 
when metals are mined and manipulated, and 
undoubtedly writing of some character soon followed. 
In our own time is seen man in the various ages of 
development, from the era of the " Stone Age." The 
Indian, as he was originally found in California and 
Nevada, living in a country abounding in minerals 
and metals in their pui-e state, was literally of the 
" Stone Age." The Indians of Mexico, at the period of 
the Spanish Conquest, were so far advanced as to 
make slight use of gold as ornaments, and copper 



MINING. 



179 



in use, but it is disputed and doubtful if they had 
ever mined for silver, or had the knowledge to 
extract it from its ores, although the romancists who 
accompanied or followed Cortez, told of a high civil- 
ization and an abundance of silver. The oldest 
written history speaks familiarly of gold and silver 
as money and ornaments, and of iron and brass in 
various uses. Mining and the refining of metals 
were arts practiced before the days of Abraham, and 
the exact pei-iod when the discoveries of the methods 
of converting the ores into useful metals is lost in 
the obscurity of past and unrecorded time. 

The discovery of gold and the first mining in 
California has been told in the early pages of this 
work. 

A few years since Captain John Faul, a well-known 
and skillful mining engineer, wrote for the Placer 
Herald a series of articles upon the antiquity of 
mining, the nature and use of metals, from which 
are taken the following extracts, pertinent to the 
subject and useful to the dweller in the region of 
the mines. 

ANCIENT AND MODERN MINING — GOLD. 

Mining of almost every description has been 
known from the remotest ages. In the time of 
Queen Elizabeth, gold was found in the alluvial soil 
near the lead hills of Scotland, and in Cornwall in 
several of the stream-works of that county; one 
specimen weighed as much as ten grains. A few 
years ago, as much as 1,000 ounces were found in 
the alluvial soil at Croghan Kinshela, County Wick- 
low, Ireland; one piece weighed twentj'-two ounces, 
and in this instance it was alloyed with silver. 

The richest gold mines in Europe are those of 
Hungary and Transylvania, in which about 20,000 
workmen are employed, part of them in the Govern- 
ment mines and part in those worked by private 
enterprise. The mines of Schemnitz in Lower 
Hungary, have been known ever since the twelfth 
century. They lie in a small basin in the midst of 
barren mountains. All the mines terminate in a 
common level about 600 feet below the surface, from 
whence the water is conveyed by means of a sub- 
terranean adit twelve miles long. 

The veins of the Hungarian mines are the largest 
in Europe, being rai'ely less than from eighteen to 
twenty-five feet, and in some places or parts upwards 
of 120 feet thick. At Ki-emnitz, in the same country, 
mines of gold and silver have been worked for at 
least 1,000 j'ears, in veins of a mountain of white 
quartz containing silver, also gold. 

Joachimsthal, in Bohemia has long been celebrated 
for its mines, situated in steep, rugged mountains, 
intersected by deep valleys, which allow of numerous 
levels to the various works being opened in their 
sides. One level by which the mines are drained, 
extends to a distance of 34,000 feet, and is 1,140 feet 
below the top of the mountain. But in some places 
operations have been carried on to the still 
greater depth of 2,100 feet. The product of the 



Bohemia mines altogether, is stated to be onlj- about 
2,000 ounces annually. But this arises rather from 
the works being neglected, in consequence of the 
superior richness of the Hungarian mines, than from 
any defieiencj- in the ores of Bohemia. 

SILVER. 

Sweden and Norway possess fertile mines. From 
those at Konigsberg in the latter kingdom, large 
masses of native silver have been obtained. The 
annual product is about 5,000 pounds weight of this 
metal. One mine at Konigsberg is 2,250 feet deep. 

Silver abounds in the Altai Mountains of northern 
Asia. The most important mines, those of Kolyvan, 
produced in less than 100 years about 1,300,000 
pounds of silver, and 40,000 pounds of gold. 

The mines of Huantajaya, in Peru, used to furnish 
annually from 70,000 to 80,000 marks (the mark is 
eight ounces troy) of silver, derived either from the 
native metal, found in large masses, from chloride of 
silver, or from sulphurets and other ores. 

The mines of Potosi have long been celebrated as 
surpassing all others. These mines are in a mountain 
of that name, near the source of the river Plata 
(silver), which derived its appellation from that 
circumstance. The mountain, one of the most con- 
siderable in the country, is in the form of a sugar- 
loaf, six leagues in circumference and 4,200 feet high. 
It is filled from top to bottom with veins of silver 
ore of the richest quality, and the whole mountain 
is perforated in every direction by the drifts exca- 
vated in the pursuit of it. The mine was registered 
according to the laws of the Government, on the 
2l8t of April, 1545. Since that time it has been 
wrought constantly, and the quantity of silver it 
has yielded is so immense, that it is useless to attempt 
to describe its value. It is said the mountain is 
completely excavated, being perforated by about 
300 shafts, few of which, however, exceed seventy 
yards in depth. Since the first discovery of this 
mine, the ore has materiallj' deteriorated in quality, 
the best having been earliest exhausted. The abun- 
dance of the ore is, however, so great that the mine 
can still be worked with profit, the actual quantity 
of silver extracted from it having fallen off only in 
the ratio of four to one. 

The Mexican mines are the most productive on 
the Western Continent. There are thirtj'-seven 
mining districts, comprising no less than 500 places 
celebrated for their silver mines, which are about 
3,000 in number, and contain from 4,000 to 5,000 
beds or veins of ore. 

The most remarkable of the mining districts is 
that of Guanaxuato, owing to the immense richness 
of the La Kux vein. But it is impossible to deter- 
mine, with anything like accuracy, in what particu- 
lar locality the precious metals are the most abun- 
dant. The quantities of gold, silver, and mercury, 
which, during a little more than 300 years, have been 
obtained from the South American Continent, can 
never now be known. 



IfsO 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



When it is remembered that the mining opera- 
tions, for the most p:irt, have been condacted in the 
roughest manner, with imperfect tools and machin- 
ery, and with unskilled laborers and managers, the 
wonder is that the results have been so profitable. 
Slill, this is only an additional proof of the vast 
treasures the country has contained, and which, on 
the best authorities, it is stated are, at the present 
time, in a sense, inexhaustible. 

As an illustration of the productiveness of the 
country, we may mention the great vein of Potosi, 
and which made the mountain so famous. It 
Mp])eared a little below the surface, near the apex, 
and could be seen about seven yards wide, for more 
than 1,000 feet down the slope. Its depth and 
breadth were so direct and the quantitj* of ore so 
great, that for forty years it was worked without 
artificial light. 

COPPER. 

The most extensive system of mines in Cornwall 
are those called the Consolidated Mines, near Red- 
ruth. They are situated on a range of hills from 
200 feet to 300 feet above the level of the sea, the 
deepest of the shafts reaching 1,370 feet below the 
level of the sea. So numerous are the shafts that it is 
calculated that their united length is equal to twenty 
miles; while that of the excavated galleries, levels, 
and adits amounted to fifty miles. 

These mines are kept free of water by means ot 
nine large steam-engines; eight others of smaller size 
are emploj-ed for raising ore and doing other work, 
and six water-wheels contribute their aid, besides 
horse-whims. This immense mass of machinery, it 
is calculated, is equivalent to the labor of 4,500 
horses. The annual average quantity of copper 
obtained from the ore is upwards of 1,500 tons, 
whilst the number of persons immediately employed 
in the various processes exceed 2,500, of whom about 
1,600 are employed underground. 

Next to the above-named mine is the Dolcoath. 
This mine has been worked to the depth of 1,400 
feet, and, with the aid of the different lodes laid 
open, the mine has been in constant operation for 
above 100 j'ears. 

Now comes the Botallack mine, which is remark- 
able for its romantic and singular situation. It lies 
on the northwestern coast of Cornwall, near St. Just. 
The entrance to this mine is in the rock immediately 
overhanging the sea, and the works are carried 
many hundred feet under the bed of the ocean. 
The roar of the waves during a storm can be heard 
in the levels beneath, producing a most appalling 
effect. 

Besides those in Cornwall, copper mines are 
worked in Spain, France, Austria, Transylvania. 
Prussia. Saxony, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Mexico, 
Australia and America. The principal copper mine 
in Sweden is the celebrated one of Fahlun, in the 
province of Ballcarlia. This mine is avast chasm, 
formed by the artificial excavations for the ore, the 



bed of which is not above a mile in extent. The 
descent to the first gallery is by wooden ladders, 
and from thence by winding steps cut in the rock, 
made so commodious that horses ascend and descend 
by them to bring out the ore. 

It is said that this mine was worked before the 
Christian era; but all that is certainly known is that 
it has been so ever since 1347. The ore is extremely 
poor, yielding on an average not more than one and 
one-half per cent, of pure metal. The water which 
collects in the mine contains a little sulphate of cop- 
per. As it is pumped up, it is conveyed slowly 
through long troughs containing pieces of old iron. 
In this way the copper is precipitated, and adds a 
little to the profits of the workings. The part of 
the mine open to the sky is of a funnel shape, resem- 
bling the crater of a volcano. It was originally a 
mine of the usual construction, but in consequence 
of the numerous levels and gallaries excavated, and 
sufficient attention not being paid to propping up 
the roofs, in 16(J6 the the whole central mass fell in, 
and thus formed the present open basin. A princi- 
pal level is carried from the bottom of the crater, 
and other shafts sunk so that the deepest part is 
upwards of 1,200 feet below the surface. There are 
stables in these subterranean places for horses, who 
never see the light of day, and there is a wainscoted 
chamber for the Council to meet in. By an old cus- 
tom, each King on his ascension to the throne of 
Sweden, visits the mine, and inscribes his name on 
the walls of this apartment. 

IRON. 

Sweden is also proverbial for furnishing the best 
iron, which, I believe, is obtained from the mines of 
Dannemora. These mines, like those of Fahlun, are 
immense open excavations, the descent being made 
in buckets. The act of being raised or lowered in 
these vessels is rather a formidable undertaking for 
a stranger. While a visitor to the mine was occa- 
sionallj' compelled to shut his eyes to avoid giddiness, 
he was passed by three girls, ascending in another 
bucket, who, while standing on its edge, and holding 
the rope by one hand were knitting with the other 
with perfect unconcern. The descent of 500 feet 
occupied five minutes. Since the visit referred to, 
the depth and extent of the mines have been won- 
derfully increased. 

The iron mines at Persberg, about two and one- 
half miles from Philipstadt, are perhaps the most 
interesting and romantic excavations of this kind in 
the world. The mountain:; in which they are situ- 
ated are entirely composed of iron ore, and are thir- 
teen in number. Dr. Clark, who visited these mines, 
states that, familiar as he is with mines, his astonish- 
ment at beholding these exceeded anything he had 
ever before felt on such occasions. For grandeur of 
effect, filling the mind with wonder amounting to 
awe, there is no place where human labor is exhibited 
under circumstances more tremendously striking 
" As we draw near the wide open abyss, a vast and 



MINING. 



LSI 



sudden prospect of yawning caverns and prodigious 
machinery prepared us for the descent. We ap- 
proached the edge of the dreadful gulf whence the 
ore is raised, and ventured to look down, standing 
on the verge of a platform constructed over it in such 
a manner as to command a view as far down as the 
eye could penetrate, for to the sight it appeared 
bottomless. Immense buckets, suspended by rat- 
tling chains were passing up and down, and we could 
perceive ladders scaling all the inward precipices, 
upon which the work people, reduced to pigmies in 
size, were ascending and descending. Far below the 
furthest of these, a deep and gaping gulf opened to 
the lowermost pits. The clanking of ihe chainsi 
the groaning of the pumps, the hallooing of the miners; 
the creaking of the blocks and wheels, the tramping 
of horses, the beating of hammers, and the loud and 
frequent subterranean thunder from the blasting, 
combined to produce an overpowering effect. 

" The ladders for descent, instead of being placed 
on platforms, as in the Cornish mines, are lashed 
together in one unbroken line for many fathoms, and 
being warped to suit the inclination of the sides of 
the precipices, are not always perpendicufer, but 
hang over in some places, so that, if the feet were to 
slip, and the person held fast by his hands, he would 
hang over the gulf. These ladders have only wooden 
staves, broken and rotten in many places, covered 
with frozen ice and mud, so that the hands are 
numbed and rendered unable to grasp firmly. 

"As we descended deeper, large masses of ice 
appeared on the sides of the rock. Ice is raised in 
the buckets with the ore and rubble of the mine. 
After much fatigue and no small apprehension, we 
reached the bottom, and were hurried along a vaulted 
level with a pi'odigious cavern, where, amidst falling 
waters, tumbling rocks, steam, ice and gunpowder, 
fifty miners were in active employment in a din of 
noise that rendered all conversation impracticable." 

In Cornwall there are about 160 mines at woi'k, 
giving direct emploj-ment to at least 30,000 persons, 
and probably maintaining 100,000. The value of the 
metals — chiefly copper and tin — raised annually in 
this district is about £1,500,000. 

COAL. 

In the coal districts of Durham and Northumber- 
land the number of pits, or collieries, is about 200, 
covering an area of 67,000 acres, and supplying 
employment to about 32,000 men and boys. 

Thirty years ago these two counties produced 
only 4,000,000 tons of coal per annum; in 18.57, the 
quantity raised was 17,000,000 tons. 

AUSTKAHA. 

In 1851 the gold-fields of Australia were discovered. 
Mr. E. H. Hargrave, who had mined in California, 
was the first to make it known to the Colonial Gov- 
ernment, and he was awarded the sum of 310,000 for 
the important intelligence. In little more than three 
years it was estimated that the gold obtained in and 



actually exported from the Australian Colonies was 
equal in value to .£50,000,000. 

CALIFORNIA. 

But for many years America furnished by far the 
greater portion of the gold employed throughout the 
world. The discovery of gold hei-e in California, the 
vast number of people attracted hither, the changes 
suddenly wrought in the aspects of a comparatively 
unknown country, and the almost fabulous quantities 
of gold obtained in a few yeai's, are events recent 
and well known. The progress made with the last 
few years in developing the resources of the State is 
wonderful. Many rich mines have been discovered, 
such as the Amadors, the Eurekas, and the Idahos, 
the latter of which returned and paid in dividends 
last year upwards of §200,000, the rock paj'ing over 
$35 per ton; and still there are hundreds such ledges 
hidden in the bowels of mother earth, teeming with 
riches, and awaiting the explorer's pick, softly whis- 
pering "seek and ye shall find." 

NEVADA. 

The silver mines situated on Mount Davidson, 
Washoe, are, like the Potosi of old, inexhaustible. 
The excavations made, the number of tons of rock 
taken out, and the amount of bullion returned in so 
short a period, far surpasses any ever known since 
the annals of mining. 

Years hence the history of California mines will 
be I'ead with gi-eat interest, and be handed down 
from generation to generation till time shall be no 
more. 

The quicksilver mines are the richest in the world, 
and have made greater returns than any mines ever 
known. 

IDRIA QUICKSILVER .MINE. 

This once most celebrated mine is situated in 
Carniola, a Duchy of Austria, and has been worked 
from the beginning of the sixteenth century. History 
informs us that it was first discovered by a peasant 
taking water from a spring to try a new tub, who 
was astonished at finding some metallic globules left 
at the bottom of the vesisel. On making the circum- 
stance known, surveys immediately took place, 
which gave rise to the opening of the mine in 1525. 
The metallic vein is situated about 720 feet below the 
surface. It extends 2,-100 feet in one direction, and 
3,000 in another, and lies in a valley elevated 500 
feet above the level of the sea. There are six shafts 
to the mine, three of which are for drawing up the 
mineral, and one for pumping out the water. The 
mine is entered from within a spacious building, in 
the middle of the town of Idria, by a passage lead- 
ing almost horizontally under a lofty vault to a 
staircase of stone and wooden steps, which are kept 
in excellent repair, reaching to a depth of 450 feet. 

The remainder of the descent is accomplished by 
wooden ladders conducting from one landing place 
to another, having benches for the weary traveler 
to rest on. The whole mine is kept remarkably 



181 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



clean and in good order. The teoaperature in some 
parts of the mine is from 80° to 90°. The mineral 
products are so varied and confused together, that 
the mine is unlike any other in the world in which 
operations are carried on. In some parts, pure 
mercury distills in globules from the rock, and a 
miner is said to have collected thirty-six pounds in 
this manner in six hours. The ore is raised in square 
buckets by means of a water-wheel turned by an 
artificial canal from the Idrixa. Besides the metallic 
mercury obtained from the ore by distillation, all 
the important preparations of mercury used in the 
arts and in medicine, are either found naturallj' or 
are manufactured at Idria, in spacious laboratories 
erected for the purpose. In 1803 the works were 
set on fire, and the only method of subduing the 
flames was by inundating the mine with water. 
Full one year elapsed before the water was pumped 
out and operations resumed. There are upwards ot 
700 persons eraploj'ed, who, from the great heat of 
the mine and the unwholesome effluvia of the mineral, 
suffer very severely in their health. 

They soon lose their teeth from salivation, and 
are subject to paralysis, convulsions and premature 
old age. In fact, the inhabitants are universally 
afllicted with toothache, and few live to the age of 
forty. 

The miners become so impregnated with mercury, 
that a piece of brass put in their mouths, or rubbed 
between their fingers, becomes white like silver. 
Criminals and persons accused of political offenses 
are set to work in this fatal mine for punishment." 

CHARACTER AND USES OF GOLD. 

Gold has been known from the earliest ages. It 
is by no means a rare metal, though not so univer- 
sally diffused as iron, load, silver or copper. Its 
superior value depends, like all other costly sub- 
stances, on its comparative scarcity and the amount 
of labor requisite to obtain it. Its specific gravity 
is 19.5, about nineteen times heavier than water, or 
nearly as great as that of platinum. It is inelastic, 
soft and more malleable and ductile than any other 
of the metals. It can be hammered into leaves only 
the .282 part of an inch in thickness without losing 
its adhesion, so that one grain in weight is made to 
cover 56J- square inches. 

In this state of thinness, it is found to admit of 
the green rays of light passing through it. In 
tenacity, however, gold is inferior to iron, copper, 
platinum or silver. A wire one-tenth of an inch in 
diameter will only support a weight of 191 pounds. 
The greatest quantities of gold in most counti'ies, 
have been met with in the sands of rivers and on the 
surface of the earth, in small grains or pieces of 
irregular forms and sizes. At Sofala, on the south- 
east side of the peninsula, gold is found not only in 
alluvium, but also in veins. It is conjectured that 
the Ophir of Scripture was situated on that coast. 

The high value which has always been set upon 



gold, its immense importance to commerce, its 
beauty as personal and domestic ornaments, the labor 
required to obtain it, and the privations and suffer- 
ings endured by those employed in searching for it, 
have caused an interest to be attached to it which 
belongs to no other metal, and indeed to no other 
natural product among the many which man has 
pressed into his service. Although in a sense, gold 
might be said to be imperishable, and from its value 
and utility is very carefully preserved, yet it inust 
be remembered that there are many ways in which 
it is lost and destroyed. The gold coins in circula- 
tion are constantly losing something in size and 
weight by the attrition of fair wear and tear, to say 
nothing of the frauds practiced in reducing them for 
purposes of gain. Immense quantites of gold arc 
used for watch-cases and jewelry, and in gilding and 
ornamenting thousands of articles of taste and 
luxur}^. 

That portion in daily use is subject to continual 
waste, whilst gold-leaf and chloride of gold as applied 
to photography, must be reckoned as among the 
uses to which the metal is applied and irrecoverably 
lost. Nor must we omit to mention the gold used 
in dentistry — difficult to think of, or to estimate, but 
amounting to many hundreds of ounces annually, 
and is as liable to waste by wear and tear, as that 
employed solely for ornaments. Large sums are 
lost by shipwrecks, in conveying coin or bullion 
from one country to another for the purposes of 
trade. Hence the difficulty, or more properly speak- 
ing, the impossibility of knowing what is the actual 
amount or value of gold existing in the world, either 
coined, manufactui-ed, or in the form of bullion. 

The principal uses of gold in civilized countries, 
are either for vessels and ornaments, or for money. 
For the latter purpose it is particularly well adapted 
by its qualities. Its power of resisting the action of 
the atmosphere, and of not oxydizing or rusting, as 
most other metals do, causes coins made of it to last, 
and retain their color and the sharpness of the 
impression stamped upon them, for a great many 
years. Gold is never used quite pure for the pui-pose 
of coining, because, in that state it would be too soft 
to bear the constant rubbing to which it would be 
subjected in circulating as money. In England, gold 
for coin is alloyed with two parts of copper to 
twenty-two of pure gold. The beauty of its color, 
its brilliance, as well as its intrinsic value, causes 
gold to be much employed as a luxury in ornaments 
for the person, in vessels and plate for the table, and 
in furniture. The gold thread lased in embroidery 
is obtained by casting a cylinder of silver of about 
360 ounces in weight, which is then covered with a 
coating of gold leaves weighing altogether about 
six ounces, thus making in all about 366 ounces. 
This cylinder is drawn through holes in iron plates, 
gradually diminishing in diameter, till it is extended 
into a thin wire, as thin as a hair, and above 200 
miles in length. To effect this it is passed through 



MINING. 



183 



more than 140 holes. And yet this fine wire is, 
throughout its whole length, composed of a silver 
wire equally covered with a coating of gold which 
cannot exceed 1-490,444 part of an inch in thickness. 
If this wire be dipped into nitrous acid, which dis- 
solves silver but not gold, the silver central core is 
removed, leaving the thin coating of gold like a 
hollow cylinder. This is perhaps the nearest approach 
to the ultimate subdivision of matter attainable bj' 
mechanical means. 

If a solution of gold be made in nitro-muriatic 
acid, and a bar of pure tin bo dipped into the liquid, 
the powder which is precipitated is known as the 
purple precipitate of Cassius, and so called from its 
inventor. It is generally used for forming purple 
and violet colors in enamel and porcelain painting. 
A preparation of gold is obtained from a solution in 
nitro-muriatic acid, which is called fulminating gold 
from its exploding with great violence on being 
slightly heated or struck, or even rubbed. In these 
qualities it is only infei'ior to fulminating silver. 
This compound is used in porcelain painting for 
giving a carmine tint. 

It is roughly estimated in history that before the 
discover}^ of gold in California and Australia, the 
total annual yield of gold from all parts of the world 
did not exceed in value £5,500,000. Eeckoning this 
at the usual rate of £4 per ounce (this is the com- 
Tnercial mode of reckoning as being short and conven- 
ient), it will be equal to 1,375,000 troy ounces. If 
these be converted into the (avoii'dupois) weight of 
commerce, as applied to merchandise, it will be equal 
to 42 tons, 1 cwt., 9 lbs., 3 grs. This statement is 
probably incorrect, and consequently not to be relied 
upon. 

SILVEE 

Has been known from the earliest ages. Its specific 
gravity is 10.5, being inferior in weight to platinum, 
gold, mercury, lead, tungsten and palladium, but 
heavier than copper, ii-on and all others. Silver is 
tasteless and void of odor. It is more elastic than 
gold, and in malleability is second only to that metal. 
It may be beaten out into leaves of one ten-thou- 
sandth of an inch in thickness. A vessel capable of 
holding an ounce of water may be made of a grain 
of silver. In tenacity it surpasses gold, though it i.s 
inferior to iron, copper or platinum. A silver wire 
one-tenth of an inch in diameter will sustain a weight 
of twenty-five pounds. Native silver crystallizes in 
cubes and octahedrons, but is also more commonly 
found in irregular masses, sometimes of considerable 
size. In 1750 a mass of silver weighing 140 pounds 
was found in the mine at Himmelsfurst, in Saxony, 
and another equally as large in 1771. In 1478 a rich 
vein of silver ore was discovered at Sehneoberg, in 
Saxonj^ and so large a mass of native metal was cut 
out that it served as a dining table for Duke Albert, 
who descended into the mine to visit it. When 
smelted it yielded 44,000 pounds of metal. Another 
mass of native silver, 620 pounds in weight, was 



obtained from the Swedish mine at Konigsberg. 
Silver, which is much moi'e extensively used for coin 
than gold, is always alloyed, it being in its pure state 
too soft to be durable. The alloy used in the silver 
coinage of England consists of 11.1 parts of pure 
silver and 9 parts of copper. A pound (troy weight) 
of the alloy is coined into 66 shillings, so that a 
money pound of 20 shillings contains 1,745.454 grains 
of standard silver of which 1,614.454 are pure metal. 
Silver for articles of domestic use, furniture and orna- 
ments is of about the same standard as that employed 
for money. Articles made of inferior metals are 
very generally in use. They are covered with a thin 
coating of silver, and are said to be plated. In the 
best kinds of plated goods made from silvered copper, 
the prominent edges, which from exposure to con- 
stant rubbing, would soon wear out, and thus show 
the copper, are made of solid silver. These parts are 
formed separately and put on afterwards with solder. 
Although a vast amount of skill has been exercised, 
and very beautiful articles have been produced, but 
by the electrotyping process the coating of silver is 
more evenly applied, its adhesion is more perfect, and 
the finish of the surface more exactly resembles that 
of real plate. The brass dials of clocks, the faces of 
barometers and thermometers, and many similar 
articles, are silvered by rubbing them with a com- 
pound of chloride of silver, whiting and pearlash. 
Lunar caustic, employed by surgeons for cauterizing 
or, as it is called, burning away the diseased flesh in 
wounds, is nitrate of silver, a salt formed by dissolv- 
ing silver in nitric acid. It stains the skin and all 
animal matter indelibly black, and literally burns it, 
bj' the tendency of the salt to recover the metallic 
form by parting with its oxj^gen. Ten grains of 
lunar caustic dissolved in gumwater make an excel- 
lent marking ink for linen, which is never effaced bj- 
washing. Crystallized nitrate of silver is extensively 
used in photography. Many thousands of ounces 
arc required annually for this beautiful art. Two 
very dangerous explosive compounds, called fulmin- 
ating powders, are prepared from silver. One of 
them is so formidable that a carriage passing along 
the street, by shaking the room, has been known to 
explode it, and it often explodes spontaneously during 
the process of preparation. 



This useful metal has been known from time almost 
immemorial. When pure it is of a reddish-brown 
color. Its specific gravity is 8.89; that is, it is nearly 
nine times as heavy as water. Both the smell and 
taste of this metal are excessively disagreeable. It 
is very malleable — next so in degree after gold and 
silver, and can be beaten out into extremel}- thin 
leaves. In ductility it ranks after gold, silver, plati- 
num and iron, while in tenacity it yields only to the 
latter, A copper wire ono-tentii of an inch in diam- 
eter will sustain a weight of 385 pounds. Copper 
is the most sonorous of all metals, and is therefore 



184 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



employed for trumpets and many other musical 
instruments. 

The alloys of copper are numerous and important. 
It forms a part of the gold and silver employed for 
coin, plate and innumerable articles, both of utility 
and ornament. Brass, however, is one of the most 
important of the alloys of copper. Brass is produced 
by cementing copper plates with calamine, an oxide 
of zinc mixed with charcoal. The proportions in 
which the two metals are combined to form brass vary 
in different places— from twelve to twenty-five parts 
of zinc to 100 parts of copper. The compositions 
known under the head of Dutch gold, pinchbeck, 
tombas, Prince Rupert's metal, and others, are only 
varieties of brass, differing in the proportions of the 
copper and zinc. An alloy of one part of tin with 
three of copper constitutes bell metal. \Yhen boll 
metal is used for making bells, zinc, antimony, and 
sometimes silvr-r, are added to improve the sonorous- 
ness of the compound. The famous Corinthian brass 
of antiquity was an alloy of copper and several other 
metals. It is said to have been produced accident- 
ally, by the fusion together of various articles formed 
of these metals during the destruction by fire of the 
city of Corinth by the Romans. 

Pliny states that vases made of this brass were 
considered more valuable than if made of gold on 
account of the beauty of the metal, and its fitness 
for chasing and sculpture, or other modes of engrav- 
ing. Swords and cutting instruments, among the 
ancients before iron was used for that purpose, 
were made of copper, alloyed with from one to five 
per cent, of tin. A mixture of two parts of cojjper 
with one of tin, form an extremely hard, fine, brittle 
alloy, admitting of an exquisite pollish, with a luster 
nearly equal to that of mercury. It is called spec- 
ulum metal, from its being employed for the reflec- 
tors of telescopes and similar optical purposes. The 
alio}' generally contains a little zinc, arsenic and sil- 
ver. It was known to the ancients, and used by 
them in making mirrors. The white copper orpack- 
fong of the Chinese, is by some persons supposed to 
be an alloy of copper, zinc, nickle and iron; the 
copper being one-half of the whole and the other 
metals in equal proportions. 

Copper with about one-fourth of its weight of 
lead forms pot metal. It also contributes to the 
composition of pewter. JIany of the Grecian and 
Roman coins were formed of an alloy of 100 parts of 
copper, 2 of lead, and 2 of tin, or with a larger pro- 
portion of the latter metals. 

The compositions made in imitation of silver, 
called German silver, are alloys of copper of various 
kinds. Oxides of copper are soluble in most acids, 
and form salts, some of which are important in the 
arts. Blue vitriol is a sulphate of copper. It is 
employed in glass-staining, in dyeing, and occasion- 
ally in surgery. The fine blue color called "verditor" 
is prepared from the nitrate of copper. Verdigris is 
the acetate of copper, and is used in painting and 
dyeing. It is an active poison. 



The uses of copper are almost numbei-less. The 
bottoms of ships are sheathed with it to protect the 
timber from sea worms, and facilitate the motion of 
the vessel by diminishing friction in the water. Large 
boilers for sugar works and breweries are made of 
copper, as are also a great variety of articles too 
numerous to mention. 

Whenever a copper vessel is intended for the prep- 
aration offood, the surface ought to be covered with a 
coating of tin or silver, for copper is so easily cor- 
roded, or dissolved, by the acid contained in most 
articles of food, that highly poisonous salts are thus 
formed, which would have fatal effects if taken into 
the stomach. Accidents are perpetually occurring 
from using copper vessels, the tinning or plating of 
which has worn off. In Sweden the Government 
does not, for this reason, allow of any culinary 
vessel being made of copper. 

Another most important use of copper, for which 
its softness and malleability particularly adapts it, is 
for engraving on, ior multiplying copies of any 
design, by impressions being taken on paper from a 
copper plate, on which the subject has been cut in, 
or, as it is called, engraved. The copper for this 
purpose must be ver}' pure, free from all defects and 
well polished in thin plates. Steel plates are now 
made use of for the same purpose, from their supe- 
rior durability. The process of engraving upon 
them are precisely the same as upon copper, only 
instead of nitrous acid a solution of corrosive subli- 
mate, or some other liquid of appropriate kind, is 
used in the process of etching. iJopper is found in 
veins and beds, in granite, slate, limestone, and other 
rocks, accompanied by various ores of the metal, 
which are so numerous that a collection in Cornwall 
contains a thousand different kinds. One species of 
copper ore is of fine ornamental stone, called mala- 
chite. This is a carbonate of copper, the finest spec- 
imens of which come from Hungary and Siberia. It 
is also found in Australia. 



This is one of the most extensively diffused of all 
j solid minerals, but, though existing in such abun- 
1 dance, this metal, in its natural state, is very 
unlike what we are hourly accustomed to see it. 
It presents itself everywhere only as an earthy mass, 
resembling dirt, impure rust. Even when found in 
the mine with a metallic luster, it is fiir from pos- 
sessing those qualities which are necessary to fit it 
for the endless uses to which it is applied. When 
we consider that the art of making it, which com- 
bined so many difl'erent processes, triumphs over so 
many obstacles, and in which fire and iron are em- 
ployed to subdue iron itself, dates from a period of the 
highest antiquity, even beyond the Deluge (Gen. 4:22), 
we are almost led to regai-d this admirable art as an 
inspiration, emanating immediately from that Divine 
Power which has bestowed this metal in such pro- 
fusion to supply our wants. Not only docs iron in 
I vai'ious states enter into the composition of most of 




UPPER TUNNEL, ELEVATION 3020 FT. 



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MINING. 



185 



the compound minerals of which the crust of the 
earth is composed, but it forms a constituent part of 
many animal and vegetable substances; entering 
into the composition of the blood, and imparting 
shades of color to many a delicate flower. Iron 
when pure is of a bluish-white color and brilliant 
luster, its specific gravity being 7.8. It is lighter 
than most permanent metals, tin and zinc being the 
only abundant ores which surpass it in this respect. 
As regards malleability, it ranks after gold, silver, 
copper, platinum, lead and zinc, ii'on being the eighth 
in order when these metals ai'e arranged accord- 
ing to the degree in which they possess this quality. 
In ductility it is fourth, gold, silver, and platinum 
alone surpassing it. In tenacity it occupies the 
first place. An iron wire one-tenth of an inch in 
diameter will support a weight of 705 pounds, while 
a copper wire of the same diameter will support 
only 385 pounds. An iron rod, one inch in diameter, 
as formed at the iron works, will support seventeen 
and three quarters tons without breaking; and a 
rod the same size, forged into cable-chains, will sup- 
port nineteen tons; and an inch and a half rod, fortj'- 
four tons. An inch and a quarter rod. two feet six 
inches long, will soraelimes stretch six inches, or 
twenty per cent., befoi'e it breaks. 

It is remarkable that pure iron does not possess 
nor will it retain magnetic properties. To render 
these permanent it appears that the metal must be 
combined with either carbon, sulphur, or phosphorus, 
and especially the former. 

In St. Domingo Island there is an immense quan- 
tity of magnetic iron, the hill over which it lies 
scattered being called Loadstone Mountain. The 
hill rises about sixty feet above the Savanna, and is 
crowned on its summit by a magnificent palm tree. 
From north to south it extends 600 feet, its western 
side being bathed by the river Yuva. Its northern 
part is covered with rugged black rocks of all sizes, 
and every one of them more or less magnetic. 

The effect of these masses of ore upon magnetic 
needles is almost incredible. When placed near the 
ground they whirled round with great rapidity 
before ultimately settling with their north poles point- 
ing to the south. When placed on some of the 
blocks the motions were less violent, but the poles 
were invariably reversed. This ore has been exam- 
ined by a German mineralogist, who considered it 
equal to the best of Dannemora, in Sweden. But 
what can be done with it? Tropical lassitude has 
tied the arms of industiy. Metallic iron is found 
native only in small quantities; but a remarkable 
phenomenon connected with this metal is that 
masses of it, alloyed with nickle and other substances, 
have, at different times, fallen from the atmos- 
phere on earth. These matters are called meteorites. 
The records of such events are numerous, from the 
remotest ages, and independently of the occur- 
rence of the phenomena being absolutely witnessed, 
masses of iron have been found on the surface, in 



various parts of the earth, which, from their local- 
ity and in their chemical constitution, differing from 
that of any terrestrial mineral, could only be derived 
from such a source. It is believed, as the probable 
explanation of the origin of the singular produc- 
tions, that they are fragments of some planetary 
body of our system which has been destroyed, 
and these portions, as projected into space, have 
accidentally come within the sphere of the earth's 
attraction, and consequently fallen upon its surface. 
Of course no positive knowledge can ever be gained 
of their origin, although the fact of their falling 
from the atmosphere is placed beyond a doubt. 

A small portion of iron combined with carbon con- 
stitutes the valuable natural production, plumbago, 
commonly though very improperly called black 
lead. This ore is ibund in France, Spain, Germany 
and other parts of the world. The most valuable 
mine of the mineral is, however, at Barrowdale, in 
Cumberland, England. This is situated at the head 
of a valley, where the ore is found in nodules 
imbedded at regular intervals in the branching veins 
of gray feldspar porphyry, the smaller ramifications 
appearing in some places at the surface. It is scarcely 
necessary to say that the chief use of what is 
termed "pure Cumberland load " is for making the 
best kind of pencils. The principal manufactory 
for these is at Keswick, near to the spot whence 
the mineral is procured. In one establishment at 
Keswick it is stated that from 1,500 to 1,600 dozen 
pencils are made daily. Inferior kinds of plumbago, 
being mixed with sulphur, are used for making cheap 
pencils. It is also employed to diminish friction in 
machinery, and in the formation of crucibles for 
chemical purposes. 

The uses and purposes of iron arc iiinunierable; 
we may keep multiplying them for almost an indefi- 
nite space of time without even giving a very perfect 
result. Could it be possible to survey the bottom of 
the great deep, we should there find it connecting 
shore to shore and island to island. It has brought 
the east and west to kiss each other, and the north 
and south to shake hands together. Throughout the 
world there is no doubt but what we could count the 
miles of railroad by the million, and locomotives by 
the thousand. The mammoth iron ships that sail on 
the bosom of the waters are numerous, besides the 
ponderous machinery erected almost all over the 
world for factory and mining purposes. So far back 
as 1857 the little island of Great Britain exported 
iron in that year to the declared value of £22,994,- 
671. This, of course, includes machinery and manu- 
factured articles, as well as pig-iron, castings, rails, 
bars, plates, etc. Reduced to an equivalent in pig-iron, 
the exports are equal in quantity to 2 261,000 tons. 
There is acurious fact connected with the iron works 
of Britain worth mentioning. The reduction of the 
ores was formerly effected by means of wood, and 
the consumption was so great that an Act of Parlia- 
ment was passed in 1581 restraining its use. Soon 



186 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



afterwards Lord Dudley discovered that coal was 
equally efficient, and obtained a monopoly of its 
employment for the purpose, and so highly was this 
discovery appreciated, that this nobleman's patent 
was expressly excluded from the Act of Parliament 
passed in 1623 which abolished most of those justly 
odious privileges. But though this invention has 
proved invaluable to the countiy, Lord Dudley 
derived but little advantage from it, for his iron 
works were destroyed by a deluded mob, and it was 
not till a century afterwards that his plan was gen- 
erally adopted, in consequence of the increasing- 
alarm at the enormous consumption of wood at the 
iron furnaces. 

TIN 

Appears to have been one ef the earliest discovered 
metals, and is mentioned repeatedly in the Mosaic 
writings. That the Phoenicians came to Britain for 
tin is generally believed, and it is certain that the 
metal was obtained from Cornwall before the time of 
Herodotus. All tin is stamped, and pays a duty to 
the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall — a custom 
which has existed since the time of the jNoi-mans. 
In speaking of Cornwall, this country is richer in the 
ore than any other known part of the world, though 
the metal obtained from Malacca, especiallj' from the 
small island of Banca, is superior in quality to English 
tin. Tin is also found at other places in the East, as 
well as in America, Spain, France, Saxony, Bohemia 
and Germany. Tin is of a brilliant white color, with 
a specific gravity of 7.3, it being rather more than 
seven times heavier than water. In hardness it 
surpasses lead, but is inferior to gold. It is very 
malleable, and may be beaten out into leaves only 
one one-thousandth of an inch thick, termed tin-foil, 
but it might be reduced to half that thickness if 
required. In ductility it is < nlj- superior to lead. 
A wire one-tenth of an inch in diameter will support 
a weight of fortj'-seven pounds. Tin unites with 
many metals and forms valuable alloys. Ten or 
twelve parts of tin, with eighty-eight or ninety parts 
of copper, forms the bronze of the ancients, used for 
weapons, knives, etc.; and in modern time for can- 
non. The same metals, combined in the proisortion 
of one-fifth of tin to four-fifths, by weight, of copper, 
or of one- third of the former to two-thirds of the 
latter, form one species of bell-metal. Brass, sijclter, 
and even lead or silver, are sometimes added in vari- 
ous proportions, according to the fancy of the founder. 
The alloy of which the Chinese make their gongs is 
composed of eighty parts of copper to twenty 
One part of tin with two of co])per, or. 



of tin. 



according to some other authorities, thirty-two of 
copper, fifteen to sixteen of tin. with one part of 
brass, one of arsenic, and one of silver form the best 
speculum metal for reflecting telescopes. 

OHROMIIi.M. 

The name of this metal is derived from the Greek 
M'ord for color, on account of the varied and beauti- 



ful tints of its ores and salts, and their peculiar prop- 
erties for producing various colors in other substan- 
ces. It is a greyish-white, brittle metal, cajjable of 
a high polish, but very infusible, its specific gravity 
is 5.9. Its ores are found in Unst in Shetland, in 
Siberia, and other parts of Europe, and in America. 
They are in the form of oxides; in one of their com- 
binations with lead, known as the chromate of lead, 
and in another with iron, constituting chromate 
of iron. The ruby and emerald owe their colors to 
the presence of this beautiful metal. In the arts 
the finest yellow ever discovered is that obtained 
from preparations of chromium; and they are also 
used for tinting glass and emerald gi'een. 

TELLURIUM. 

This metal was obtained in 1782 from an ore of 
gold, with which metal it is found combined in the 
Transylvania mines. In color it most resembles 
silver. It is a scarce metal, very light and brittle, 
with a specific gravity of 6.26, easily fused, and so 
volatile that it burns if heated in the air. It has not 
been used in any form and is only interesting to sci- 
entific chemists and metallurgists. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

MINING. 

Icon TIN UED.] 

Placer County Mines — Crude Implements in Early Mining — The 
Story of a Batea — Occurrence of the Gold^Kiver Mining — 
Temporary Structures — Dry Diggings — Improvements in 
Mining — Long Tom — Mining Ditches — The Sluice— The 
Sluice Fork — Riffles — Grizzly and Under Currents — Sluice 
Pavements — Drift Mining — Hydraulic Mining — Hydraulic 
ilining at Gold llun — Cement Mills — Quartz Mining — Pio- 
neer Quartz Miniu>4 — Empire Mill — Pioneer Mill — Union 
Mill— Placer Mill— Heath & Henderson Mill— May & Go's. 
Mill— Bay State Mill— Preston & Worrell's Mill— Henson & 
Go's. Mill — Tom Seymour's Mill — Silver Excitement. 

The minerals whose occurrence and uses are men- 
tioned in the preceding chapter are the most promi- 
nent of those existing and sought in California, but 
the list of all which the rocks of the State contain 
would comprise about all known to the mineralogist. 
Strict!}' speaking, the term mineral includes every 
inorganic substance flowing from or taken out of the 
earth, as springs or wells of water, claj' for bricks 
or pottery, sand for mortar, granite for building, 
etc., but in a more limited sense the word is applied 
to metals and metalliferous rocks; petroleum, salt 
and medicinal springs or wells; sulphur beds and 
kindred matters. However extended or limited it 
may be, Placer County is pre-eminently rich in min- 
erals, be it of the pure spring water or the sparkling 
medicinal fountain; the potters' day or the granite 
quarry; the beds of coal or the mountain pile of 
iron ore; the monumental marble or the builders 
lime; the deep quartz vein with its bonanzas of the 
royal metals or its placers in the gently sloping 
ravines, in the I'ugged caiions of the high Sierra, 



MINING. 



1S7 



in the bars and banks and beds of its rivers, or where 
the ancient glacier or pre-Adamite streams have 
deposited their mountains of auriferous gravel. 
Every useful mineral, crowning with the royal gold, 
is found in an unusual abundance. A bountiful 
nature has stored the region with prodigal gen- 
erosity, the full extent of which is yet unknown. 
Overlying the hidden mineral treasures is a soil, a 
forest, and a conformation of surface inviting to cul- 
ture, to manufacture and to commerce, and above all 
a climate conducive to health and energy, embracing 
the semi-tropic with the invigorating north. Mining, 
agriculture and manufacture, the noblest and most 
independent resources of civilization and true man- 
hood, here go hand in hand, each a distinct resource, 
and either sufficient to support a people, and one, only, 
the usual blessing of many prosperous counties or 
States. Great and attractive as are such resources, 
their development has been comparatively slow. 

The occuri'ence of minerals and the methods of 
extracting them from the earth were subjects with 
which but few Americans were conversant when the 
discovery of gold was made in California and the 
adventurers of 1848 and 1849 first entered the placers 
of the Sierra Nevada. From the cities, farms and 
ships of the East the miners came, with no knowl- 
edge whatever of the business they intended to pur- 
sue. Gold in profusion, however, was on, or near 
the surface of the ground, generously supplying 
the inexperienced digger, who gradually learned 
the lesson of mining. Fortunately was this the 
case, as many a river bar and mountain gulch 
which furnished well-paid labor several years of 
emploj'ment, yielding millions in the aggregate, could, 
with modern appliances and energy, have been swept 
away in a month, or in a single season. 

CRUDE IMPLEMENTS IN EARLY MINING. 

All the lessons of mining have been those of expe- 
rience, save in the few instances of the rude wooden 
bowl, the horn spoon, the rocker and the stamp mill; 
but even these were unknown to nearly all of the 
early miners. The Mexicans brought the bowl or 
hatea and the horn spoon; the Georgian introduced 
the rocker and " quicksilver machine '' — which was 
only an exaggerated rocker— and the Cornishman 
erected the stamp mill. The discoverers of gold in 
1848 did not even know the metal, and some time 
elapsed before they learned any other way to sep- 
arate it from the earth than by picking it out with 
their fingers. The cii'cumstance that led to the 
exposure of the gold and its discovery by Marshall, 
the washing away of the gravel by the water of the 
mill race, should have suggested the " ground- sluice," 
but no such simple plan was adopted. Near by, 
on the borders of a stream afterwards named Web- 
ber Creek, was Baptiste Rouelle, a Frenchman, who 
had lived in Mexico, but was then whip-sawing lum- 
ber for Sutter, and he understood the use of the hatea. 
Then mining commenced with pans, Indian baskets, 



bowls, and any vessel resembling Ihc favorite Mex- 
ican implement. Soon after, Isaac Humphrey, who 
had seen gold mining in Georgia, fashioned a rocker, 
or cradle, such as had been used in the mines of that 
State. No invention was made, only the adaptation 
of the principle in the imitative machines more or 
less rudely constructed. Anything that was a trough, 
four to six feet in length, whether of boards nailed 
together, a section of a tree dug out, or half of a 
hollow log, set at an incline of from two to four 
inches, into which the auriferous earth was placed, 
water poured upon it, and the implement rocked 
back and forth, made the rocker, then thought the 
pei'fection of mining machinery. Improvements 
were gradually added in after years, consisting of 
making the body light and smooth, cleats near the 
lower end for i-iffles, a movable hopper with a per- 
forated iron plate to receive the earth and water, 
retaining the coarser gravel, then an apron so 
inclined as to carry the fine material and water to 
the upper end of the cradle, and then a frame upon 
which the rockers set with pintles to hold them in 
place, and thus was the gold-washing cradle per- 
fected. The storj' of the rocker and the pan reached 
the East soon after the reports of the gold discov- 
ery, and all the inventive genius of the Yankee 
nation commenced studying, inventing and patent- 
ing machines for gold washing, all based upon the 
rocker and the pan; all complicating the simple 
apparatus; none with an original idea or a compre- 
hension of the situation; each improvement moi'e 
senseless than the preceding, and all useless. In 
Cornwall the miners had for an indefinite time 
obtained tin by washing the earth through long 
wooden boxes, or sluices, catching the metal in the 
sluice by placing cleats across the current, and sim- 
ilar sluices had been used in the gold mines of Brazil; 
but although this was known to some of the early 
gold miners none thought it applicable to gold min- 
ing, had the sagacity to apply it, or the courage to 
make the innovation. 

THE STOKY OF A B.iTEA. 

The story is related of Gen. John Bidwell. that in 
March or April, 1844, when in the service of Captam 
Sutter at Hock Farm, he was told by a Mexican 
vaquero, naned Pablo Gutteirez, that he had dis- 
covered evidences of gold in the foot-hills of the 
Sierra ^'evada on the north side of Bear Eiver. 
This Mexican had some knowledge of gold mining, 
having washed the sands of his native streams for 
the precious metal. The implement with which he 
'was familiar was the hate.a. Bidwell proposed an 
examination of the country, and the expedition was 
undertaken. The indications were pointed out as 
proper to the gold region, but nothing could be done 
without the hatea. Gutteirez talked so much about 
that important mining implement that Bidwell was 
convinced that without the hatea no gold could be 
extracted from the earth. An agreement was 



18S 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



entered into between them to keep the matter a pro- 
found secret until suc^h means could be provided for 
obtaining the wonderful hatea. The Mexican pro- 
posed that Bid well should furnish means for a visit 
to Mexico for the desired article, but the latter was 
suspicious, thinking it might be a cunning ruse to 
obtain sufficient money to return a capitalist to his 
native land, leaving his patron in the lurch. The 
future General and great ranchero was not to be so 
easily swindled. Asa dernier ressovf it was decided 
that the matter should remain in statu quo for a few 
years, until Bidwell should accumulate sufficient 
money to enable both to take the voyage around 
Cape Horn to Boston, where, it was expected that 
Yankee ingenuity, instructed by the Mexican, could 
fashion the greatly desired hatea. A year or so 
passed, and in the political disturbances attending 
the administration of Governor Micheltorena, Gut- 
teirez was killed, and all hope of obtaining the 
hatea vanished. Had General Bidwell known that 
the implement so minutel}' described by the Mexi- 
can, as being of such particular size and shape, was 
nothing more nor less than a wooden bowl, very 
much like a common chopping bowl found in nearly 
every farmer's kitchen, and that any tin pan or ves- 
sel of any description that could be manipulated in 
the hands, would have been of equal service, the dis- 
covery of gold might have been made four years 
before it was, and before the country became a part 
of the United States. 

That such a thing could be possible, that one hav- 
ing a desire to try washing for gold should be 
deterred from the attempt simply because he had 
not a certain implement, when many equally as 
good, though different in name, were at hand, seems 
incredible, but the fact of the stupid and insufficient 
manner of mining continuing through the first sev- 
eral years of the industry in California is corrobora- 
tive evidence of its truth. 

OCCrRRENCE OF THE GOLD. 

The gold, in the first discovery, was contained in 
the gravel of the river bank or bar. This gravel, 
when placed in a pan or rocker and agitated with 
water, readily separated, and moved among its 
parts, letting the gold free, which, by its great spe- 
cific gravity, quickly sought the bottom, while the 
valueless material, gravel, sand, or cla}% was washed 
over and thrown away. If the work was done by 
the rocker, the gravel was thrown in the hopper, or 
riddle, a back and forward moi on given, while water 
was poured upon it, the firm particles running 
through the perforated iron bottom or screen, and 
flowing out the lower end, leaving the gold in the 
riffles prepared for it. The hopper is removed as 
soon as the fine particles pass through, and emptied 
of the coarse gravel. Two men, one to shovel, carry, 
and pour in the gravel, the other to manipulate the 
rocker, would, on a convenient river bar, thus wash 
from 300 to 400 buckets of gravel a day. The river 



bar is a nearly level piece of ground, where the 
canon of the river bed is broader than the stream at 
low water, and is usually submerged in times of 
freshets. The bars of all the streams contained 
gold, generallj' the most within one or two feet of 
the bed-rock, and even the bed rock for a depth of 
from two to twelve inches contained the golden 
flakes. In some instances the bars were denuded of 
gravel, and the gold lay exposed in the rough places 
of the bed-rock. Thousands of dollars worth, in 
small flakes and nuggets, have been gathered from 
the exposed bed-rock of a river bar in a single day 
by a single individual. Miners have been guided to 
such exposed bars by Indians, proving that these 
people had noticed the glittering metal, not knowing 
its value or appi-eciating its beauty as an ornament. 
Generally the bars were of gravel from five to thirty 
feet in depth, with soil and trees on the surface, 
where not swept by the torrents of winter floods, 
and from one to tiftj' or more acres in extent. 

RIVER MINING. 

The river beds, where the water ran over gravel, 
were rich in gold, and after the first j'ear of the dis- 
covery were mined with far greater energj^ than 
judgment, some accounts of which will be related in 
subsequent pages. The I'iver bed was first approached 
by wing-dams, a small obstruction of stones and 
brush packed with soil from the banks, extending a 
short distance from the bar into the stream, and 
then down the current a sufficient distance to drain 
a section of a riffle, thus securing an extension of 
the bar. Then, where practicable, races were exca- 
vated through a bar, dams built at the head, and 
the entire stream turned through the race, draining 
such a portion of the river bed as the length of race 
commanded. In other cases flumes of lumber or 
canvas were built in lieu of race. 

These were all temporary works, constructed at 
great labor and expense during the summer, to be 
totally destroyed by the first floods of the rainy sea- 
son, often before the river bed was drained. In 
such cases the labor of the season was lost, but the 
following year the work would be renewed, and the 
trial repeated. Such enterprises continued through 
the first decade of gold mining until every stream 
of the Sierra Nevada, in its entire course through 
the gold region, was turned from its natural 
channel. In some instances the miners were richly 
rewarded for their enterprise and labors, in many 
others the expenditures exceeded the returns even 
when large amounts of gold were obtained, and in 
others total failure to find gold was the disappoint- 
ing result. The richest localities were the riffles, 
near the bars, where a body of gravel extended 
across the stream, which were easiest drained, and 
fortunate were the miners who there made their 
river claims. But the deep stretches of the river, 
where, in summer, the water flowed smoothly as in 
a pond, were the choice claims of the enthusiastic 




Mr J. G. GARRISON, 




MPS. J. G. GARRISON, 




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Residence of J. G. GARRISON, Forest Hill, Placer County, Cal. 



MINING, 



180 



and most enterprising companies, as it was believed 
that there the useless gravel had been washed away, 
and the pure gold would be found at the bottom. 
At great expense these pools were flumed and 
drained, and often several seasons of renewed 
attempts were required to prove the theory a fallacy. 
The aggregate of the gold thus extracted from 
the river beds, and the aggregate of the expendi- 
tures in the labor and wasted efforts, can never be 
told, but for several years the most of the gold pro- 
duced in California was from the bai-s and beds of 
its rivers. From 1849 to 1857, when river and bar 
mining was in its decline — although successfully con- 
tinued some years after, and to some extent to the 
present time — there had been manifested ship- 
ments of treasui'e from San Francisco, aggregating 
$353,467,283, not including the unknown sums taken 
by private hands, the product of 1848, the amount 
retained in use in money, jewelry, etc., in the coun- 
try, which have been estimated at nearly the same 
amount as that manifested at the Custom House. 
The American was the richest of the rivers, and 
from its bars and bed and the deep gorges of its 
tributaries flowed the golden stream that added 
hundreds of millions to the wealth of the world in 
the first few years foUovving the discovery. 

TEMP0R.4.RY STRUCTURES. 

The extravagance and waste attending the unskill- 
ful engineering and improvident customs of the river 
miners were most extreme, and in reviewing them 
at this day seemingly improbable and unaccountable. 
Flumes were constructed from 100 yards to one 
mile ir: length, of ten to forty feet in width and four 
to six feet in depth, to carry the whole volume of 
the stream. Heavy logs and massive hewn timbers 
from the convenient forest were used for the supports, 
stringers and frame-work, and sawed sleepers, posts, 
braces and planking for the body of the flume. In 
this would be one or a number of large wheels, 
turned by the current of the water, connected by 
pulleys of large rope to great belt-pumps, which 
raised the leakage of the dams and other water that 
flowed into the mine. The pumps were unique but 
eifective contrivances, being of a tight box of the 
required length, ten or forty feet, often six inches 
in depth by eighteen inches in width, through 
which run a belt of canvas, leather or rubber, having 
on one side blocks of wood at intervals of about two 
feet, acting as buckets. The belt was tightened 
around a wheel of five or six feet in diameter at the 
upper end of the pump-box, and a smaller wheel at 
the lower end, and when set in motion by the water- 
wheel in the flume, the buckets on the belt would 
drag through the pump-box a lai'gc sti'eam. In 
addition were tramways, trestles and wheelbarrow 
runs, cars and wheelbarrows, buckets, tubs, sluices, 
rockers and pans, carpenter's tools and benches, 
blacksmith shop, and cabins, and other appliances 
and conveniences for many men and rapid and exten- 
sive work. The cost of such a system of works 



varied with their extent, but the simplest would 
reach thousands of dollars. The season of mining, 
when once the river was drained, was known to be 
short, and every energy was put forth to glean the 
gold, the miners working until the storms of the 
rainy season came, then fleeing with their gold, 
abandoned all to the flood. He was an exceptionallj' 
careful and provident man who would rescue a 
wheelbarrow, a bucket, a sluice or a plank from the 
torrent, as it was (he custom to let everything go. 
The next year, if a good prospect had been obtained, 
if rich gravel was known to remain, if the bottom 
had not been drained, and the miners were able, or 
a new company formed, the work would be repeated 
and in the fall it would again go down the stream. 

This labor and waste were continued year after 
year. Few efforts were made to construct permanent 
works or to save the movable. It was the custom 
to have all swept away by the river, and as it had 
been the custom to regard the batea and the 
rocker as the perfection of implements, it would 
have been presumptuous, sordid, un-Californian to 
save a flaming structure from the annual flood. 

The first freshets of the fall bore upon their breasts 
the drift-wood sufficient to build a city. Along the 
lower streams where the current impelled the drift 
upon a catching spot, it would pile in heaps, covering 
acres of extent, and farms were fenced, buildings 
erected, fire-wood accumulated, and wood yards 
established from this floating debris, yet all that was 
thus saved for use was but a moiety of the whole. 
No wonder that many of the pioneers, now with 
gray hair and limping gait, refer with a shudder to 
their hard labor and hopeful days of river mining. 

A few newspaper items of river mining reference 
are here appended. 

The Flacer Herald of October 27, 1855, says: The 
success of the river miners on the North Fork of the 
American Eiver this season, has been beyond all 
expectation. From nearly every portion of the 
river, we hear of claims paying well. This may be 
attributed to the experience which our miners have 
acquired in this sort of mining, and the extreme low 
stage of the water in the river at the present time, 
giving an excellent opportunity for working places 
which heretofore have never been touched, or only 
partially worked. Some companies are working 
their claims night and day, washing as much ground 
as they possibly can before the rainy season com- 
mences. 

At Little Kattlesnake Bar, Rice & Co., on a claim 
which has been worked over several times, took out 
on the 19lh inst. six ounces of fine gold, four persons 
at work. The dirt pays about ten dollars to the 
wheelbarrow load. The company in the spring, 
intend fluming the river at the point where they are 
now at work. At present they have only a small 
wing dam. 

Higher up the river at Tamaroo Bar, Greenwood's 
company took outlast week $1,500 of beautiful gold, 
and they have a prospect of a rich yield for some 
time to come. 

Hamlin & Co, whose claim is situated a short 
distance above Ford's Bar, have dug out in the last 
two weeks 110 ounces of gold, and on Saturday 



190 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



twenty ounces. The claim is owned by fourpersons; 
they have nine men at work upon it. They expect 
to make a rich haul this week. 

November 3, 1853. — The miners at Poverty Bar 
and vicinity, on the ^liddle Fork of the American, are 
still at work on the bar making good wage.s. A 
number of river claims below the bar have failed. 
Although some of the claims have proved failures, 
others have turned out rich. One company who 
had 1,400 yards of the river turned, after working 
their ground sold it to a company of Chinamen for 
§9,000. 

Cromwell & Co., who worked some forty hands, 
took out some days as high as 100 ounces. 

Half a mile above Poverty is Oregon Bar, which 
is improving and will no doubt make quite a town. 
Messrs. Shoecraft & Rust have recently finished a 
ditch to the place. It takes up the drainage water 
from the Todd's Valley ditch and the Spring Garden 
ravine. The water is carried along the side of the 
mountain above the bar, and this will enable the 
miners to sluice off the bar in a very convenient 
manner. 

December 1, 1855. — The most of the miners on the 
Middle Fork of the American have deserted their 
claims for the present season. The late rains have 
raised the streams so much that in many places it 
was impossible to work any longer. We learn that 
it is the intention of the miners on the Middle 
Fork to go into quite an extensive mining operation 
— fluming that stream for a distance of about five 
miles. They will commence at the head of Yankee 
Bar, and extending the flume nearly to the "junc- 
tion," passing by Maine, Willow, Buckeye, Brown's, 
Wild Cat, Kennebec. Green Mountain, and other 
bars. 

September 22, 1856. — The mining operations in this 
place (Beal's Bar) are very flattering, taking into 
account the extensive operations of previous seasons 
and the great expectations which are but partially 
realized. In the present season, the miners, by past 
experience, have been taught to moderate their 
expectations, and carry on their operations with an 
adequate investment. There are nine river claims in 
this immediate vicinity, which are being worked this 
season. 

First, the '• Round Tent " claim, on the North Fork, 
where Afessrs. Snow, Freeman, Knights & Co., 
are doing remarkably well, having taken out last 
week in less than five days 81,000. The claim was 
worked in '51 the last time. 

Second, the "Oregon" claim, where Philbrick. 
Ellis & Wheeler, are doing remarkably well, which 
they richly deserve, this being the third time they 
have worked this claim. 

The next in order is the "Beal's Bar' claim, 
owned by Beeroft, Small, Kent, Baisly and Blinn. 
This claim is being worked for the sixth or seventh 
time, notwithstanding that it pays fifty ounces per 
week, with ten men. 

Adjoining this and immediately below is the 
• Texas," owned by Wallace. Gragg, Lund, Brj-ne, 
Sheppard and Thomas. This claim is also paying 
very well, and the proprietors are well pleased with 
their prospects. 

Next comes Gallagher & Brynes' " Wing Dam. ' 
The proprietors of this claim are deserving of a rich 
reward for their energies and perseverance, having 
to contend with innumerable difficulties, which they 
have successfully overcome. Their prospects arc 
very good. 

Next below is the " South Fork " claim, worked by 
Chinamen. 



The next below is the " Fancy Dam," owned by 
Patterson, Bartlett & Co. This claim is being worked 
for the sixth lime, and is yielding from an ounce to 
S25 per day to the man. 

Adjoining this is the " Pinkheen " claim, being 
also worked for the sixth time, and is paying well, 
having yielded 81,000 last week. This claim is 
owned by Sheldon, Gragg &: Elliott. 

The next below is the "Wing Dam," owned by 
Wallace, Thompson, Skiflf & Co. They are doing 
remarkablj' well. There are several other claims in 
this neighborhood doing remarkably well. 

May 9, 1857. — Extensive preparations are being 
made for working on the Middle Fork of the American 
this summer within a few miles of Auburn. The 
American Falls Mining Co., located at Mammoth Bar, 
met on the 6th inst., and elected the following ofBeers 
for the season: President, Henry Bryon; Secretary 
and General Financial Agent. Col. J. C. Ball; Treas- 
urer, Isaac Stonecipher. Trusteees — E. Wagner, 
Iowa Hill; D. Cooper, Gold Hill; Wm. Marriett, 
Nevada: H. Bryon and J. K. Parkinson. Mammoth 
Bar. 

Assessments were levied to prosecute the work, 
and arrangements made for fluming the greater part 
of their ground. 

Other companies, both above and below the Amer- 
ican Falls' claims, are not behindhand, but are act- 
ively engaged in preparing to work on a much larger 
scale than has ever yet been done on the river. 
There will be one continuous flume from Main Bar, 
running down the stream more than five miles, along 
a number of claims that are but just fairly prospected. 

November ?., 1857. — Rain has commenced in earn- 
est, and the rise of the rivers carried away the 
flumes and tools of the miners on the American and 
its tributaries. This closes river mining for the 
season disastrously 

DRY DIGGINGS. 

River and bar mining could be carried on success- 
fully onlj' in the summer or dry season, and the 
ravines, gullies and high banks were sought for the 
winter's work. These localities were, therefore, 
called "dry diggings." The large foot-hill area west 
of, and about Auburn constituted one of the richest 
and most extensive sections of dry diggings in the 
gold-mining region, and were first known as the 
"North Fork Drj^ Diggings." Recent reports speak 
of these as " Wood's Dry Diggings, ' but we have no 
early records of the name, nor do we recollect having 
heard it so called in 1849. With the abundant rains 
of 1849 everj' ravine contained a rivulet, and in every 
ravine was gold. Here the miners gathered and 
with pan and rocker prospered. The depressions of 
the higher mountains were called canons and gulches, 
and there, too, the miners found dry diggings. But 
with the summer of 1850 and the dry winter follow- 
ing, the dry diggings lost their popularity. They 
contained, however, an abundance of gold, and many 
miners stayed by them, waiting for the water to come 
or if more than usually- enterprising, carting the 
auriferous dirt to a spi"ing or stream, where with the 
pan or rocker they could wash out the gold. Some 
would shovel the dirt out of the water channel on to 
the bank, in anticipation of the water coming, some 
times finding lumps of gold sufficient to pay for their 



MINING. 



191 



subsistence. These lumps were then called " speci- ' 
mens," the word "nugget," now universally adopted, 
coming from Australia. The miner of a later date, 
in 1851 or '52, would have brought the water to his 
dirt, or gulch, and there picking it to pieces, would 
have washed, or "ground sluiced" it away, and 
gathered the gold from the bed-rock, or washed only 
the concentrations in the rocker. 

urPROVEMENTS IN MINING — LONG TOM. 

The minei-s of Nevada County were the first to 
take advanced steps in mining. There in the latter 
part of 1849, or early in 1850, some Georgia people 
introduced the " long tom." This is a trough of 
boards about twelve feet long, eight inches deep, 
twelve or fifteen inches wide at the head, and widen- 
ing to twenty-five or thirty at the lower end. The 
wide portion terminates in a riddle of perforated 
sheet iron so curved that nothing goes over its end 
or sides, requiring a man to attend it with hoe and 
shovel to stir the gravel and water as they enter, 
washing all that is possible through the riddle, and 
with the shovel thi-owing the coarser gravel away. 
Beneath the sheet iron is a box with riffles, where 
the gold is retained with a small quantitj' of sand 
from which it is separated by washing in a pan or 
rocker. A constant stream of water runs through 
the tom, into which one or more men can shovel the 
dirt. 

.MINING DITCHES. 

To use the " tom" led to the construction of the 
mining ditch. Water must be turned from the 
stream to enter the tom, and thus the advantage of 
such a diversion was seen, and the system extended. 
The first ditch in California for mining purposes was 
made at Coyote Hill, in Nevada County, in March, 
1850. This was about two miles long, and proved 
a financial success. The first ditch in Placer County 
was consti'ucted by H. Starr and Eugene Phelps, at 
Yankee Jim's, in 1851, to convey the water from 
Devil's Canon to wash the dirt on their claims 
in a long tom. The tom and the ditch soon led to 
the greatest improvement of all, the " sluice." Some 
miners at Nevada placed a trough to carry the water 
to their long tom, and to save trouble threw their 
dirt into the trough, where the flowing water would 
carry it into the tom. The gold was found to remain 
in the trough, and thus it was discovered that the 
riddle and the man to attend it were unnecessary, 
and the trough became the sluice. 

THE SLUICE. 

The trough which developed the sluice was made 
of two boards nailed together in the form of the 
letter Y, and at a later date has become the V flume 
for carrying lumber. Soon the sluices were more 
systematically constructed, being of three boards, 
the bottom one twelve inches in width and the sides 
ten. The bottom boards were usually cut two inches 
narrower at one end than the other, in order that a 



number might conveniently bo set inline, the smaller 
end of one lapping in the wider end of the other, 
thus making a line of sluices of any desired length. 
These were set at any such grade as was necessary 
to create such a current of water as to carry through 
the dirt thrown into them. Other sluice boxes for 
stationary work were made so as to butt against each 
other, and the joint securely fastened. From the 
single cleat nailed across the bottom to catch the 
gold, numerous improved '• riffles" were made, -and 
patents obtained for many. Among the devices were 
slats, or strips of board, lying across or lengthwise 
of the sluice, sometimes covered with ii-on to prevent 
their too rapid wear; planks with many auger-holes 
were used, and many other devices to protect the 
bottom of the sluice and aff'ord lodgement for the 
gold, while at the same time it should offer as little 
obstruction as possible to the passage of the water 
and gravel. The gold, in the small operation of the 
ante-hydraulic times, quickly nought the bottom, and 
in a line of sluices of twenty j-ards in length, little of 
the precious metal escaped. The gold and some 
gravel would settle in the riffles, which at night 
would be taken out. the matter remaining carefully 
gathered and washed in a pan, leaving the gold clean 
and pure, with the exception of a small quantity of 
black sand, which was afterwards removed by a mag- 
net, being ferruginous and quickly attracted, or 
blown away by the breath. If quicksilver were used, 
this would be gathered in a similar manner, strained 
through a piece of canvas, and the resulting amal- 
gam heated, either openly on a plate of iron or in a 
retort made for the purpose, and all the quicksilver 
adhering to the gold burned or evaporated away. 

THE SLUICE FORK. 

The sluice called for the invention of the " sluice 
fork," a fork of ten or a dozen tines, used to separate 
the coarser from the finer grave! when the current 
was not sufficiently strong to carry all away. This 
was a convenient and useful implement, and several 
styles were patented. 

RIFFLES. 

.\s mining improved the sluices were made larger, 
until they have become large flumes, or tail-races, 
six or eight feet broad and proportionately deep, 
extending, if necessary and the ground permits, a 
mile in length, carrying a torrent of 1,000 inches or 
more of water loaded with the gravel from the 
hj'drauiic bank. These large sluices also have vari- 
ous styles of riffles. In some scantling were fixed in 
frames and laid longitudinally with the box, in others 
blocks of six or more inches in thickness, sawed from 
large trees and fastened in the bottom of the sluice, 
and in others a pavement of bowlders was laid, like 
the cobble pavement of streets. Such riffles are 
expected to remain through weeks or months of 
washing, as to •' clean up "' and replace is a formidable 
undertaking. 



192 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



GRIZZLY AND CNDER-CURRENTS. 

In connection with the large sluice is the ■' grizzly '' 
and the "under-current." The grizzly is to the 
large sluice what the sluice fork is for the smaller, 
that is, to separate the large bowlders from the finer 
gravel, and is made of bars of iron, usually railroad 
iron. The finer matter passes through the grizzly, 
and is caught in the under-current, which is a broad- 
ened sluice, sometimes twent}' feet in width, set at a 
light grade, permitting a gentle current over it, flow- 
ing a convenient distance and i-e-entering the main 
sluice. The grizzly is usually- placed where a fall 
can be obtained, the mass of bowlders and cemented 
gravel passing over, breaking up the latter in the 
fall and freeing the gold, to be caught in other sluices 
and under-currents. 

Sometimes when several claims run their "tail- 
ings" into the bed of a stream, a "tail-sluice" is 
constructed, through which the debris runs, and from 
which often a large revenue is obtained. 

SLUICE PAVEMENTS. 

Great efforts have been made, and numerous 
patents obtained, for providing improved and eflScient 
sluice bottoms, or pavements for sluices, as upon the 
efiiciency of the sluice depends, in a great measure, 
the success or failure of the mine. Condemned car- 
wheels have been used and found to answer the pur- 
pose well, as the numerous irregular crevices fur- 
nished excellent riftles, and they were not quickly 
worn out. Old iron T rails, after serving their pur- 
pose on the railroad, make good bottoms, laid longi- 
tudinally in the sluice, and arc used where they can 
be obtained cheaplj'. A trial of those against wooden 
blocks was made in the Morning Star Hydraulic 
Mine, at Iowa Hill, in 1877. Three sections were 
laid, of about sixty-five feet each, the first at a suflfi- 
cient distance from the bank to insure a constant 
current, laid with the ordinary wood blocks; the 
second section with old iron rails, and the third with 
blocks like the first. The rails proved more lasting 
and far more effective as riffles, as the rail section 
saved more gold than both the others together. 

DRIFT MINING. 

Drift mining in California was first termed •■ coj^ot- 
ing." from the work being done under ground, as 
coyotes were supposed to dig their holes. In 184tl, 
the miners in the dry diggings at Nevada would sink 
shafts to the depth of fifteen or twenty feet to the 
bed-rock, and then, rather than throw off the whole 
surface, would " coyote," as it was called, from the 
bottom of their excavation, and this was the begin- 
ning of drift mining. From this circumstance the 
locality became known as Coyote Hill, which name 
it bears at the present time. 

Drift mining is most extensively carried on in 
Placer and Sierra Counties, where it forms a most 
important and valuable industry. Many of the 
gravel deposits are overcapped bj' basalt and other 



matter from ancient volcanoes, leaving far in the 
mountain the channel of some former river or glazier 
that contains the auriferous gravel. At points these 
deposits are exposed, leading the miner to search 
beneath the overlying matter, and thus he has 
learned that where the basalt forms the mountain 
top a gravel channel lies beneath. To reach this 
long tunnels from some bordering canon are requi- 
site, both for gaining access to the channel and to 
drain the water therefrom. When the gravel is thus 
reached it is mined out, the process being called 
" dritting," the superincumbent mass being held in 
place by timbers placed beneath and by pillars of 
the natural matter left standing. 

This branch of mining is most extensively prose- 
cuted in the region lying between the North and 
Middle Forks of the American River, commonly 
designated as the " Divide," the gravel or mining 
area comprising about 250 square miles. This sec- 
tion was prospected in 1849, and contained an active 
population in 1850. Gold was found near the surface, 
but the miners soon tried greater depths, and were 
thus led to the deep deposits on the bed-rock, when, 
following the example of those of Nevada, com- 
menced the system of drifting. In 1853 tunneling 
commenced, and since then a great many have been 
bored, of which more will be found in subsequent 
pages of this book. 

HYDRAULIC .MINING. 

Again the improved method is first made known 
in Nevada County. In June, 1853, Col. Wm. Me- 
Clure, an enterprising gentleman of Yankee Jim's, 
a miner and stockholder in a ditch supplying the 
locality with water, heard reports of a more effective 
system of mining then adopted in Nevada County, 
and he therefore visited that progressive section to 
learn more of the novelty. He found the miners 
washing the gravel by turning against the bank a 
stream of water directed by a canvas hose of four 
or five inches diameter, and a sheet-iron pipe, or 
nozzle, as a fireman would direct water upon a burn- 
ing building. This stream, first of twenty-five or 
fifty inches of water, coming under pressure of fort\ 
to sixty feet from a ditch and penstock on the hill 
above, played against the base of the gravel bank 
would wash it away, leaving the mass above to fall, 
and in this manner a large amount of earth was moved, 
and, by the water, carried down the sluices placed 
in trenches in the bed-rock ready for its reception. 
The work being done by water, the system took 
the name of " hydraulic." This method was first 
adopted in 1852 bj^ Mr. Edward E. Maltison, a native 
of Connecticut, and was one of the most important 
inventions ever left unpatented. The manner of 
applying this method was then much simpler and 
less effectual than at the present day. Leading 
from a ditch to gain pressure was a trough set 
upon slight trestle, looking something like a line of 
telegraph pole.s, hence it was called a "telegraph, " 
I conveyed the water to a penstock, which was prob- 




Photoqraphed by J. M, JA. 



^y7l^/U^^^£_ 



MINIXG. 



193 



ably a barrel or a few boards nailed together, 
making a funnel-shaped box, and to this was 
attached a hose made of heavy canvas leading into 
the gravel pit. terminating in a rude nozzle of sheet 
iron. 

This method was approved by Colonel McClure, 
and he hastened to introduce it in Placer County, 
with hose, "telegraph," penstock, and sheet-iron 
nozzle, as he had seen it in Nevada. So effective a 
system was not long to remain without improve- 
ment, and many inventors obtained patents for the 
changes they effected, who had not the genius to 
conceive the original plan, and thus profited more 
than the real inventor. Eubber hose and nozzles, 
with brass couplings, distributing boxes and iron 
penstocks soon followed, and these were succeeded 
by the great iron pipe, leading direct to a Craig's 
" Monitor," a " Dictatoi'," a '• Giant," or other patent 
nozzle, passing a stream of 1,000 inches of water 
from a pressure of 200 feet high, with a force that 
will send a half-ton bowlder whirling over the rocks. 

So powerful is this stream that an ordinary brick 
building would quickly yield to its force. Yet so 
cemented is the gravel in some mines that the water 
abrades it very slightly. To facilitate the washing 
a tunnel is run into the gravel at the base of the 
bank, and when a sufficient distance is reached, pro- 
portionate with the depth of the mass, cross drifts 
and chambers are excavated, and in these powder is 
placed, fuse or wires laid, the opening refilled and 
powder exploded, jarring and loosening the gravel 
so that it maj' be more readily attacked by the water. 
From a few hundred pounds to fifty tons of powder 
are used in a single bank-blast of the above descrip- 
tion. 

To open such a mine requires a long tunnel from 
some neighboring depression through the rim rock 
of the gravel channel at a considerable depth below 
the bed, and at such a grade as will allow the 
flow of water through, as in the tunnel must be the 
sluices through which the gravel is washed. This 
mining is available where volcanic matter does not 
overlie the gravel, and where the gold is generally 
diffused throughout the entire mass. 

Dutch Flat, Gold Kun, Iowa Hill, Yankee Jim's, 
Michigan Bluff, Todd's Valley and Bath are the 
principal localities where hydraulic mining is carried 
on, although there are large and important hydraulic 
claims in other parts of the county. 

HYDRAULIC MINING AT GOLD RUN. 

Mr. Petee, of the Geological Survey of this State, 
in 1871 made an estimate of the placer mines of Gold 
Rtin District. He estimated that the superficial area 
of the placers was 860 acres; that about one-half 
had been worked over, but not worked out, as the 
bed-rock had been reached at only one extremitj'; 
that about 43,000.000 cubic yards of dirt had been 
removed by hydraulic process, and that the gross 
product of the district taken from statistics, was 



12,000,000. The average jield, therefore, had been 
but four and a half cents per cubic yard of earth, 
and yet hydraulic mining has been carried on to a 
large profit. In this work only the surface dirt had 
been removed, there being from one to two hundred 
feet of gravel and cement underlying the excavation. 
This was expected to be much richer, and to bring 
up the average yield, and at the same time put 
larger profits into the pockets of the operators. 
This statement is suggestive of the value of hydraulic 
mining. In a cubic yard there are twenty-seven 
solid feet. In a common wagon load there are 
thirty-two feet. In this Gold Run dirt there was 
then about five and one-third cents to the wagon 
load. Yet 43,000,000 cubic yards, yielding 62,000,- 
000 were worked to a profit, and the principal cost 
in this operation, probably, was the water. . From 
1865 to 1881, inclusive, the yield of the Gold Run 
mines aggregated $7,425,000. 

CEMENT MILLS. 

Usually the action of the bank-blast, the force of 
the hydraulic stream, the grinding in the sluices, 
the falls and dumps sufficiently break up the 
cemented gravel as to liberate all the gold, but there 
are mines where the gravel is solidly pressed and 
cemented together and rich in gold, then it becomes 
profitable to crush it under stamps or other machin- 
ery, and for this purpose numerous mills were 
erected and various devices conceived, patented and 
put in operation. 

The ground had become solidified almost as firmly 
as the hardest granite, requiring a strong blow of 
pick or drill to make an impression. This hardening 
had been effected by the chemical action of iron, 
sulphur and water, under great pressure through 
extreme changes of temperature and through ages 
of time. While the currents and glaciers of the 
azoic age were grinding the quartz and depositing 
the debris of bowlders, pebbles, sand, gold and clay 
in the channels, ii'on, sulphur and other active agents 
were intermixed with all, though naturally seeking 
the lower levels with the percolations of the water, 
and in later ages volcanoes poured over the deposit 
its floods of burning ashes and molten rock, pressing 
and heating the matter beneath. But it is not to 
volcanic action that the lower strata of cemented 
gravel can be attributed, as they appear in hills 
undisturbed by such forces, and in layers at various 
depths. Where the stratum is composed of quartz, 
pebbles and sand, triturated pyrites of iron and 
sulphur, the cement is blue, and is called the "blue 
lead," and where sulphur is not so prominent but 
iron predominates, the cement is of a reddish color. 
This cement, particularl)- the blue, made greatly of 
slate quartz and pyrites, is generally rich in gold, and 
although diflicult to break out of the original bank, 
quite readily separates under the stamps and is thus 
rapidly worked. While the theory obtains that all 
the gold originally camo from the quartz, and the 



104 



PITSTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



(loniKiil f^ravol acfiompanyiiig tho u;old Ih iilmopl 
oiitircly compoHod of ([uartz, it in oxtruodingly niro 
Hint. II qiiiirlz bowldor or pobblo of tlui f!;roiit gnivol 
riiiif^oH (lontiiiriH any of tho ])rucioiin iiiolal. 

TluM siratum of comoiil or bliio load in oftoii from 
ton to Iwonly loot in do])th, and oxtondinu; acroHH 
llio rliiinnol a breadth of 500 or 1,0(10 foot. II vory 
rich, or [lartH of it rich, it in prolitahlo to Huhjoct it 
to tho HtainpH, which in rujiidly doiio, thoro boin;^ no 
otl'ort to crush it to as lino a |)ul|) tin \h ro(|uirod in 
workint; quartz. Tho f;oi<l from unch oruHhinf; in 
but partly Hiivod in tho mill, but tho tailin;,'H arc 
wanhpd into tho hIuIcos and f^o witii tho main body 
of grave! from tho mino. Tho valuo of th(» f^ravol 
tlius worked varies jfreatly; it may bo •'S!2,00 or 
if 20.00 ])er cubic yard. 

Variou.s dovicoi* boaidow the Htamp mill have boon 
made for crUHhing tho comont. A (ioment j^ravol 
mill wan (^on.struoted at WiHCOUHin Hill in IS7S, 
vvhiidi con.siHted of a cylindrical tube thirty foot lonj:; 
Hct on u HJii^hl !j;rade, with four-inch iron barn cipii 
(liHtant. The cement was fed into this cylinder, 
which slowly revolved, the tine dirt and t^old 
soltlinj^ into tho interstices, and tho larf^o bowlders 



roUiiiff out at tho lower end, 
mill was 200 tons a day. 



Th. 



acitv of til. 



Qll.Vin'Z MININI). 

I'laeor County, so rich in gravel mining, was 
laggard in developing its veins of quartz. In other 
counties rich placoi's in tho streams or gukdies wore 
supposed to lead to a rich quartz vein, but here they 
led to the great deposits in tho hills. West of 
Auburn in the flats and I'avinos below, was found a 
quality of gold very ditl'eront from that of the rivers 
or great hills to tho oastvvard, liiiving more silvei- in 
its alloy, and therefore ol' .^I'veral dollars less value 
per ounce. This could not bo from the " l>ead Hluc 
kiver," which some writers have attributed as tlu^ 
source of all the lower placers. The various ravines, 
as Auburn, Baltimore, Secret, Dutch, and Miner's, 
wore rich in gold, and extended ten miles or more 
toward the valley. Tho source of this wide-spread 
deposit was at last found in the many (piartz veins 
abouttho heads of those ravines, tho gold from which 
corresponding to a great degree with the gold of the 
suhj^uent placers, thus appearing to prove that the 
gold ot' the alluvial or drift deposit, was native to 
till' earth near the locality whore found, and that 
glacial action had tbrmod the placers. 

Gold-bearing quartz was found near Dphir at an 
early day, and was worked to some extent by 
Mexicans in mortars and ai'ustras. All tbo mining 
done by them was merely in breaking out tho crop- 
pings, working only the richest. Tho first mill 
built in the county was in 1851, at Secret Diggings, 
tho mine being on tho Rosocranz quartz vein. in 
September, 1852, the Crcesus Hill Quartz Mining 
Company commenced tho orootion of a mill of ton 
stamps, driven by a steam engine of thirl^'-rtvo horse 
power. The site of this wtvs about one mile west of 



Auburn, and it began work on the 2()th of January, 
1851!. Tho result of the workings of those pioneci- 
mills is not recorded, but from the fact that quartz 
mining and milling languished, tho inference is that 
the success was not great. 

In 1855 a remarkably ri(di body of gohl bearing 
quartz was discovered in Shipley Ravine, near (iold 
Hill, and (piite an excitement followed. Tho vein 
was traced a long distunce, and locations made cov- 
ering an extent of about four miles. At Stewart's 
Flat., about live miles southwest of Auburn, rich 
(|iiartz was discovered and mills erected in 1858. 
In December of that year there were six quartz 
mills in operation in tho region west of Auburn 
This has been tho principal quartz mining region of 
I'lacer (bounty, and, although the business has boon 
exceedingly variable, sometimes dying out entirely, 
it has periodically revived, and a large amount of 
bullion has been produced. 

Kast of Auburn, gold-bearing quartz was found 
in the early years of mining, and, in July, 1855, 
Messrs. Walsh & McMurtrie, of Grass Valley, built a 
(|uartz-mill on the Pennsylvania Lead, about eight 
miles oast of Wisconsin Hill. This was the jiionoor 
mill of the region, and was known as Strong it Co.'s 
Mill, afterwards known as tho " Pioneer." 

In tho Assessor's report for 1855, this is referred 
to as tho first succossfur quartz mining and milling 
in Placer County. In tho same year, says tho 
re])ort, " Mygsi's. Hancock & Wilson have built, and 
arc successfully operating, a quartz-mill at Sarahs- 
villo (Hath), near Michigan Bluff. Those gentlemen 
are tho successful pioneers in the rnodc of mining 
whiidi is to succeed, eventually, placer digging. 
When these old surface washings shall luivo been 
forgotten, the sound of the quartz stampers will be 
hoard from almost every little ledge which the 
miner now daily passes by without notice." In tho 
following year the mill erected by Strong & Co. was 
taken down and rebuilt, the new one having twenty- 
four stamps, each weighing 1,200 pounds, and was 
regarded as tho most effective null in the State. 

Quartz veins seam the county through its entire 
extent, whore tho bed-rock is attainable, from the 
Sacramento Valley to tho eastern limit. Hundreds 
of these have been prospected, and found to contain 
gold, and a largo number have, at one time or 
another, boon the scene of active mining operations, 
yiehiing large sums, and then abandoned. Some at 
times yield very profitablj', but the paying body, or 
bonanza, becoming exhausted the mines are closed. 
The quartz veins have almost universally a trend 
slightly east of north and west of south, dipping to 
the east at an angle of about seventy or eighty 
degr«es. In width they vary from two inches to 
many feet, live to ten probably being the most usual, 
but instances of as groat a width as 200 feet are 
mentioned. The number, extent, and value of these 
can oul}' bo stated indefinitely, unless in a descrip- 
tion of each particularly. East and west veins 
sometimes occur. 



MINING. 



195 



PIONEEE QUARTZ MINING — EM PIKE MILL. 

In 1856 the Empire Mill was built at Ophir, by 
.Messrs. Choate, Huston & Co., and commenced oper- 
ations in September of that year. This was worked 
by steam-power, and consisted of two batteries of 
four square, wooden-stem stamps each, but success 
attending the first workings, the mill was, in 1857, 
enlarged to eighteen stamps, capable of crushing fifty 
tons of quartz in each day of twenty-four hours. 
From the wooden-stem stamps, the change was made 
to iron-stem stamps each weighing 860 pounds. The 
mill was run night and day, employing ten men, 
five working each twelve hours. The full comple- 
ment of men working the mine and mill and hauling 
ore was sixty. The poorest rock yielded 88.00 per 
ton, and the work was reported as profitable. The 
cost of quarrying the rock, or mining it, and laying 
it down at the mill was S3. 25 per ton, and the cost of 
crushing was 82.00 per ton. Several veins were 
owned and worked by the company, some of which 
yielded at the rate of 816.00 perton. The methods of 
saving the gold were amalgamation in the battery, 
and saving the sulphurets in blankets to be after- 
wards ground in arastras. of which there were sev- 
eral attached to the mill. The amalgamation was 
very defective, as much of the tailings were trans- 
ported to Sacramento to be more scientifically bene- 
ficiated. 

PIONEER MILL. 

The Pioneer 3till at Ophir was built early in 1856, 
by Xaylor i Livingtson, as a prospecting mill. The 
battery consisted of six square stamps, driven by a 
water-wheel twenty-four feet in diameter, which was 
turned by a stream of fiftj inches of water from the 
Auburn and Bear Eiver Ditch. This mill was chiefly 
engaged in custom work, some of the rock brought 
to it yielding at the rate of 8200 per ton. 

This mill still continues its work on the old site of 
over a quarter a century ago. Many changes of 
proprietorship and manner of working ore have 
been made, but it is still the old Pioneer Mill. The 
proprietors in 1881 were Messrs. Frank X. Lavallee 
and Hans Peder Hansen. The present mill has five 
stamps of the modern pattern, and reduces six tons 
of ore per day. The driving power is a water-wheel 
of thirty feet diameter, and the building is 20x40 
feet in dimensions, the proprietors having a United 
States patent for twenty-four acres of land comf»ris- 
ing the site. The rates of wages in early times was 
8-1.00 per day, but the wages at the present time 
are only 82.00, and charges for working ore 83.00 
per ton. 

CXIOX MILL. 

The Union Mill was on Bald Hill, one and a half 
miles from Ophir. This contained eight round or 
revolving stamps, and was driven by a water-wheel 
fortj'-eight feet in diameter. This mill was the 
property of a German company, built in 1S56, and 
very successfully operated. The company worked a 



mine of their own, which was opened by a tunnel near 
the mill, and rock was transported direct from the 
mine to the battery in the cars. The rock from the 
mine yielded from 88,00 to 828.00 per ton. The gold 
saving was done in blankets and grinding of tail- 
ings in arastras. The concentrated tailings after 
leaving the arastras were sold at 816 per ton to par- 
ties in Sacramento. 

PLACER MILL. 

The Placer .Mill was situatod on Shipley's Eavine; 
built in 1857; had eight round stampts. and was 
driven by steam. The gold-saving apparatus was 
the usual style of the day; the crushed quartz flow- 
ing from the battery over blankets, the matter thus 
saved being afterwards worked over in arastras. 
Round stamps were used, then a recent invention, 
and were called revolvers, as they partly turn at 
each lift by the action of the cam. 

HEATH 4 HENDERSON JIILL. 

Mes.srs. Heath & Henderson built a quartz-mill 
early in 1858, about one and a half miles below Gold 
Hill, on a quartz ledge owned by themselves. This 
mill contained four stamps of 500 pounds each, and 
was driven by water from the Auburn and Bear 
River Ditch. This was considered remarkable 
because of its proximity to the Sacramento Valley, 
the open plain being bat three miles distant. 

MAY & CO.'S MILL. 

Messrs. May <k Co., early in 1858, also built and 
successfully operated an eight-stamp mill at Ophir, 
making some improvements, but generally working 
in the methods practiced by others. 

BAY STATE JIILL. 

The Bay State Mill, at American Bar, on the 
American River, was one of the mcst complete of 
the mills of 18_58. In this was first introduced new 
methods of amalgamating and saving gold. Pre- 
viously used processes were almost as crude as 
could have been conceived and practiced only in the 
first developments of mining knowledge among a 
semi-civilized people. So metallurgical studies were 
deemed requisite, and science was ignored, yet some 
people mined and milled with success, and loftily 
classed themselves as experts. The innovations 
made at the Bay State Mill was the adoption of the 
■ Chambers' Process,'' introduced by Judge Cham- 
bers, lat« of the banking house of Page, Bacon & 
Co. In this the quartz after being crushed under 
the stamps was ground still finer by mill-stones, 
then through amalgamating pans, in connection with 
chemicals and quicksilver. The chemicals used were 
a secret to the inventor, and a large royalty was 
demanded for the use of the process, as it was pat- 
ented. This was reported as saving from 880 to 
8130 per ton from the rock of a vein where only from 
§10.00 to S15.00 had been obtained by the former 
methods of working. 



196 



HISTORY OF PLA.CER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



PRESTON & WORRELL MILL. 

Preston & Worrell's quartz-mill at Stewart's Flat, 
five miles below Auburn, was a busy and successful 
institution in 1837-58. In the latter year the firm 
was mining the Jenny Lind and Elizabeth Ledges, 
some of the rock yielding at the rate of two ounces 
of gold per ton. 

The Jenny Lind was subsequently better known 
as the Schnabel Mine, from the name of the owner, 
and lies near Newcastle. During the first ten years 
of its working the rock paid an average of $6.00 per 
ton, but in the second decade, when a depth of 450 
feet had been reached, the value rose to $9.00 and 
$10.00 per ton. 

HENSON & CO'S. MILL. 

Henson & Go's, quartz-mill was also at Stewart's 
Flat at the same time, and working quartz from a 
claim on the Elizabeth Lode. This mill used a new 
invention called the " Rihs Amalgamator," an inven- 
tion of Colonel Russ, of California, and was intended 
to save the fine gold existing free in the quartz. 
Subsequently the Chambers' process was added, and 
the tailings reworked with good results. 

TOM SEYMOUR MILL. 

The Tom Seymour Mill was built in 1862 at Stew- 
art's Flat, by Messrs. Rogers & Barter. The mine 
bore the name of the mill, and yielded quartz worth 
from $40.00 to $60.00 per ton, the latter being 
obtained at a depth of ninety feet. 

SILVER EXCITEMENT. 

In 1865 quite an excitement prevailed upon the 
discovery of silver in what was presumed to be a 
paying mine near Rock Spring, in the southwestern 
part of the county. This was the Layne Mine, from 
which considerable ore was extracted, which, upon 
heating in a blacksmith's forge, would become cov- 
ered with tiny globules of silver. Some of the ore, 
taken to Sacramento, was assayed, and declared 
chloride of silver, and containing that metal at the 
rate of $300 per ton. 

Pros]jecting for silver became quite a rage during 
the fall of 1865 and winter of 1866, and other ledges 
rich in that metal were reported near Newcastle, at 
Ophir, and other localities, and much work done in 
developing the mines. Ore was found ranging in 
value from $100 to $500 per ton. The silver ledges 
at Newcastle were discovered by miners who were 
working at night in the Kearsarge Mine, and pros- 
pecting in the day time on their own account. The 
principal veins found were named the '• Comanche,'' 
the "Ad Valorem," and the " Pacific." These were 
mines of ■' great expectations," and some future his- 
torian may write of the large fortunes made in silver 
mining in western Placer. 

GEORGE W. REAMER 

Was born in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, 
New Jersey, September 11, 1827. The first years of 



his life were passed in his native State, but soon after 
reaching manhood's estate we find him a member of 
the New Brunswick and California Mining and Trad- 
ing Company, which sailed from New York on the 
7th of February, 1849, and after a voyage of 180 
days landed in San Francisco. Upon his arrival in 
the land of promise, Mr. Reamer engaged in business 
in Sacramento, in company with J. R. Hardenburgh, 
but the climate of that city proving detrimental to 
his health, he sought both health and riches in the 
mines. Thus we find him a miner as early as the 
spring of '50. His first venture was in river mining 
on the American River, in which he was successful. 
Conceiving the idea that to strike at the fountain 
head was the surest, if not the quickest, way to 
ascertain what dame fortune had in store for him, 
he repaired to the deep hill diggings upon the Forest 
Hill Divide, and was instrumental in sinking sixteen 
shafts between the present towns of Todd's Valley 
and Forest Hill. On the 3d day of August, 1852, 
he started the bed-rock tunnel in the New Jersey 
claim at Forest Hill, and for six years and six months 
worked in solid rock, with no trace of the precious 
metal of which he was in search. His only incentive 
for persevering was the fact that the Jenny Lind, 
adjoining his claim, had " struck it rich." During 
these years shares had been sold in this enterprise 
to parties who would soon become discouraged and 
withdraw. Finally, after years of patient toil, it 
was decided by the owners that some other plan 
must be adopted, and at a meeting they decided to 
raise a chute up through the rock and if no pay dirt 
was found to abandon the claim. Soon after adopt- 
ing this latter plan they found a bed of very rich 
gravel, entirely different from the " blue lead " they 
had been in search of, and in less than six weeks 
had the satisfaction of paying' off the indebtedness 
on the claim, amounting to about $40,000. This 
upper lead was worked steadily for some years, and 
during the first seven years over one million dollars 
worth of the precious metal was taken out. 

In 1862 he visited his home inthe East, and during 
his stay was married, in February, to Miss Sara E. 
Macdonald, a native of New York City, and the fol- 
lowing month returned with his bride to California. 
Three children have been born to them, two sons 
and a daughter. 

In 1872 Mr. Reamer, with his family, removed to 
Auburn, he having become the owner of the Bear 
River, Auburn and Gold Hill Ditch and Mining prop- 
erty, and for seven years devoted his time and ener- 
gies to enlarging and improving the ditch property. 
To avoid litigation, he purchased the North Fork 
Ditch property, which proved a financial disaster. 
The floods swept away the dams that had been 
erected at an enormous expense — some 6200,000 — 
and thus the old '49er saw his riches take wings and 
disappear in a short time. With the characteristic 
energy of the old pioneer, Mr. Reamer returned to 
his mines at Forest Hill, and is attain searchina; for 



MINING LAWS. 



107 



the "back channel" he started after in the "New 
Jersey " nearly thirty years ago. Mr. Reamer is a 
man of unblemished character, quiet and refined, and 
is a rarity among the '49er8, having never been a 
frequenter of the saloons or card tables, and is still 
a miner as in the " days of old." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

MINING LAWS. 



Quartz Miners' Convention and Laws — Auburn Quartz Mining 
District — Laws of Auburn District — Recommendation — 
Placer Mining Laws — Laws of Concert Hill District — State 
Convention of Miners— Proceedings of Miners' Convention 
— United States Mining Laws — Act of July 26, 186G — Act 
of July 9, 1870— Act of May U, 187-2- Subsequent Amend- 
ments — Furms — Proof of Labor— Notice of Location — Rules 
and Decisions — Obtaining Patents for Mines — Adverse 
Claims — Agricultural or Mineral Land — Aliens — Cross 
Lodes — Tunnels. 

So GREAT had the quartz mining interest grown in 
1865, and so great was the interest felt in the bright 
prospects and growing business in the vicinity of 
Auburn, that it was deemed necessary to organize a 
quartz mining district, and to adopt a code of laws 
and regulations after the manner of other localities 
throughout the mining region. This was the custom- 
ary method, and miners' laws were recognized in the 
United States and State courts, when not inconsis- 
tent with statute laws. 

AUBURN QUARTZ MININO DISTRICT. 

For this purpose a Convention of quartz miners 
was called, to be held at Auburn, October 28, 1865, 
when the following pi'oceedings were held, which 
were published in the Flacer Herald and Stars and 
Stripes of November 4th of that year: 

William E. Miller was elected to the Chair, and 
Horace Baldwin elected Secretary. 

It was moved and adopted that a committee of 
three be appointed to frame a code of laws, and 
define the boundaries of the district. 

The Chair appointed as said Committee, James E. 
Hale, Charles H. Mitchell and W. A. Selkirk. 

On motion the Convention adjourned for half an 
hour, to give the Committee time to report. On 
re-assembling the Committee reported on the bound- 
aries of the district, which, on motion, was adopted, 
when the Convention adjourned until the next Mon- 
day evening. 

Monday, October 30th. 

The Convention convened pursuant to adjourn- 
ment, Wm. E. Miller in the chair. The minutes of 
of last meeting were read and approved. The Com- 
mittee then made the balance of their report which 
was unanimously adopted, and the Committee dis- 
charged. On motion the Convention, under the laws 
adopted, proceeded to the election of Recorder 
for the district, and that the polls be kept open for 
one hour. 



The Chair appointed as Tellers, John li. Gwynn, J . 
W. Dickenson, and Thomas Jamison, when the names 
of Tabb Mitchell and Mack Webber were placed in 
nomination. 

One hour having elapsed, the polls were declared 
closed. The Tellers proceeded to count the vote, and 
declared the result as follows: Tabb Mitchell received 
siKty-three votes and Mack Webber, fifty-seven, 
when, on motion, Mitchell was declared elected, and 
the Convention adjourned, subject to a call under the 
laws of the District. 

Wm. E. Miller, Chainaan. 
Horace Baldwin, Secretary. 

LAWS OP AUBURN DISTRICT. 

Article 1. This distinct shall be called the 
Auburn Quartz Mining District, and shall be bounded 
as follows: Commencing at a point on the North Fork 
of the American River, where the dividing line 
between Congresssional Townships 12 and 13 north, 
and east of Mount Diablo base and meridian, strikes 
said river; thence due west along said line to the 
northwest corner of Section 5, in Congressional 
Township 12 (the west line of said section being the 
dividing line between Townships 2 and 3 of Placer 
County); thence south on said section line to the 
American River below Rattlesnake Bar; thence up 
said river and the North Fork of the same to the 
place of beginning. 

Art. 2. All quartz claims in this district for gold, 
silver, copper, or other metals, shall be 200 feet in 
length, measured horizontally in a direct line upon 
the general course of the ledge, and shall include all 
the dips, angles, and spurs of the ledge, and the 
width of 150 feet of ground on each side of the ledge 
shall be allowed for the convenience and facility of 
working the claim; -provided, that the said right to 
the use of said 150 feet on each side of the ledge, 
shall not be so constructed as to confer a right to 
any cross ledge as against the rights of any subse- 
quent location thereof, except to the extent of ten 
feet, horizontal measurement, of such cross ledge, 
on each side of said first located ledge; Pro- 
vided, also, that such subsequent locators shall 
be entitled to the right of way and drainage through 
first ledge, when the same can be done without 
material interference with the enjoyment of the 
rights of the said first locators. Provided, further, 
that the said right of way and drainage last afore- 
said shall not be so constructed as to impair the 
right of said first locators to the full and i'ree use of 
the surface ground, to the extent of 150 feet on 
each side of said first located ledge. 

A.RT. 3. Every location shall be made by posting 
on some prominent natural object, or on a post 
firmly set in the earth, at some point on or near the 
ledgeor ledges intended to bo located, a notice legibly 
written or printed in the English language, containing 
the true date of the posting of the notice, the name of 
the location or company, the name or names of each 
locator, the number of claims located, the general 
course and direction of the ledge or ledges located, 
the length or lengths and distance or distances 
claimed on each ledge or ledges, measuring I'rom 
said notice posted as aforesaid. Also an intelligible 
description of the locality of the ledge or ledges, and 
the particular part or parts thereof located, so that the 
same maj^ bo found and traced from the contents oi' 
such notice. There shall also be placed upon each 
end of the location of a claim or claims, a stake. 



19S 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



upon which shall be the name of the company or 
locator, and the direction of said stalies from the 
written or printed notices above provided for. 

Art. 4. Every location may be for one or more 
claims of the dimensions stated in Article 2d, and 
each location shall be made on one ledge or on cross 
ledges, and when on cross ledges the location shall 
embrace the junction of the cross ledges; or a loca- 
tion may be made on two or more ledges not cross- 
ing or intersecting each other, but when so made, 
the ledges bo located shall not be more than 300 feet 
apart in their general course and direction. Every 
location of one or more claims shall be designated in 
the notice by some particular name, except that 
when locations are made of one claim only, or less, 
the name or designation may be only the name of 
the locator. 

Art. 5. No person shall hold more than one 
claim by location on the same ledge or ledges, when 
embraced in the same location. 

Art. 6. No claim shall be recognized as valid, 
unless a true copy of the principal notice, as required 
in Article 3d, is filed for record with the Recorder, 
within five days after the date of location. 

Art. 7. Work to the value of ten dollars on or 
for each claim of 200 feet, shall be done within thirty 
days after posting notices of locations; Provided, 
that any company may do an equivalent amount of 
work at any one or more points on their ledge, 
which shall hold their claims good for three months 
next after posting said notices, at the expiration of 
which time and within the next three months, the 
person or company shall expend a like sum, to hold 
said claim or claims good for said last-named period, 
and a like expenditure shall be made within each 
succeeding three months lor the like purpose, until 
such company shall have expended in the aggregate 
for each chum of 200 feet, the sum of SI 00, wher: 
such person or company shall be deemed to have a 
vested right to such claim or claims, and the same 
shall not be deemed jumpable; Provided, however, 
if within any one of the above specified periods, such 
person or conipanj' shall expend, in addition to the 
above required sum to hold good such claim or 
claims, to the further sum of one or more ten dollars 
for each claim, then such claim or claims shall be 
held good thereafter for a period corresponding at 
said rate of three months for each ten dollars 
expended for each claim. 

Art. 8. The Recorder shall keep two well-bound 
books, each of which shall be provided with an 
ample index. In one of said books the Recorder 
shall immediately, upon the filing of any and every 
notice of location of a mining claim for gold, silver, 
copper or other metal, record the same, and shall at 
time of said filing index such location b}" the name 
or designation of such company or claim. He shall 
also indorse on the back of each of said notices, the 
date and hour of the day when the same shall be 
filed for record and subscribe the same. He shall 
also, when recording said notices, append to each 
record to be subscribed by him, a certificate of the 
said date and hour of filing, and the name of the 
person presenting the same for record, and shall at 
the same time carry out in said index the page or 
pages of said book when said record is made. In 
the other of said books, the Recorder shall in like 
manner index, and record and certify the record of 
evei-y affidavit of labor and expenditure made by any 
company or person, taking special care to index the 
same by the same name by which the same is 



indexed and recorded in the said first described book. 
And he shall, in the manner first above described, as 
to notices, file each of affidavits. On the filing of said 
notices and affidavits, the Recorder shall carefully 
file the same away alphabetically, and the same 
shall thereafter be thus carefully preserved in the 
office for reference, and shall be by him delivered 
over to his successor in office for the like purpose. 
He shall also on demand, and on the payment of his 
fees therefor, make and certily to any person, a 
certificate of any notice or affidavit on file in his 
office, or of these laws or those hereby repealed. The 
Recorder shall in no case be required to file for 
record any of said notices of claims, or affidavits of 
labor as herein provided, except upon the payment 
in coin of the fees in full for such filing, recording 
and certificate prescribed by these laws; Provided, 
That the rights intended by the laws to be 
acquired or secured by such record of such notice 
or affidavit shall be deemed to relate to the date of 
said filing thereof. Prodded further. It shall be the 
imperative duty of said Recorder to immediately file 
and record said notices and affidavits on presenta- 
tion to him for those purposes, whether he shall or 
shall not have received his fees therefor, -unless at 
the time of said jiresentatioii he shall have demanded 
said fees in advance. The fees of the Recorder for 
the services required of him by these laws shall be 
fifty cents for the recording of each Iblio or less 
for the body of every instrument to be recorded, 
ten cents for each indexing, ten cents for each filing, 
and ten cents for each certificate of record. He 
shall also be entitled to receive for each certified 
copy of any recorded or filed instrument fifty cents 
for each folio or less, and ten cents for his certifi- 
cate thereto. ~^j[^ 

Art. 9. Thei-e shall be elected for said district a 
Recorder annually, on the first Saturday of January, 
except that the first Recorder elected under these 
laws shall hold his office until the first Saturday of 
January, 1807, and he and his successors shall keep 
the books, papers and office in the town of Auburn. 
It shall be his duty annually to give at least one 
week's notice, before the first of January, by i)ub- 
lication in the newspapers published in the town of 
Auburn, of an election (staling the time and place) 
to be held to elect his successor. And on said 
election the Recorder shall deliver to his successor 
all books and papers pertaining to his office. In 
the case of the Recorder's death, or his removal 
Irom the district, any twenty-five quartz miners of 
the district, who have signed these laws, may call a 
meeting at Auburn, by giving one week's notice by 
publication, for the purpose of electing a Recorder 
to fill the unexpired term. Provided, That from any 
cause the Recorder shall not have given the said 
required notice, and said election has not been adver- 
tised to be held, as last herein provided, it shall be 
the duty of the Recorder to immediately give the 
required notice of such election for the unexpired 
term being held over. 

Art. 10. When at any time twenty -five or more 
bona fide quartz miners, within this district, and who 
own not less than one gold, silver, or copper min- 
ing claim therein, shall sign and jjresent to the 
Recorder a written request for the convocation of a 
meeting of the quartz miners of said district, for the 
purpose of changing any of these laws, or add- 
ing thei'eto, or both, it shall be the duty of the 
Recorder (on payment of the necessary cost of pub- 
lication) to cause to be published in the newspapers 
in the town of Auburn, for the period of two weeks, 



MINING LAWS. 



199 



a notice, signed by him, setting forth in substance 
said written request (and the time, which shall not 
be less than two days after the last publication), and 
the place of a general meeting of the miners having 
claims within said district, for the purpose of amend- 
ing or adding to the laws regulating said mining 
within the district; and except as the same may be 
amended, or added to, as in this Article provided, 
these laws shall be and remain in full force; Pro- 
vided, that in case of the refusal or failure of the 
Recorder to cause such publication of notice of such 
meeting within a reasonable time after the said 
request, and payment of cost, etc., said miners sign- 
ing the same may cause said publication of notice to 
be made, signed by themselves, and said meeting 
may be held, and exercise the powers aforesaid. 

Art. 11. All former laws regulating gold, silver, or 
copper mining within this district are hereby 
repealed; Frouided, however, that no rights hereto- 
fore acquired under the same shall be in any wise 
affected by said repeal, but such rights shall be deter- 
minable by the terms of the laws under which they 
were acquired; Provided, however, that in all cases 
where right to a claim or claims less than a vested 
right thereto onl}' have been acquired according to 
the terms of said former laws, then the owner or 
owners thereof shall cause affidavits to be filed and 
recorded as required by these laws, of the perform- 
ance of the remaining labor, etc., necessary (accord- 
ing to said former laws) to be done to perfect and 
vested right; and the period or periods, within 
which such affidavits shall be filed and recorded, 
shall be the same within which (according to said 
former laws) said labor, etc., are required to be per- 
formed. 

Art. 12. All elections for Eecorder shall be by 
ballot. 

Art. 13. No person shall be entitled to take part 
in the deliberations of any Quartz Miners' Conven- 
tion, or meeting, called by virtue of these Laws, 
unless he be an owner of a claim or an interest 
therein, and has signed the Laws of the District. 

RECOMMENDATION. 

It is hereby earnestlj- recommended by the Con- 
vention of miners, adopting the foregoing Laws in 
view of the loss of a part of the old record of claims, 
and the imperfections of many others, and to the end 
that the mining public may be enlightened to the 
nature and extent of existing claims, and for the 
avoidance of disputes and litigation that in all cases 
whatever old claims should be, by the owner thereof 
caused to be recorded in conformity with these 
Laws. And in ease of claim by them of having 
acquired vested rights, by full compliance with the 
requirements of pre-existing laws for that purpose, 
then that affidavits should be filed and recorded as 
provided in the foregoing Laws, setting forth the 
facts constituting such complete compliance. And 
with a view to the successful development of mining 
claims in this District, it is further recommended 
that all companies of two or more persons locating 
claims therein, should organize the same in con- 
formity with the provisions of an Act of the Legis- 
lature of this State, Approved April 4, 1864, entitled 
" An Act Concerning Partnership for Mining Pur- 
poses." 

PL.\CER MINING LAWS. 

In April, 1867, another Miners' Convention was 
called, which changed the boundaries of the Auburn 
District to comprise all and only Township No. 3, 



and made further changes fixing the dimensions of 
claims at 300 feet to each individual locator, and 
ordering all old claims re-located or deemed aban- 
doned unless then occupied or having SI, 000 worth 
of work done on them. Similar laws were passed 
in other districts, and continued in force until the 
passage of the Act of Congress, in 1872, which fixed 
the dimensions of claims at 1,500 feet for each indi- 
vidual or company, with a width of 600 feet. At 
this meeting Mr. Wm. E. Miller was elected iiecorder, 
and the fees for Eecording were fixed at fifty cents 
for each claim and twenty-five cents for each transfer. 

LAWS OF CONCERT HILL DISTRICT. 

From the earliest days of American gold mining in 
California, the miners were under the necessity of 
making laws and regulations for the allotment of 
ground and the tenure of mining claims. For these 
purposes no statute laws existed within the United 
States, or vState of California, nor were there any 
customs or precedents to guide. From the necessi- 
ties of the case rules were informally adopted which 
grew into a system that has been the basis of judicial 
decisions and statutes. Every mining locality was 
made a district, sometimes a small river bar, or hill, 
or flat, and at other times embracing a section 
including different classes of mining. The miners of 
these districts, in public meetings, would organize, 
define their boundaries, and resolve upon a code of 
laws, which were authority until changed by a reg- 
ularly called meeting, or in conflict with some statute 
law. The following is a sample of the usual mining 
district laws: — 

At a meeting of the miners of Concert Hill Dis- 
trict, held at Auburn on the 14th of June, 1856, Mr. 
C. £. Carpenter was called to the Chair and I. S. 
Tichenor, appointed Secretary. The following laws 
were presented to the meeting and unanimously 
adopted: — 

.ff«.sofoe£Z i. That this mining district shall be known 
by the name of Concert Hill District. 

Resolved 2, That the boundaries of this district shall 
be upon the eastern side of the flume of the North 
Fork and American River Water and Mining Coni- 
pany, extending from Oregon Bar Ferry, on the 
south to Tamaroo Bar on the north; extending from 
Tamaroo Bar west to Ogden's Diggings on the Ophir 
road; thence south in a direct line to a point west of 
Oregon Bar Ferrj-; thence east to the place of begin- 
ning. 

Resolved 3, That the size of each claim in this dis- 
trict for hill diggings shall be (60) sixty feet front, 
and shall extend back (600) six hundred feet in a 
direct lino with the tunnel. 

Resolved 4, That there shall be a Recorder for this 
district, whose dutj' it shall be to keep a record of 
all claims located. His compensation therefor shall 
be for each claim (25) twenty five cents. 

Resolved 5, That no claim shall bo considered 
located until they are dul}' recorded by the person 
appointed by this meeting for that purpose, except 
such claims as are now being worked. 



200 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



•i- 



Besolved 6, That no claim shall be held for a longer 
time than (10) ten days without work, and at least 
one day's work in ten must be done upon each and 
every claim, otherwise it shall be considered aban- 
doned. 

Resolved 7, That no person shall hold more than 
one claim in each company", except by purchase, and 
in such cases a fair equivalent shall be rendered for 
the same. 

Resolved 8, That after this date, each and every 
member of the company shall appear before the 
Recorder, in person, and have his claim recorded. 

Resolved 9, That ail disputes arising in regard to 
mining claims in this district, shall be left to a min 
er's meeting, composed of those only who may be 
engaged in mining in this district, and this decision 
shall be considered final. 

Resolved 10, That all surface and ravine diggings 
shall consist of 200 feet square to each claim. 

Resolved 11, That Wm. McDaniel act as Recorder 
of this district. 

Resolved 13, That should the Recorder be called 
upon to settle any disputes in regard to claims, he 
shall receive as a compensation for his time so spent 
the sum of one dollar per hour, to be paid by the 
person who shall make api)lieation to him. 

Resolved 13, That every claim in this district shall 
be recorded within ten days from date. 

Resolved H, That a copy of these resolutions shall 
be published in the Placer Press and Placer Herald of 
this village. 

I. S. TicHENOR, C. E. Carpenter, 

Secretary. Chairman. 

STATE CONVENTION OF MINERS. 

In ISGJ several bills were introduced in Congress 
for the regulation, taxation and disposal of mining 
claims and the mineral lands of the United States. 
The mining interest had then grown beyond the lim- 
its of the State of California. JS^evada had become 
a Stale, producing a large amount of bullion, and 
was ably represented in both houses of Congress. 
Mining was a great industry in the State of Oregon, 
and the Territories of Idaho, Montana, Utah and 
Colorado were attracting the attention of the world 
by their mineral wealth, and the subject of mining 
for the precious metals had grown to one of national 
importance. The people of the East looked upon the 
public lands of the United States as a part of their 
estate, which should be administered upon as that of 
an individual or coi-poration, for their cent per cent. 
interest therein, and, as a soulless corporation, would 
exact the utmost tribute that could be squeezed from 
tenants or purchasers. To this the people of the 
Tacific Coast res])onded, that the United States' 
interest was only that of agent in allotting the prop- 
ertj' to the occupants and giving a title thereto under 
equitable regulations, with such fees as would cover 
the cost of the service, and no more. 

The leader of the Eastern policy was John Sher- 
man, and this was a revival of the old Whig pol- 
icy of 1849-50, which had been so opposed by the 
( 'alifornians of that time, and subsequently aban- 
doned. In opposition to the measures proposed by 
Sherman, the subject ®f a convention of miners was 
agitated by the press of California and Nevada, 



which resulted in the calling of a State Convention 
in California, at which several representatives from 
Nevada and other mining States and Territories were 
present. Placer County was represented in this Con- 
vention hj the following-named delegates, selected 
from the several districts in which they resided: — 
Benjamin Smith, William McClure, William Duck, 

D. E. Hirstead, S. W. Bowman, Charles Tratton, M. 

B. Tubbs, L. Adams, James Dods, W. L. Lawrence, 
P. Bumpus, L. B. Arnold, J. S. Colgrove, James Teog, 

E. H. Gaylard, A. K. Benton, S. Palmer, J. Moody, 

C. Wicks, T. Thomp.son, E. C. Buzzell, A. Hinckley, 
R. A. Clark, C. J. Ciark, E. L. Watson, A. A. Pond, 
John Bosquit, Daniel Choate, Charles Marsac, James 
Moore, B. F. Moore, G. W. Reamer, P. B. Fagan, A. 

B. Scott, A. J. Angel, Thomas Campbell, John Yule, 

C. S. Swenson, William E. Miller, Horace Baldwin, 
J. H. Mallett, Benjamin Smith, C. A. Tuttle, E. M. 
Hall, M. McGonegal, William Liston, C. E. Carpenter, 
P. J. Largre, Isaac Small, J. W. Neff, John Knee- 
land, A. J. Ewalt. A. M. Sisson, W. D. Lawrence. 

PROCEEDINGS OF MINERS' CONVENTION. 

The delegates to the Miners' State Convention met 
in the Sixth-street Methodist Church in Sacramento 
on the 17th of January, 1866, and continued in 
session two days. 

A. A. Sargent, of Nevada, as Chairman, and M. 
D.Boruck, of San Francisco, as Secretary, were elected 
as permanent ofiicers of the Convention. 

The Committee on Credentials reported some 300 
delegates. 

A Committee of Nine was appointed to draft reso- 
lutions expressive of the views of the Convention, 
to which all resolutions were committed without 
debate. On the second day of the Convention the 
committee reported the following preamble and res- 
olutions as an expression of the sentiments of the 
miners of California. They were unanimously 
adopted: — 

Whereas, Since the discovery of gold mines in 
California it has been the po'icy of the General Gov- 
ernment to allow all those who desired to mine for 
the precious metals in this State a free and unre- 
stricted right to search for and discover the same, 
and, when found, to hold and dev'elop their claims, 
subject only to such restrictions and rules as 
might be adopted by Conventions held bj- those who 
were engaged In actual mining enterprises in the 
several mining districts of the State; and whereas, 
we believe by the adoption of that policy the mining 
interests of the State have been developed more 
thoroughly and to a much greater extent than they 
could have been under any other policy that could 
have been adopted; and whereas, legislation for the 
survej' and sale of the mineral lands is threatened 
in the Congress of the United States, and it is seri- 
ously proposed to destroy the property interests 
which have been created in this State under the 
license of the General Government for seventeen 
years past, and to revolutionize the whole system of 
mining business and tenures under which the mines 
have been so far developed, the State has prospered, 
the Government has been supplied with the sinews 




RES OFJ.G. GOULD, 

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RESIDENCE OF W. H.H I LLHO USE 

Di/TCfi n.Ar. /^lAC€ff Cd-CAL. 



MINING LAWS. 



•201 



of war, trade with advantageous markets, and the 
revenue a valuable and increasing resource; there- 
fore, be it 

Resolved, By the miners of California in general con- 
vention assembled, That we are opposed to any sur- 
vej", lease or sale of the mineral lands of this Slate, as 
injurious to the best irilerests of the General Gov- 
ernment and of this State, and utterlj- ruinous to 
the mining communities. 

Resolved, That any increase of the tax upon the 
proceeds of the mines would be onerous and inju- 
rious to the mining interests of this coast. 

Resolved, That the bill introduced into the Senate 
of the United Slates by John Sherman, of Ohio, is 
singularly calculated to work the utmost confusion 
and loss to the present holders of mining property, 
who have invested their labor and capital in devel- 
oping the mines; to destro}' the vast canal interests 
of the State, the existence of which is necessary to 
the prosecution of raining, and to expel the great 
bulk of the population of the raining districts from 
their homes, their business, and possessions. 

Resolved, That the miners of California respect- 
fully petition the Congress of the United States to 
respect the rights and property interests which the 
policy of the Government long continued has cre- 
ated and fostered. 

Resolved, That we indorse the action of the Legis- 
lature of this State, requesting delavin the issuance 
of patents to the Central Pacific Eailroad Company, 
or any other railroad company, until the Govern- 
ment has employed effective measures to segregate 
the mineral from agricultural lands lying within the 
lines of the grant to the railroad compan}-, and, 
while willing and anxious to aid and encourage in 
the conslriiclion of said road — the great national 
highway-— we must emphatically protest against the 
cession of a vast section of mineral and timber land 
for that purpose, involving the sacrifice and the 
destruction of private rights already vested. 

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed 
by the President of this Convention, the said Presi- 
dent to act as Chairman thereof, to prejiare a memo- 
rial to Congress embodying the sentiments contained 
in these resolutions, and to cause the same to be 
presented, through our delegation in Congress, to 
thePresident of the United Slates, the Secretary of 
the Interior, and Commissioner of the General Land 
Office. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forth- 
with forwarded, by the officers of the Convention, 
to each of our Senators and Members of Congress, 
with the request of the Convention that the same be 
laid before the respective houses of Congress. 

UNITED STATES MINING LAWS. 

In opposition to the legislation proposed by John 
Sherman, a bill was introduced by Senator John 
Conness, known as the Act of Julj- 26, 1866, which 
recognized the right of any citizen, or one who had 
declared his intention to become such, to enter upon 
the public lands of the United States and mine for 
gold, silver, copper, and cinnabar, and recognized the 
rules, regulations, and tenure of mining property us 
raade by the miners in their respective districts, " so 
far as the same were not in conflict with the laws of 
the United States." 

This was the great concession demanded bj' the 



miners, and is the most important Act ever passed in 
their interest. A miner's title to his claim, acquired 
according to the "rules and customs of miners in 
the several mining districts," was made perfect, and, 
although he could proceed, by that Act, and can 
under subsequent Acts, to obtain a United States 
patent for his property, he is not compelled to do so, 
and, while complying with the laws of his district 
cannot be dispossessed. 

ACT OF JULY 26, 1866. 

The Act of July 26, 1866, after declaring the min- 
eral lands upon the public domain, both surveyed 
and unsurveyed, to be free and open for exploration 
and occupation, and acknowledging the binding force 
of the miners' rules and regulations and the titles 
thereunder obtained, all of which was contained in 
the first section of the Act, went on to define the 
manner of surveying atid disposing of mineral lands; 
but the provisions were for quartz or vein mines, 
giving the owner of a quartz vein the right to follow 
it downward on its dip under the property of another 
to an indefinite depth. The Act also granted the 
right of way over public lands, not reserved to 
public uses, for the construction of public roads. 

Section 9 of the Act also contains an important 
concession to the miners, as follows: " That when- 
ever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of 
water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or 
other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the 
same are recognized and acknowledged by the local 
customs, laws, and the decisions of Courts, the pos- 
sessors and owners of such vested rights shall be 
maintained and protected in the same; and the right 
of way for the construction of ditchesand canals for 
the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and 
confirmed. Provided, however, That whenever, after 
the passage of this Act, any person or persons shall ip 
the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or 
damage the possession of any settler on the public 
domain, the party committing such injury or damage 
shall be liable to the ))arty injured for such injury or 
damage." 

The former custom had been for the miner to go 
upon the possessory claim of the agriculturist on the 
public lands, and mine or run his ditch without 
being liable for damage. Gross injustice was thus 
often inflicted. 

ACT OF JULY 9, 1870. 

July 9, 1870, a supplemental Act was passed, adding 
several sections to the Act of 1866, providing for the 
patenting of "placer" claims. The first section of 
the supplemental Act, being Section 12 of the Stat- 
ute is as follows: — 

Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That claims, 
usually called "placers," including all forms of 
deposit, excepting quartz, or other rock in place, 
shall be subject to entry and patent under this Act; 
under like circumstances and conditions, and upon 
similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode 



202 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



claims; Provided, that where the lands have been 
previously surveyed by the LTnited States, the entry 
in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal sub- 
divisions of the public lands, no further survcj* or 
plat in such case being required, and the lands may 
be paid for at the rate of !52.50 per acre. Frovided 
further. That legal subdivisions of forty acres may 
be subdivided into ten-acre tracts, and that two or 
more persons, or associations of persons, having 
contiguous claims of any size, although such claims 
may be less than ten acres each, may make joint 
entry thereof; And provided, furfher, That no location 
of a placer claim hereafter made shall exceed 160 
acres lor any one person or association of persons, 
which location shall conform to the United States 
surveys, and nothing in this section contained shall 
defeat or impair any bona fide pre-emption or home- 
stead claim upon agricultural land, or authorize the 
sale of the improvements of any bona fide settler to 
any purchaser. 

The subdividing of the land into ten-acre tracts 
must be done at the expense of the claimant, the 
lowest United States subdivision being in forty- 
acre tracts. 

This bill was introduced in the House of Represen- 
tatives by Hon. Aaron A. Sargent, then ^Member of 
Congress from the Second District of California; a 
prominent pioneer citizen, editor, lawj-er, and miner 
of Nevada Uountj-, and conversant with the wants 
of the minei-8. 

ACT OF MAT 11, 1872. 

The before-mentioned Acts were again amended 
May 11, 1872, but the first section of the Act of 1866 
has never been disturbed. In the revised law of 
1872 the second section is as follows; — 

That mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz, 
or other rock in places bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, 
lead, tin, copper or other valuable deposits heretofore 
located, shall be governed as to length along the 
vein or lode by the customs, regulations and laws in 
force at the date of their location. A mining claim 
located after the passage of this Act, whether located 
by one or more persons, may equal, but shall not 
exceed 1,500 feet in length along the vein or lode; 
but no location of a mining claim shall be made until 
the discovery of the vein or lode within the limit of 
the claim located. No claim shall extend more than 
300 feet on each sideof the middle of the vein at the 
surface, nor shall any claim be limited by any mining 
regulations to less than twenty-five feet on each 
side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except 
where adverse rights existing at the time of the 
passage of this Act shall render such limitation 
necessary. The end lines of each claim shall bo 
parallel to each other. 

Sec. 3. That the locators of all mining locations 
heretofore made, or which shall hereafter be made, 
on any mineral vein, lode or ledge, situated on the 
public domain, their heirs and assigns, where no 
adverse claim exists at the passage of this Act, so 
long as they comply' with the laws of the United 
States and with the State, Territorial, and local reg- 
ulations not in conflict with said laws of the United 
States, governing their possessory titles, shall have 
the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of 
all the surface included within the lines of their 
locations, and of all yeins, lodes, and ledges through- 



out their entire depth, the top of ajiex of which lines 
inside of such surface lines extended down vertically, 
although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far 
depart from a perpendicular in their course down- 
ward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of 
said surface locations; provided, that their right of 
possession to such outside parts of said veins or ledges 
shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie 
between vertical plane.^ drawn downward as afore- 
said, through the end lines of their locations, so con- 
tinued in their own direction that such planes will 
intersect such extei-ior parts of said veins or ledges; 
and prorided, further, that nothing in this section shall 
authorize the locator or possessor of a vein or lode 
which extends in its downward course beyond the 
vertical lines of his claim to enter upon the surface 
of a claim owned or possessed bj- another. 

Sec. -1. That where a tunnel is run for the develop- 
ment of a vein or lode, or for the discovery of mines, 
the owners of such tunnel shall have the right of 
possession of all veins or lodes within 3,000 feet from 
the face of such tunnel, on the line thereof, not pre- 
viously known to exist, discovered in such tunnel, to 
the same extent as if discovered from the surface; 
and locations on the line of such tunnel of veins or 
lodes not appearing on the surface, made by other 
parties after the commencement of the tunnel, and 
while the same is being prosecuted with reasonable 
diligence, shall be invalid; but the failure to prose- 
cute the work on the tunnel for six months shall be 
considered as an abandonment of the right to all 
undiscovered veins on the line of said tunnel. 

Sec. 5. That the miners of each mining district 
may make rules and regulations not in conflict with 
j the laws of the United States or with the laws of 
the State or Territory in which the district is situ- 
ated, governing the location, manner of recording, 
amount of work necessary to hold possession of a 
mining claim, subject to the following requirements: 
The location must be distinctly marked on the ground, 
so that its boundaries can be easily traced. All 
records of mining claims hereafter madeshall contain 
the name or names of the locators, the date of the 
location, and such a description of the claim or claims 
located, by reference to some natural object or per- 
manent monument as will identifj' the claim. On 
each claim located after the passage of this Act, and 
until a patent shall have been issued therefor, not 
less than SlOO worth of labor shall be performed or 
improvements made during each year. On all claims 
located prior to the passage of this Act, 610.00 
worth of labor shall be performed or improvements 
made for each 100 feet in length of vein until a 
l)atent shall have been issued therefor; but where 
such claims are held in common, such expenditure 
may be made upon any one claim. And upon a fail- 
ure to comply with these conditions, the claim or 
mine upon which such failure occurred shall be open 
to re-location in the same manner as if no location of 
the same had ever been made; provided, that the 
original locators, their heirs, assigns or legal repre- 
sentatives, have not resumed work after such fa'iure 
and before such location. Upon the failure of any 
one of several co-owners to contribute his proportion 
of the expenditures required by this Act, the co- 
owners who have performed the labor or made the 
improvements may, at the expiration of the j-ear, 
give such delinquent co-owner personal notice in 
writing, or notice by publication in the newspaper 
nearest the claim, for at least once a week for ninety 
days, and if at the expiration of ninety days after 
such notice in writing or by publication, such delin- 



MINING LAWS. 



203 



quent should fail or refuse to contribute his propor- 
tion to the expenditure required according to this 
Act, his interest in the claim shall become the prop- 
ert}' of his co-owners who have made the required 
expenditures. 

Such are the provisions for the location and pos- 
session of mining claims. The remainder of the Act 
pertains to the obtaining of patents for mining 
ground and the government of United States Survey- 
ors, Eegisters, and Eeceivers. Under this Act, placer 
claims may be patented at the rate of S2.50 an acre, 
and vein or lode claims at the rate of $5.00 an acre, 
the applicant paying additional costs of advertising 
and fees of officers. 

This Act is usually adopted by miners in organiz- 
ing districts as the law of the district, instead of the 
variable rules formerly the custom to enact. If dis- 
tricts are not formed and Recorders elected, the county 
becomes the district and the County Eecoi-der the 
recorder of claims. 

SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS. 

Subsequent amendments have but slightly changed 
the law, and court decisions have explained it where 
obscure. The "year" mentioned as the time in 
which work shall be done on a claim, is held to end 
on the 31st of December, and if, at that time, the 
labor or expenditures have not been made, then on 
January 1st the claim is re-locatable, or, as the miners 
usually express it, " jumpable." When work is done, 
or locations made, notices in the following forms, as 
prepared in " Copps' Mining Laws," are recorded in 
the milling district, or, if there is no District 
Recorder, then with the County Eecorder: 



PROOF OP LABOR. 



State of - 



Counfy of— 



Before me, the subscriber, personally appeared 

who, being duly sworn, says that at least 

dollars worth of labor or improvements was 

performed or made upon [here describe the claim], 

situated in Mining District, County, 

State (or Territory) of , during the year ending 

, 18 — . Such expenditure was made by or at the 

expense of , owners of the claim, for the pur- 
pose of holding said claim. 

\Jurat\ 



(signature). 



NOTICE OF LOCATION. 



N^otice is hereby given that the undersigned, hav- 
ing complied with the requirements of Chapter Six 
of Title Thirty-two of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States, and the local customs, laws, and reg- 
ulations, has located linear loet of the 

lode (20 acres of placer mining ground), situated in 

Mining District, County, , and 

described as follows: 

[Describe the claim accurately, hy courses and 
distances if possibly, with reference to some natural 
object, or permanent monument, and mark the 
boundaries by suitable monuments; If a placer claim 



is located on surveyed land, describe the legal sub- 
division.] , Locator. 

Discovered, , 18 — . 

Located, , 18 — . 

Attest: 



Recorded, 



18—. 



RULES AND DECISIONS. 



Miners are required to obey local laws as well as 
the United Stales laws, and if these require more 
work or expenditure than $100 per claim each year, 
or a particular style of work, as shaft, tunnel, or 
otherwise, they must be obeyed, as the United 
States law says it shall not be less than that amount. 

The courts have decided that a prospector on the 
public mineral domain may protect himself in his 
posessions while seeking for mineral, and his posses- 
sion' so held is good against all the world but the 
United States, but if he stands by and permits others 
to enter upon his claim without protest, and first 
discover mineral in place, the law gives to such first 
discoverer a title to the mineral so discovered against 
which the miner in possession cannot prevail. If 
one takes up a claim as the agent of another, the 
title vests in the other and the agent, by his mere 
act, cannot subsequently divest it. 

OBTAINING PATENTS FOR xMINES. 

Any citizen, or one who has declared his intention 
to become such, or association of persons authorized 
to locate a claim, may obtain a patent from the 
United States for his or her claim or mine, by pur- 
suing the prescribed form. Application must be 
made at the Land Office of the district in which the 
mine is situated, and a sworn statement made that 
all the requirements of the Government and local 
laws have been complied with, and a full description 
of the property given. 

When papers have once been filed at the Land 
Office, they become a part of the record, and can 
neither be withdrawn or returned, but must be 
transmitted to the General Land Office. An appli- 
cation will be rejected when the description of the 
premises is erroneous or insufficient; also when, (1) 
the notice was published without the knowledge of 
the Register; (2) the notice was not published in a 
newspaper designated as nearest the claim; (3) 
record title was found defective; (4) a jirevious 
application has been made for the same premises, 
which was withdrawn pending a suit in court com- 
menced bj' the adverse claimant. 

An application for patent will be rejected when 
the survey does not accurately define the bounda- 
ries of the claim, or where the claim was not located 
in accordance with law. Where several parties own 
scpai'ate and distinct portions of a claim, application 
for patent may be made by either for that portion of 
the claim owned by him; but where several parties 
own undivided interests in a mining claim, all should 
join in an application for a patent. A person or 



i>04 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



association may purchase as many placer locations 
as the local law admits, and embrace them all in one 
application for a patent. Papers sworn to, before 
any person purporting to act as a deputy for the 
Register and Receiver cannot be recorded as evi- 
dence. 

In all patents for mining claims situated within 
the interior boundaries of a town site, a clause is 
inserted, " excepting and including all town properly 
rights upon the surface, and all houses, buildings, 
structures, lots, blocks, streets, alleys or other 
municipal improvements not belonging to the grantee 
herein, and all rights necessary or proper to the 
occupation, possession and enjoyment of the same. 

Publication of notice must be made in a news- 
paper for the period of sixty days, designated bj" the 
Register as the nearest to the mine. Notice must be 
published ten consecutive weeks in weekly news- 
papers, and in daily newspapers sixty days must 
elapse between the fir»t and the last insertions. 
Where the Register designates the daily issue of a 
newspaper for publication, or notices of a mining 
application for patent, it is not in compliance with 
law to change to the weekly edition of the same 
paper without authority of the Register. 

The existence of a salt spring on a tract of land 
withdraws it from the operation of the homestead 
and preemption laws. A hearing for the purpose 
of proving the agricultural character of such land is 
not allowed. Land containing valuable deposits of 
slate, may be entered under the mining acts. 

ADVERSE CLAIMS. 

Adverse claimants must file a separate and 
distinct claim against each application, which it is 
alleged conflicts with the premises owned by such 
adverse claimant. The papers in an adverse claim 
once filed cannot be withdrawn, but become a part 
of the record. When an adverse claim has been 
filed, it cannot be amended so as to embrace a larger 
portion of the premises than that described in the 
original adverse claim. An adverse claim must be 
made out in proper form, and filed in the proper 
local office during the period of publication of the 
application for the patent, to be effective unless 
amended within sixty days from the publication of 
notice of the application. It is the duty of the 
adverse claimant to commence suit in proper form 
within the required time, and if he trusts the 
uncertain medium of the United States mail, he must 
abide the consequeni'cs, should the delay ensue through 
misfortune or accident. An allejiation of parties to a 
suit that they compose the company is sufficient, and 
they ai-e not required to prove that they are the 
original locators or the identical parties who pre- 
sented the adverse claim. 

AGRICCJLTURAL OR MINERAL LAND. 

Where land is of little if any value for agricul- 
tural purposes, but is essential to the proper develop- 



ment of mining claims, it should be disposed of only 
under the mining act. Where lands containing 
valuable mineral deposits have been included in an 
agricultural entry, said entry will be canceled at any 
time prior to issuance of patent, upon satisfactory 
evidence of the existence of such valuable deposits. 
Where valuable deposits of mineral are discovered 
upon a tract after the same has been entered as 
agricultural, but before patent has been issued, the 
parties claiming the mine may make application for 
patent for same, and the agricultural entry will be 
canceled to that portion of the land embraced by 
said mining claim. Where mineral deposits are 
discovered on agricultural lands after the patent has 
been issued to an agricultural claimant, thej^ pass 
with the patent. 

Agricultural college scrip cannot be received in 
payment for claims. 

ALIENS. 

A foreigner may make a mining location and 
dispose of it, provided he becomes a citizen before 
disposing of the mine. Proof that the party was 
not a citizen before disposing of his claim must be 
affirmatively shown. Locators and intermediate 
owners other than applicants will not be presumed 
aliens in the absence of allegation or objection prior 
to issuance of patent. The portion of a mining claim 
sold to an alien cannot be patented while such owner 
is an alien; but on his declaration to become a 
citizen, his right dates back to his purchase, and he 
may thereupon secure United States patent for his 
claim. 

CROSS LODES. 

Revised Statutes. Section 2, 336: Where two or 
more ledges cross or intersect each other, priority of 
title shall govern, and such prior location shall be 
entitled to all ore or mineral contained within the 
space of intersection; but the subsequent location 
shall have the right of way through the space of 
intersection, for the purposes of the convenient 
working of the mine. And where two or more 
%'eins unite, the oldest or prior location shall take 
the vein below the point of union, including all the 
space of intersection. 



There is no authority of law for a tunnel location 
3,000 by 1,500 feet. A proper location is the width 
of the tunnel for 3,000 feet. There is no provision of 
law for patenting tunnel locations; but lodes dis- 
covered in running a tunnel may be patented in like 
manner as other lodes. The right is granted to 
tunnel owners to 1,500 feet of each blind lode, not 
previously known to exist, which may be discovered 
in their tunnel. 

When a lode is struck or discovered for the first 
time in running a tunnel, the tunnel owners have 
the option of recording their claim of 1,500 feet all 
on one side of the point of discovery or intersection. 



MINING LAWS. 



•205 



or partly on one side thereof and partly on the other. 
Prospecting for blind lodes is prohibited on the line 
of a located tunnel, while the tunnel is in progress, 
but other parties are in no way debarred from 
prospecting for blind lodes or running tunnels, so 
long as they keep without the line of such tunnel. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MINING. ' 
[continued.] 



Mineralogical Education — Copper Discoveries and Excite- 
ment- Lone Star District — Auburn District — Cox's Dis- 
trict—Garden Bar District— On the "Rampage" for 
Copper — High Prices for Copper — New Copper Mining 
Towns— Singular Rock — Copper Production — The Excite- 
ment Abating — Iron Mines — Iron Ore on Lovell's Ranch — 
Report of the Geological Survey— The Iron Mountain Com- 
pany — Ii-on Mining in Oregon — Practical Mining Com- 
menced — The Blastfurnace — The Hot Blast — The Process 
of Smelting — Feeding the Furnace — The Scene at a Casting 
— The Ore and Ore "Supply — The Fuel Supply — Executive 
Officers— Tlie Force Employed — The To«n of Hotaling — 
What of the Future?— The Holland Mine — Iron Product — 
Coal Mining — Putters' Clay — California Clay Manufactur- 
ing Company- — Impoitance of Clay Deposits — Chromium 
Mining. 

During the latter part of the decade of '60, min- 
ing, particularly in quartz, received much more than 
former attention in the scientific research which 
attended it and the many improvements made. This 
important industry had received a great impetus 
from the developments in silver mining in the State 
of Nevada, which, proving so extraordinary, had 
attracted the people of all parts of the world to this 
business. New processes had been applied, and 
machinery for every feature and class of minipg and 
milling been invented. Previous to the finding of 
silver ore in the Washoe Mountains, no study of min- 
eralogy had been made but by the closest scholar. 
Gold-bearing gravel beds, and gold-bearing quartz, 
were all the miner sought, and to detect them were 
the utmost of his mineralogical attainments. Neither 
schools, mining bureaus, nor cabinets of minerals 
existed for his instruction, and much of the wealth 
of the country was passed unnoticed and neglected. 
The discovery that a dark and dull-looking substance 
in veins of quartz contained silver in unprecedented 
abundance led to more critical observation of the 
rocks, and this led to the discovery of other gold- 
bearing veins, and other silver -bearing veins, copper, 
quicksilver, iron, chromium, tin, borax, soda, and 
other valuable minerals. 

The knowledge came slowly, and the lessons, being 
those of experience and self-instruction, were most ex- 
pensive. By accident each new mineral was recog- 
nized. No scientist told the miner what to seek and 
how to detect the treasures; no capitalists furnished 
tiie means to prospect for unknown minerals; no 
schools taught the principles of formation, or laid 



down the theories which might guide the search. All 
was left to the minei's of the hard hand and strong 
back, whom the scientists professed to despise, and 
the capitalist treated with contempt. But it was 
they who pointed out the ancient river channels 
behind the granite rim and beneath the basalt and 
volcanic debris, and with the courage of inspiration 
pierced the rock and confounded the learned and the 
rich with their discoveries. It is a shame to science 
and to the educational policy of the State that every 
discovery of every mineral and of every valuable 
mine has been made by laboring men, unaided in the 
least by the educated or wealthy classes. It was 
Marshall, a hired mechanic, who first exposed the 
gold of California to the world. It was Comstock, 
and Fenmore, and Penrod, and O'Reily, laboring 
miners, who discovered the silver of Nevada. It 
was some " State of Maine boys," miners, who 
declared the existence of a gi-avel channel beneath 
the " Table Mountain," in Tuolumne, and, in spite 
of ridicule of the more " knowing ones," proved it 
by long years of work; and it was Cameron and 
Power, who, with a simple ti'iangle, made of sticks, 
80 nicely surveyed the Damascus Eidge through 
fifteen miles of sinuous canon and ravine, and laid 
out their plan of tunnel, that, when completed after 
six years of toil, struck the Hidden Treasure Chan- 
nel, that comes down ft-om the Mountain Gate, at the 
precise point desired, more accurately than the 
meeting of the great tunnel which pierced the Alps, 
and for which the engineers were rewarded by 
knightly titles. 

COPPER DISCOVERIES AND EXCITEMENT. 

The discovery of silver opened the eyes of pros- 
pectors, and every curious rock was critically exam- 
ined. Thus copper was discovered in Calaveras 
County July 4, 18(51, and in 1862 the great wealth 
of the Union Mine was developed. Then came 
prospecting throughout all California for copper. A 
great belt of copper-bearing veins was found to 
extend through the foot-hill region oi' the Sierra 
Nevada, and a furor of copper mining pervaded the 
people during several years following. In November, 
1862, copper mines were opened at the Zinc House 
in Nevada County, and at Greenwood Valley in El 
Dorado County. Early in 1863 similar discoveries 
were made in Placer County and numerous copper 
mining companies were organized. Before the close 
of February the following-named companies and 
their ofiScers were recorded. 

LONE STAR DISTRICT. 

Gardner Companj- — Alex. Mills, President; David 
Johnson, Secretary; William E. Miller, Treasurer. 

Captain Page Company— Joseph Walkup, Presi- 
dent; George L. Anderson, Secretary; E. M. Hull, 
Treasurer. 

Warfield Company— S. B. Wyman, President; S. 
B. Dyer, Secretary; John O Farrell, Treasurer. 



•206 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



AUBURN DISTRICT. 

Newman Company — John R. Newman, President; 
Tabb Mitchell, Secretary; £. T. Loving, Treasurer. 

Eeed Company — Wm. E. Miller, President; S. B. 
Woodin, Secretary; J. L. Browne, Treasurer. 

Twin Ledge Company — A. Eackliife, President; 
Thomas Cross, Secretary; M. Dodsworth, Treasurer. 

Highland Company — Geo. Holmes, President; H. 
Hazell, Secretary; A. Racklifte, Treasurer. 

Cummings ('omj^any — Joseph Walkup, President; 
J. E. Crandall, Secretary; Eobert Gordon, Treasurer. 

Excelsior Company — H. Hazell, President, S. B. 
AVoodin, Secretarj'; M. Dodsworth, Treasurer. 

Union Company — E. C. Poland, President; James 
Munsell, Jr., Secretary; John T. Eeed, Treasurer. 

Hilbj- Company — John C. Boggs, President; Wm. 
Sexton, Secretary; A. Rackliffe, Treasurer. 

El-e-ma-tah Company — G. P. Gould, President; 
George L. Anderson, Secretary; Tabb Mitchell, 
Treasurer. 

Ophir Company — C. D. Pugh, President; — Hath- 
away, Secretary; Daniel Choate, Treasurer. 

Crutcher Companj- — Jacob Gibson, President; 
William Scott, Secretary; Eobert Gordon, Treasurer. 

cox's DISTRICT. 

Boggs Company — John C. Boggs, President; Wm. 
Sexton, Secretary; E. M. Hall, Treasurer. 

Appanoose Company — S. B. "Woodin, President; 
Geo. L. Anderson, Secretary; James McBurney, 
Treasurer. 

Gordon Company — Robert Gordon, President; E. 
C. Poland. Secretary; Wm. Sexton, Ti-easurer. 

GARDNER BAR DISTRICT. 

Old Hickory Company — Joseph Walkup, Presi- 
dent; Tabb Mitchell, Secretary; John R. Newman, 
Treasurer. 

Empire Company —Robert Gordon, President; 
Henson Hazell, Secretary; M. Dodsworth, Treasurer. 

OJf THE ■•RAMPAGE" f6r COPPER. 

Many other organizations followed, and Western 
Placer devoted itself to prospecting for, mining and 
studying, copper. In April the editor of the Herald 
says: " Tbe rich placers in the hills and gulches in 
and about the foot-hills have been exhausted. The 
gold in the surface diggings in the higher mountains 
has been sifted from the earth, and the gold seeker 
is compelled to dive hundreds of feet into the dan- 
gerous shaft, or work for years at exhausting cost 
in rock of adamantine hardness, through tunnels, to 
I'each the precious metal. But presto, just at the 
moment of despair comes the copper excitement. 
Attention is called to the veins of mineral rock inter- 
secting the face of the earth like the veins in the 
human body. 

" Men creep into the abandoned shafts, examine 
the refuse matter cast up by the previous gold seeker, 
inquire into the properties of this and that curious- 



looking mineral, sink new shafts, smelt new ore.s — 
in short, institute a new era of research. Gold- 
bearing rock is found where the pioneers of the 
placers never dreamed of; quartz that would not 
pay in gold, and was abandoned as worthless is now 
found rich in silver, and, searching for copper, the 
delver is astonished to find himself in a mine of 
silver, or among mineral substances new to his vision. 
Enough, however, has already been developed to 
establish the conviction that we have been around 
the circle, and are now entering upon the second and 
more permanent operations of mining." 

HIGH PRICES FOR COPPER. 

Great encouragement was given copper mining by 
the high prices prevailing for that metal, and it 
became the theme for the press and for conversation. 
Men accustomed to the copper trade and familiar 
with copper mining in England, Chili, and other 
parts of the world, spoke in the highest terms of 
the mines of California, nor did they confine their 
eulogiums to those of Copperopolis, whose riches 
were proven beyond conti'Over.sy. Agencies for the 
purchase and shipment of oi'e were established in 
San Francisco, and liberal advances were made on 
consignments. The price paid in New York was 
from $5.25 to 86.00 for each unit of percentage of 
metal in the ore, and the price at San Francisco was 
■•ij2.50 per unit of the purity of ten to sixteen per 
cent., with higher rates for purer oi-e, the rate at 
San Francisco in April, 1863, being S-l.OO per unit of 
copper percentage above sixteen per cent., thus 
making twenty per cent, ore worth §56.00 per ton 
in that market. These were very high prices, and 
as a consequence a copper mine was thought to be a 
great fortune. There were no mills to build or 
" rebellious " ores to contend with, only to extract 
the crude ore and sell it to greedy agents at the 
mouth of the shaft. Advertisements were pub- 
lished proposing to buy ore assaying twelve per 
cent., and large quantities of such ore, and of 
higher grades, were reported as abundant through 
western Placer. Copper was found throughout all 
the foot-hill region west from Township No. 4. 

NEW COPPER MINING TOWNS. 

Ten miles northwest of Auburn, on Bear River, 
was Gardner Bar District, and in this were the busy 
copper mining towns of Wilsontown and Superior, 
named after the principal mines of the localities. 
The Wilson mine yielded ore assaying 2-lj'j per cent, 
and a number of tons of such ore was shipped to 
San Francisco in June, 1863, and sold, realizing a fine 
profit at the high prices then obtained. This mine 
at that date was developed by a shaft sixty-five 
feet in depth, where the vein was found to be eight 
feet in width, j'ielding a pyritous ore. Shares in the 
mine had been sold at the rate of 850.00 per foot, 
but when developed to the depth of sixty-five feet 
the value was considered greatly above that price. 
The Auburn and the Jeflferson mines were on the 



MINING LAWS. 



•207 



same vein, and were regarded as of very great value. 
This biisj' mining disti-ict was organized into a pre- 
cinct, and at the election in September, 1863, returned 
seventy-four votes, one of the largo polling places 
of the county. 

SINGULAR ROCK. 

Of the singular rock brought to the surface by 
the miners the Herald, of June 20, 1863, relates the 
following: — 

The copper company, who are mining near Ala- 
baster Cave, are taking out rock of a very singular 
character. After being taken out and exposed to 
the air for twenty-four hours it ignites and con- 
sumes itself Who can account for this singularity? 

COPPER PRODUCTION. 

Of other developed claims the Cummings Company 
had a shaft eighty feet in depth; the Monopolus, 
fifty feet; the Eedwine, thirty-six feet; the Granville, 
thirty-six feet, and many others showing the earn- 
estness of the workers; and all found copper 
ore. The great expectations of the miners were 
founded upon the results from the " Union " and 
" Keystone " Mines at Copperopolis, and a few others, 
which had turned out many thousand tons of ores, 
returning a profit of nearly half a million dollars 
annually. The Union Mine is reported to have con- 
tained the largest body of first-class copper ore 
ever known, having an extent of 350 feet in length 
and from four to nine feet thick at the upper level; 
twenty-one feet at the depth of 200 foot, and thirty- 
one feet at the depth of 250 feet. 

With- such a mine, the first one found, and such 
prices for ore, why should there not be a copper 
mining craze. The copper mines of the Lake Supe- 
rior region were also pointed to as sources of won- 
drous fortunes. In 1862 they had produced 10,000 
tons of pure copper of the value of $5,000,000. The 
greatest fortunes made in Chili, ranging from one to 
twenty-five million dollars, were the result of copper 
mining. The prospect appeared exceedingly bright 
for the copper mine-* of California, and their name 
was legion. California seemed capable of supplying the 
world with copper. From San Diego to Del Norte, in 
theCoastRange, theSierra Nevada, and in the islands 
of the sea veins of copper were found. But the 
great abundance of the metal caused the collapse of 
copper mining in California, excepting in a few of the 
richest mines. The price declined during the latter 
part of 1863, and in 186-1 only half as much was paid 
lor ore in New York as in the beginning of 1863. 
With the decline in price the excitement abated, and 
with the opening of 1864 very few, if any, copper 
mines were worked in Placer County. 

THE EXCITEMENT ABATING. 

The copper furor had cost the people much, but 
it had proven the existence of the metal in Placer 
County in large quantities, had taught the people a 
lesson in mineralogy, and aided in developing other 
resources. Under different circumstances, these 



copper veins will constitute an important resource, 
as undoubtedly much ore exists, and if not in such 
abundance as to pay the capitalists dividends upon 
employed labor, will pay the miner for extracting it. 
Copper smelting works had been erected at Anti- 
och, in Contra Costa County, convenient to the coal 
mines of Mount Diablo, and in the fall of 1863, the 
managers of this institution advertised the following 
as the rates there paid for copper ore: — 

$2.00 per one per cent, for ore yielding 8 to 12 per 
cent.; .$2.25, from 13 to 15 per cent; $2.50 for 16 per 
cent.; and .$3.00 per cent, for ore yielding 20 per 
cent, and upwards. 

The period of operations of the Antioch Smelting 
Works was brief, and with the groat decline in cop- 
per, resulting from the excessive production, closed 
its labors. 

IRON MINES. 

Among the early miners of Placer County were 
Pennslyvanians, who wore familiar with the appear- 
ance of iron ore in their native State, and they recog- 
nized on the lower American River bars many of the 
bowlders forming the gravel as iron ore, which upon 
breaking would show their unmistakably meta- 
lifei'ous character. The source of these bowlders 
was pointed to as up the river. The ore, then, was 
sought only as a curiosity, gold absorbing all the 
attention, and the impracticability of mining and 
smelting iron at the rates of labor, supplies and 
interest on money being apparent, though, perhaps, 
some looked forward to the day when the rich ore 
would be available and iron mining a great industry. 

IRON ORE ON LOVELL'S RANCH. 

In 1857 the attention of the public was drawn to 
the great masses of iron ore on the ranch of S. W. 
Lovell, near Clipper Gap, about six miles northeast 
of Auburn, and in June of that year a few tons were 
taken to San Francisco to test its value; therefore, 
June, 1857, may be regarded as the first of iron min- 
ing in California, although it can hardly bo called a 
beginning, as some years intervened before any real 
developments were made. The ore, however, was 
ascertained to be very pure, and of a good variety, 
making excellent iron and steel, as experiments 
proved. The ore body was first described as •• crop- 
ping out of the ground on a hill-side in the shape 
of large bowlders, while ore in smaller particles is 
found over the adjacent ground to the extent of 
forty acres." A test of the ore was made which 
showed extraordinary richness, yielding about 
eighty- three percent, of iron. This was taken from 
the croppings without selection. The test was so 
favorable that hopes were entertained that a furnace 
would bo constructed during that or the succeeding 
year, and that soon theroafior Placer pig-iron would 
supply the California market. The high rates of 
interest, the timidity of capital, the condition of 
trade, and other circumstances forbade any enter- 
prise of the kind at that time. In 1862-63 there 



208 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 



were efforts to enact special laws of encouragement, 
offering a bouQty, etc., for the manufacture of iron, 
and these attempts were subsequentlj' renewed when 
iron ore was discovered in Sierra and other counties. 
No laws of the kind were passed, and the iron min- 
ing industry was left to future development. 

There were man};- conditions favorable to successful 
iron mining about the ore body at Clipper Gap. 
The ore was abundant and rich on the surface of the 
ground, grand forests of pine and oak for the supply 
of charcoal were in the vicinity and adjacent to the 
ore were vast ledges of limestone to flux the melting 
iron. The question of transportation was one of 
diflSculty, but the construction of the Central 
Pacific Railroad in 1865, passing the locality, removed 
that objection. After the completion of the railroad 
more attention was paid to the iron mine, and in 
1869 an organization, known as Brown & Co., com- 
menced taking out ore for shipment to the Pacific 
Rolling MilN. at San Francisco. In July, 1869, 
twenty tons were sent to the mills at one time, which 
yielded seventy-six per cent, of pure metal. 

REPORT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

In the report of the Geological Survey of the State 
by Professor Whitney, from 1860 to 1864, the follow- 
ing reference is made of the occurrence of iron ore 
in Placer County: — 

Large masses of serpentine occur among the meta- 
morphic rocks near the granite to the north of 
Auburn. Iron ore was also observed in this vicinity 
of excellent quality, and in larger quantity than has 
as yet been discovered anj-where in the auriferou-i 
slate series. The locality is on the land of Lysaniier 
Utt, about one mile north of Willis' Ranch, which is 
on the Grass Valley road, six miles from Auburn. 
The ore crops out on a side-hill, and forms a mass 
more than thirty feet thick, of which the longitud- 
inal section is not known, although it is evidently 
considerable. It is hematite, perhaps mixed with 
some limonitc, and has not yet been analj-zcd; it 
appears, however, to be of excellent quality, and is 
remarkably pure and free from intermi.Kture with 
rock. With the present prices of fuel and labor, it, 
is not easj- to say how soon California will bo able to 
manufacture her own iron; but this locality is per- 
haps more favorably situated than any yet discov- 
ered in the State for trying the experiment. 

THE IRON MOUNTAI.V CO.MPAXr. 

In December, 1869, a company was incorporated 
to work the mine, styled the " Iron Mountain Com- 
pany," with a stated capital of .■5500,000, and princi- 
pal place of business at San Francisco. The incor- 
porators were John R. Brown, B. F. Myers, Charles 
F. Robinson, George W. Applegate and A. C. Neal. 

'• An Act to encourage iron mining,'' was the title 
of a bill introduced in the Legislature in February. 
1870, by Hon. M. Waldron, Member of As.sombly 
from Placer Count}', and intended to aid the Iron 
Mountain Company in the development of its prop- 
erty. The company was composed of men of limited 
means, and it was hoped to give encouragement to 



them so as to invite capital to the work. The bill 
provided that when the company had reduced 2,500 
t )ns of good merchantable pig-iron, the State should 
pay the company a bonus of .§12.00 per ton. This 
was to be paid only on the first 2,500 tons. The bill 
further provided that the State pay the company 
annually for ton years an amount of money equal to 
the taxes that would be due on iron and products of 
the mine, if they were assessed at the market value 
in San Francisco, and the refunding of the taxes paid 
by the company on their other property. The bill 
limited the company to five years time in which to 
produce the required quantity of iron, and in default 
of which the Stale would pay nothing. 

The bill failed to become a law, and the iron rested 
in its original mountain pile until private capital 
could be induced to undertake its development. 

IRON MINING IN OREGON. 

Other experiments had been made in working 
iron on the Pacific Coast, where success seemed most 
promising. At Oswego, Clackamas County, Oregon, 
are located the Oregon Iron Works. The ore is 
found in a bed beneath the soil, a few miles distant 
from where the works are located; assays from forty 
to sixty-five per cent, in iron, is easily and cheaply 
mined, and the forests of pine and fir are extensive 
and convenient. Furnaces were erected in 1865, and 
put in blast in 1867, but the company failed. Soon 

I after, the Oswego Iron Company was incorporated, 

i succeeding the other, remodeled the works, and put 
them in blast in 187-1. A fine water-power is avail- 

I able at Oswego, and it is reported the company, can 

' make pig-iron at 825.00 per ton. 

I PRACTIC-A.L MINING COMMENCED. 

! In 1880 Messrs Egbert Judson, Anson P. Hota- 
j ling, and Irving M. Scott, of San Francisco, and Mr. 
P. Fitzhugh, of the Iron Mountain Company, pur- 
chased the property of the compan\', located near 
Clipper Gap, and commenced the erection of smelting 
j works in a practical and business-like manner, Mr. 
t Fiizhugh, being experienced in the'business, the pro- 
I jector and general Superintendent. The works were 
erected about three and one-half miles from the 
railroad station at Clipper Gap, and are the first of 
, the kind in California. This corporation is styled 
j the California Iron Company. Of the works 

THE BLAST FURNACE 

Is the chief object of interest. This has a capacity of 
forty tons in the twenty-four hours, and possesses ail 
modern improvements, being nearly copied after a 
blast furnace in Chicago — sixty -six feet high, and 
seventeen feet in greatest diameter. This furnace, 
however, is only forty-seven feet high in all, and con- 
sists of a vertical chaft lined with fire-brick, and 
, cased in sheet-iron. The lowest part is ordinarily in 
I the form of a cylinder, and is known as the hearth. 
I In the masonry of the hearth are built five tuyeres 
' (pronounced tweers), which are hollow truncated 



vi r*4#-'-li* 



«+;.. 



^isLiJ^lM 






1^;^^' 



H'^grK'-*-^r%;'rfer^ ■ 







/ JS^ 




inj'^-''^ ^'- 




(.j 



<4 






5^ 
a: -5 



MINING LAWS. 



200 



cones of metal, supplied with a constant stream 
of cold water, and should the stream fail, as is 
somotimea the case, they will be speedily burned 
out. Into these tuyeres project the nozzles of the 
pipes that supplj' the blast, and at the lower part of 
the elbow of the pipe is a sort of spy-hole, covered 
with a mica shield that glows like a polyphemic eye. 
Through this the furnace-men can see and judge of 
the state of the fused metal inside, although to a 
novice the situation is onlj^ an indistinguishable glare. 
The part of the hearth below the tuyeres is called 
the crucible, and in it the iron and slag accumulate. 
The hearth is prolonged toward the front of the 
furnace (fore hearth), and is closed in by the dam 
and covered in by the tymparch. At the bottom of 
the dam is a channel communicating with the bottom 
of the crucible, through which the iron is tapped off, 
and on the upper edge of the dam is a " cinder 
notch," over which the slag flows. The tymparch 
is covered by the tymp, a long, hollow casting, 
through which the water circulates. The sloping 
walls connecting the hearth with the belly of the 
furnace, or widest part, are called the boshes, and 
the distance from the hearth to where the vertical 
shaft rests on pillars is teL feet. The boshes and 
the shaft are in a measure independent of each other, 
so that the former can be removed, if necessity for 
repairs requires it, without disturbing the latter. The 
furnace stands in the southerly end of the building, 
which covers an area of about 150x200 feet, and the 
beds (thirteen) to receive the castings lie terrace- 
like and gradual in descent in the opposite direction. 

THE HOT BLAST 

Is an essential accessory of the blast furnace. The 
blowing engine is horizontal and of ISS-horse power, 
discharging 4,000 cubic feet of air per minute. From 
the blowing cylinders the air passes to the hot-blast 
ovens, which contain nearly fifty-six tons of iron 
tubes arranged in a fire brick chamber, and heated 
by the combustion of gases drawn from the top of 
the furnace by means of an obliquelj^-placed pipe, 
about six feet in circumference, called a " down- 
comer." The quantity of gas evolved from this 
furnace is extraordinary, and is due, no doubt, to 
the resinous nature of the wood used for making 
charcoal. At the outset the gas was in such excess 
that when the doors of the boiler furnace were 
opened the flames shot out a distance of two or three 
feet, to the imminent danger of the stoker. Some 
of the surplus is carried oft' by a tall pipe at the top 
of the furnace, and at night the colored flames pre- 
sent a grand sight. They light up the surrounding 
country like a beacon of promise to the hopeful and 
industrious. 

THE PROCESS OP SMELTING. 

The process of the manufacture of pig-iron by 
blast furnace process is, we presume, sufficiently 
well known to render an extensive description 
unnecessary. In the present instance the furnace 



is charged from the top with ore, charcoal, fuel and 
limestone as a flux (abundant quantities of the 
latter being found in the vicinity), which gradually 
descend the shaft as the smelting proceeds. The air 
of the blast, on coming in contact with the incan- 
descent fuel, is converted into carbonic acid gas, but 
speedily taking up another atom of carbon, is reduced 
to carbonic oxide, which, together with the inert 
nitrogen of the air, rises through the descending 
charge, abstracts the oxygen of the ore, and passes 
out of the mouth as carbonic acid. When the 
reduced iron reaches the vicinity of the tuyeres it 
takes up carbon, melts, and drops down into the 
crucible of the furnace, where the earthy ingredients, 
with the flux and fuel, also drops and floats on the 
top of the molten iron. 

FEEDING THE FURNACE. 

This is a most interesting operation. The ore, 
flux and fuel are fed in at the top by means of what 
is known as a bell and hopper, which keep the 
furnace almost hermetically sealed till the "topmen" 
sink the bell by the movement of a lever, in order to 
renew the charge. The charges are raised from the 
ore-room below by a compensating elevator that 
works with admirable ease and precision. Counter- 
balancing is done by means of filling and discharging 
a water-tank placed under each of the two platforms. 
To illustrate: One platform has just ascended with 
its car load of 800 pounds of ore and thirty pounds 
of limestone flux — a " buggy " with 500 pounds of 
charcoal is waiting in the ore room. As soon as the 
ore is received above, the empty tank is filled with 
water, the weight over-balances the elevator plat- 
form below with its load of charcoal, and it rises as 
the other descends. An automatic valve is affixed 
to each tank, by which the water is discharged as 
soon as the platform reaches the lower floor, running 
off through a small flume into the creek. When 
the furnace is to receive a fresh charge, a topman 
ascertains, by means of a wire probe, the height of 
the mass ah'eady inside, and if addition be needed, 
the charge is dumped into the hopper, the bell sunk 
by raising the immense lever, and the ore, flux and 
fuel are thus evenly distributed on the inner sides of 
the furnace. In some instances a wheel is used in 
working this lever, but m the operation under notice 
it is worked by hand. The descent of the bell is a 
reminder of descriptions we may have read of a 
descent into hell. Smothering gases stream out, and 
thick and blinding smoke, and it is not until the 
bell is in its place again, and the vapors have 
been carried oft' by the mountain breeze, that the 
visitor feels at all comfortable. In the ore-room 
below everything proceeds with the regularity of 
clock-work. The ore is reduced to a large nut size 
by an Eclipse rock-breaker, worked by a thirty-horse- 
power engine, and capable of sixty tons a day. 
Each car load with its flux, as well as the " buggy " 
of charcoal, is carefully weighed before it is sent 
aloft. 



210 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



THE SCENE AT A CASTING. 

The beds are ready where the moulds for the pigs 
lie in order, looking in the gloaming like monster 
piano keys. The superintendent is there, and the 
founder with their tried and trusted assistants. 
Every man is in his place, and takes up his work at 
the proper moment. The word is given to " tap off," 
and the clay that stops the aperture of the crucible 
at the base of the furnace is punctured. Then a long 
bar of iron is driven into the heart of the incandes- 
cent mass by repeated blows of a sledge hammer, 
and becoming expanded by the contact, its with- 
drawal is slow. It is out at last, however, followed 
by the liquid iron in a fast and furious stream. It 
takes less than ten minutes for the active metal to 
lie cooling in the beds carefully prepared for its 
lodgment; and then from the "notch," a second 
aperture in the crucible, comes the fluid cinder, or 
slag, composed of the earthy ingredients of the ore 
the flux and fuel that had been floating on the surface 
of the released mass, and runs off in a direction aside 
from the beds, trailing its slow length along like a 
monstrous fiery serpent. It may be compared to a 
lava stream from a volcano. When large casts are 
made, this slag flows many yards outside the 
furnace building. It is almost a waste product, 
excepting, perhaps, for road-making, and in the 
greater iron manufacturing centers of Europe, many 
acres of valuable land are often sacrificed as a 
dumping-place for it — a sort of " slickens " question, 
from a different point of view and on a smaller 
scale. Five minutes after the slag has left the 
furnace the blower is again at work, energizing the 
heat and preparing for the next cast. The interval 
of the casts is about eight hours, but the time varies 
according to circumstances. 

The pigs arc cool enough to be handled in about 
fifteen or twenty minutes, and they are then torn 
from their smoking bed and borne off by stalwarts 
to a platform-scales, where they are weighed, graded 
and piled up readj- for export order. Each pig is 
about three feet long, and averages ninetj' pounds in 
weight, with the usual lateral groove every nine 
inches, indicating the point where they are to be 
broken for the founder's cupola. 

This description of the works and the process is 
as they were when in operation in May, 1881. At 
the foundries where it has been used, it has taken 
some sixteen blows to fracture a pig of Placer County 
iron, while a Scotch pig of the same thickness and 
area has yielded at one blow from a sledge-hammer 
in the same hands. But a more satisfactor}', because 
more exact test of the tensile resistance of this iron, 
is that made under rule. It is as follows: ■ 

Samples marked Resistance 

No. 4 18,387 lbs per square inch 

No. 2 18,629 do do 

■No. 1 17,887 do do 

In the case of Scotch pig-iron, same conditions; 



resistance ceases at a strain of about 16,000 pounds. 
The Placer iron is said by all experts to be equal to 
the Salisbury (Conn.) metal for the manufacture of 
car wheels, and can be rolled into '• merchants' bar " 
of the best quality. 

THE ORE AND ORE SUPPLY. 

The furnace is supplied with ore from deposits 
immediately in the neighborhood of the works, to 
which it is conveyed in carts. There are some five 
cuts within a short distance of each other, and, in 
one or two, true fissure veins, with well-defined 
walls, have been developed. The 640-acre tract, on 
which the buildings are situated, and where the 
mining is yet in an incipient stage, is no doubt one 
vast iron field, as evidences of the existence of ore 
appear in every direction. Besides this apparentlj- 
inexhaustible supply, the company have in posses- 
sion some eighty acres, called the " Scott Mine," 
about four miles from the works towai-ds Auburn, on 
a portion of which, visible from the road, two cuts 
have been made revealing ore of the richest quality. 
A magnificent bodj' of ore has been exposed here. 
The fear expressed by some persons at the commence- 
ment of the enterprise that the suppl}' of ore might 
run short ajjpears to be groundless. The character 
of the ore is generally what is known as red hematite, 
of a cherry-red to a reddish-brown color, and which, 
with the exception of magnetite, carries a greater 
percentage of metallic iron than any other variety. 
While magnetite assays 72.41, hematite will give 70. 
Pure hematite is the ore that furnishes the iron for 
the manufacture of Bessemer steel. 

THE FUEL srrpi.v. 

One of the most important features of this enter- 
prise is the means taken to insure an ample and 
continuous supply of charcoal for the blast furnace. 
In this direction a lai-ge amount of money has been 
expended by the company, and such breadths of 
woodland acquired respectively from Government, 
State and railroad sections in the county as will give 
unlimited fuel for many years to come. The com- 
pany have three charcoal camps situated respectively 
three, six and eight miles from the works. At the 
first, on the banks of Bear River, over which the 
company have thrown a bridge of 146 feet span, 
there are six conical kilns of the latest invention. 
Each kiln is twenty -nine feet high to the apex of the 
cone, and thirty-two feet diameter across the bottom. 
The charge for each is forty-five cords of oak or 
pine wood — chiefly the latter — which yields 2,250 
bushels of charcoal. Kilns of the same construction, 
twenty in all, are at the remoter stations, and over 
the well-made roads — enormous teams, locally dis- 
tinguished from each other by the terms "gun-boat," 
"schooner" and "sloop,'' according as they varj- in 
size, or employ a greater or less number of animals to 
draw them, are passing all day long with their black 
freight or returning for fresh loads. In order to 
facilitate matters and save time, the coal is loaded at 



MINING LAWS. 



211 



the kilns by a chute, and at the works, the wagons 
being fitted with movable floors, the unloading is 
still more speedy. It is not improbable, says 
Professor Hanks, that anthracite coal may be dis- 
covered in this neighborhood. It is found in the 
vicinity of iron fields in nearly every part of the 
world. At present the only known deposit of this 
coal west of the Hocky Mountains is in the State of 
Sonora, Mexico. 

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. 

The general superintendent of the works, Mr. 
James M. White, is a native of Rochester, New York. 
He is yet young in years, but judging by his labors 
in this instance, he has evidently made himself 
thoroughly master of his business. He drafted the 
engines and put them in position, drafted and super- 
intended the erection of the furnace and hot-air 
blast; drafted the kilns, and can open a mine, lay off" 
a road, or build a bridge with equal readiness. His 
chief experience in dealing with iron ores and iron 
manufactures has been in the Lake Superior region 
and in Michigan. So far as the operations in Placer 
County ai-e concerned, evidences of his splendid 
executive ability are seen in every direction. 

The chief founder is Mr. Richard Dundon, who 
also has had large experience in the Eastern and 
Western States. He is from the North of Ireland — 
a man of few words, a grave man who evidentlj' feels 
the importance of his responsible position. But, 
when there is any crookedness in the operations, any 
interruption to the smooth flow of the work, any 
infraction of discipline, why, then he is no longer a 
man of few words. His expletives come thick and 
fast, and are as hot as the metal he conti'ols. 

The clerk of the works, Mr. E. W. Cowles, is a 
son of the late Judge Cowles. He is an active, 
intelligent young man, thoroughly responsible — the 
worthy son of a worthy father. 

Mr. Shepherd has charge of the engine room, and 
proves himself a competent engineer. 

The company seems to be singularly fortunate in 
their present executive force, each man being well- 
fitted to the situation he occupies. The iron interest 
is so new in California that there has been no 
experience, comparatively; no chance to judge by 
observation of the fitness of men for the work. 
Though the company did not escape the consequences 
of ignorance and inaptitude in the beginning, now 
the right men seem to be in the right place. 

THE FORCE EMPLOYED 

Varies with the season. In winter, when work is 
scarce in the valleys, the number of hands is increased 
for mining and charcoal burning. In summer, of 
course these seek the better prices and somewhat 
easier work of harvesting. The help about the 
furnaces does not materially vary in number the 
year round, as those employed must possess more or 
less skill in manipulating the iron. The opei'atives 
may be distributed and numbered as follows: — 



Furnace hands -. 50 

Employed in mining. 40 

Charcoal burners and teamsters .75 

Incidental . ...12 

Total . . 177 

In winter this number will be nearly doubled. 
No Chinamen, except in pit-burning, are employed. 
At the elections some sixty-eight votes were polled 
by the employees. 

THE TOWN OF HOTALING. 

A short distance from the works, the company has 
erected a number of neat one-story cottages, intended 
as dwellings for the operatives in its employ. Twelve 
of these buildings are finished, including a large 
dining hall for men, and oifiees for the superintendent 
and clerk of the works. The situation is picturesque, 
and to say that it is salubrious in this delightful 
portion of Placer County, is unnecessary. The 
object, if possible, is to encourage family men to 
occupy these dwellings, as every arrangement has 
been made for their comfort. In several the " olive 
branches " are clustering around the threshold — the 
future fathers and mothers of a new generation of 
Californiaus. For these a school house is in contem- 
plation, and soon there will be educational as well as 
all the other accessories of civilization. As this 
settlement is rising into importance, there is a 
question as to its name. The superintendent — more 
from the practicality of his nature than from his love 
for classic nomenclature — suggested New Troy, 
while others used to the softer California names, 
thought Fierrovilla, as indicating the iron origin of 
the settlement, would be more in harmony with the 
Spanish name system of the State, but in honor of 
one of the capitalists who aided the project to success, 
the new town is called Hotaling. 

WHAT OF THE FUTURE ? 

The successful establishment of these smelting 
works gives one pause, and leads to an inquiry as to 
what we may expect a few years hence. The con- 
sumption of pig-iron on this coast is estimated at 
about 20,000 tons per annum. There is no reason 
why, in a decade, this consumption may not be 
increased to three times that quantity. Guarded by 
a protective duty of seven dollars a ton on the 
foreign article, and the cost of transportation hither 
of the Eastern iron, the California product being 
much superior to either, must certainly command 
the home market. Additional rolling mills will be 
one of the outcomes of this new industry, and also 
the establishment of a plate mill, and with this may 
be contemplated the construction of iron ships. In 
fact, it is reported that Mr. Egbert Judson, one of 
the proprietors, visited the East earlj' in 1881, to 
make arrangements for new rolling mills in San 
Francisco to work the product of this furnace. 

The company made a fine exhibit of its products 
at the Mechanic's Institute Fair in San Francisco, 



212 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



in August and September, 1881, consisting of iron 
ore, limestone used in fluxing, ii'on in pigs, bars, 
rods, wires and various articles of castings. The 
quality of the product was found to be superior to 
any iron ever offered to the manufacturers of the 
Pacific Coast. Experiments were made upon car- 
wheels, proving it better than the Salisbury (Conn.) 
iron, regarded as the best. This inspired the hope 
that it would be used instead of that, particularly as 
it could be furnished cheaper. The cost of the 
Salisbury iron ranges from .§45.00 to §60. 00 per ton, 
while the iron of the California Iron Company was 
made at a profit at iBSS.OO per ton for Nos. 3 and 4 
grades. JSJos. 1 and 2 are a soft iron especially adapted 
to puddling, and No. 5 being hard, makes excellent 
shoes and dies for quartz mills. 

In the fall of 1881, the works were closed, the 
company announcing the intention of resuming 
operation in an improved manner, in the spring of 
1882. While in operation from April to September, 
the product aggregated 4,414 tons of pig-ii'on. The 
company owns 7,620 acres of woodland near Hotal- 
ing, from which to draw its supply of charcoal. 
This, next to the railroad is the largest single enter- 
prise in the county, and its success will give rise to 
numerous industries and manufactures in Placer, 
and at other points in the State. 

THE HOLLAND -MINE. 

In 1874 a valuable deposit, or bod}', of iron ore 
was discovered near McDonald's Mills, on Bear 
River, and a company was formed in Sacramento, 
called the Bear River Iron Company, to develop 
it. In 1875 a commencement was made on the 
works, with the intention of using Lincoln coal in 
smelting. The works, however, were not carried 
to completion. At a later date the property was 
owed by C. Holland, and known as the Holland Mine. 

IRON PRODUCT. 

The general report of the iron industry in 1876 
showed the product of that year in the United 
States of 2,093,236 tons of pig-iron. The industry 
at that time was much depressed through the 
financial revulsion of 1873, particularly affecting 
railroads and iron mining, and from which it had 
not recovered in 1876. The iron product in 1873 
was 2,868,278 tons. Iron was then produced in 
tweuty-tbree States and one Territory, the latter 
being LTtah. Pennsylvania produced 48.2 per cent., 
nearly half of the whole, or 1,009,313 net tons. 

COAL MINING. 

In 1873 the indisputable fact of the existence of 
coal in Placer County was established, adding that 
important mineral to the list of gold, silver, copper 
and iron. Veins of bituminous shale had been 
observed in the canons of the American River, and 
reported as coal as early as 1856, which led to con- 
sideral prospecting, but no coal was found con- 
nected with them. In 1862, while boring for water 
at Lincoln, the auger passed through a substance 



which some thought to be coal; but the search was 
for water, the well was finished, and no more 
attention was paid to the coal. No one expected to 
find coal there, it not being in the mining region, and 
the substance not coming to the notice of any 
intelligent or investigating mind it was allowed to 
remain for more than ten years, only sixty feet 
beneath the surface, before any person of sufficient dis- 
cernment or enterprise to develop it happened to 
know of the discovery, although it had been pi-oven 
combustible. At a later date others boring for water 
bi'ought to the surface the black mineral, which 
attracted the attention of Col. Charles L. Wilson, 
who had built the railroad, and in whose honor, 
after his middle name, the town had been named, 
and he, in 1873, began a thorough investigation. He 
first bored down on the coal bed with an eight-inch 
auger, with which pieces were brought to the surface 
sufficiently large to test the mineral thoroughly 
and satisfactorily. The fact of its being coal could 
no longer be doubted, and ii; October, 1873, Colonel 
Wilson proceeded to sink an open shaft to the 
stratum, which was about sixty feet below the sur- 
face. Hoisting works were erected over the shaft, 
and in December following shipments of the coal 
were made to Sacramento and other places for 
trial. An experiment was made at Sacramento in 
January, 1874, at the City Water Works, when it 
was found that one ton of the Lincoln coal made 
as much steam as two cords of pine slabs, which 
cost *6.00 a cord. This result aroused the brightest 
hopes of advancing manufactures in that city, as it 
was estimated that the coal could be delivered there 
at about -14.00 per ton. 

A trial was also made in smelting iron, which was 
related in the Sacramento Bee by one signing him- 
self " Mechanic " as follows: — 

I witnessed a trial of Lincoln coal at Guttenberg's 
Foundry, on Front Street. The result was as fine a 
lot of castings as I ever saw. This coal gave a most 
intense heat under the blast, and after the metal was 
drawn off no residue was left, and I found the metal 
was much softer and of a finer texture than in cast- 
ings made of other coal. This Lincoln coal I con- 
sider superior to charcoal for this purpose, for the 
reason that it is petrified wood, retaining all its res- 
inous qualities, and under the blast it will give out 
a more intense heat than chai'coal and at much less 
cost. 

These results created great interest in the coal 
mines, and ex])lorations were set on foot which 
proved them very extensive. In March, 1874, Messrs. 
Alford, Stoddard and Richardson found coal on the 
ranch of 0. P. Richardson, near Bear River, about 
six miles from Sheridan, and opened a mine on their 
discovery. The coal was found to be similar to that 
at Lincoln, a lignite, burning without coking and 
consuming to a white ash. 

Small pieces of hard coal resembling anthracite 
were found in August, 1874, near the Hotaling Iron 
Mine, but no ledge has been developed. 



MINING LAWS. 



ns 



POTTERS CLAY. 

The demand for the Lincoln coal increased so rap- 
idly, being about 200 tona per week, that in April, 
1874, a new and large shaft was sunk, ten feet eight 
inches by nine feet nine inches in dimensions, ena- 
bling the extraction of 100 tons daily. Other shafts 
were sunk, and other valuable minerals brought to 
notice. In August Mr. I. M. Scott, of San Francisco, 
purchased an area of land of J. D. B. Cook, about 
three-fourths of a mile north of the Lincoln Coal 
Mine, and sunk a shaft for the purpose of develop- 
ing its value. He found a bed of lignite fifty-five 
feet below the surface, and penetrated it to a depth 
of twenty feet. In addition to the coal he found 
two beds of potters' clay, of the very finest quality. 
The first was but three feet below the surface and 
was twelve feet in thickness, and the other lying on 
the coal and of the same thickness. 

CALIFORNIA CLAY MANUFACTURING COMPANY. 

Shortly thereafter the California Clay manufact- 
uring Company was organized, and purchased the 
property, and in the spring of 1875 commenced the 
development. The company consists of Charles 
Gladding, P. McG. McBean and George Chambers. 
Their land embraced about 200 acres of clay and 
coal beds, and works were erected about one mile 
north of Lincoln. 

An examination of the clay was made by Prof H. 
G. Hanks, of San Francisco, who was much impressed 
with its value, finding its character to be the very 
best for potterj' work of all classes, and one quality 
excellent for fire-brick. 

Its elements are as follows: Water, 4.70; coarse 
sand, 5.30; fine sand, 3.17; pure porcelain clay, 86.23, 
and is plastic and tenacious and infusible when 
baked. The sand is silica, and for coarse work, or 
the manufacture of fire-brick, this is an advantage. 
The layers are as follows: Four feet of soil, six feet 
of white clay, sixteen inches of fine white sand with 
a little water, five feet of cream-colored clay mixed 
with coarse white sand, twelve feet of pure kaolin, 
twelve feet of clay and coal alternating, eight feet of 
coal, and below this clay and sand to a depth as yet 
unknown. The coal is similar to that now being 
worked at Lincoln, but somewhat heavier and denser. 

The porcelain clay is free from oxide of iron, and 
the silica, which is in large quantities, is of a qualitj' 
suitable for making plate glass. The kaolin, better 
known as China clay, is said to be of as pure a 
quality as that now shipped largely from China to 
Europe, and better than that found at Iladdam, 
Connecticut, and equal to that of Bavaria and Sax- 
ony, and is used for the manufacture of the best 
qualities of porcelain ware. 

IMPORTANCE OF CLAY DEPOSITS. 

These beds of clay, represented as equal to any 
known in the world, are practically inexhaustible, 
and open for the region in which they lie, varied 
industries of incalculable importance and great 



artistic and scientific interest when tie workmen 
have become skilled in its manipulation, and science 
has lain bare its properties and qualities. In the 
hands of a master, clay is one of the most obedient 
servants. There is no form too light and spirit- 
like for it to assume, none to grand and majestic 
for it to take on, and it is so plastic under thetouch 
that the artist in marble always realizes his ideal 
in clay before ho immortalizes it in the snowy stone. 
At the same time the working of clay for the finer 
varieties of porcelain, and, for that matter, in the 
making of even the commonest of pottery and fire- 
brick, is an art of no low order. And it is probable 
that of all the arts and sciences, more money has 
been spent in experimental investigation of this 
subject than in any other. The art is one of the 
oldest which man has known. Fragments of rude 
vessels are found among the ruins of the oldest 
civilizations. Frequently these fragments show a 
knowledge of the art which is now lost to us. 
There is a sort of fascination about the potter's 
furnace, and there is no one, perhaps, who cannot 
understand the weird spell that hung over Palissay 
when he fed into it even the food and furniture of 
his own household. 

In Scotland, England, Germany, and France, are 
manufactured fire-brick, china, porcelain, and terra- 
cotta ware, which, with that of China and Japan, 
supplies the markets of the world. In Europe these 
industries have grown to such dimensions that the 
labor employed is numbered by the thousands, and 
the capital invested, by the millions. 

The gi'eat industries built up in other quarters of 
the globe, through the potters' clay, may yet be 
realized in California; and the potteries, and elegant 
ware of Placer County, become as celebi'ated as 
Dresden or China. Singularly fortunate is the cir- 
cumstance, and so wonderfully exemplifying the 
seemingly illimitable resources of the county, is the 
presence of the clay and fuel, necessary to its utili- 
zation, in such close proximity. These mines and 
beds 'of clay, capable of furnishing employment to 
an unlimited number of men, are surrounded bj^ a 
fertile, agricultural and fruit-growing country, crossed 
by a railroad connecting with the great cities and 
channels of commerce, thus combining every advan- 
tage for the most successful enterprise. 

CHROMIUM MINING. 

No limit appears possible to Placer's mineral 
wealth. The long detail of exceedingly valuable 
mines and minerals extends with investigation, mak- 
ing its soil, its rocks and waters one vast laboratory, 
where is stored all that is required for the uses and 
luxuries of man. As the miners acquire knowledge 
and extend their I'osoarches new sources of wealth 
are continually developed, and the end is not yet. 
To the list already long the rare and peculiar min- 
eral commonly called "chrome" is added. The 
properties of this mineral are given in Chapter 
XXVII. of this book. 



214 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Chromium was first observed in Placer County in 
1876, when discoveries were made on the Iowa Hill 
Divide, near the Sugar Pine Mills, but it was not until 
1881 that any systematic attempt was made to utilize 
the ore, when one hundred tons were sent to San 
Francisco. The ore is found in irregular, disconnected 
masses imbedded in the country rock, and varying 
in weight from a fewj)Ounds to several tons. On the 
largest mass j^et found a shaft twenty feet in depth, 
in the fall of 1881, had not passed through the deposit. 
Developments have proven that chromium exists in 
many parts of the State, and is purchased of the 
miners by agents, who forward it to San Francisco, 
whence it is shipped to eastern markets. The usual 
destination is Baltimore, but much is sent to New 
York, Philadelphia, and Boston. 

Of this industry the Herald of December 3, 1881, 



We learn from Major Houston, who has charge of 
the chrome mining, now being carried on in this 
county, that they find the chrome iron-ore belt very 
extensive. He has already shipped eighty tons from 
Auburn depot to Boston, and has over thirty tons 
ready to be forwarded. At the mines near Michigan 
Bluff about 100 tons are out waiting for wagons to 
haul it down. The Major hopes to send off at least 
500 tons before the winter rains shall render the 
roads impassable for loaded teams. He has been 
shipping around Cape Horn, but to intercept the sup- 
ply from England, which country has heretofore con- 
trolled the trade in this commoditj', will ship by way 
of the Isthmus. The indications are that chrome 
mining in this county will soon become a very im- 
portant industry. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

MINING- 
[continued.] 

The lowii, Hill Divide — The Gravel Formation— Altitudes on the 
Divide — Mines on the Divide — Iowa Hill Mines — Independ- 
ence Hill Mines — Roach Hill Mines — Morning Star Hill 
Mines — Bird's Flat Mines — Strawberry Flat Miiies — Succor 
Flat Mines — Wisconsin Hill Mines — Grizzly Flat Mines — 
Elizabeth Hill Mines— Stevens' Hill Mines— Main Kidge 
Mines — Canada Hill Jlines — Quartz Mines — Near Succor 
Flat — Humbug Canon Quartz Mines — Canada Hill Quartz 
Mines— Mines Having Stamp Mills — Water Ditches — Shirt- 
tail Canon Quartz Mines — Humbug Canon Mines Described 
— Canada Hill Quartz Mines Described — Report on Min?s — 
Mountain Gate Mine — Hidden Treasure Mine — Michael 
Harold Power — Various Formations and Theories — .\ Hy- 
draulic Mine. 

Mr. John B. Hobson, an experienced, painstaking, 
and skillful mining engineer, has made a topograph- 
ical and geological map of that portion of Placer 
County extending from the mouth of Indian Canon 
and Rice's Bridge, on the North Fork, eastward to 
Bald Mountain and Duncan Canon, near the summit 
of the Sierra Nevada, and north of Shirt-tail Canon, 
embracing an area of about 14-t square miles; being 
that region commonly designated as the "Iowa Hill 
Divide." In addition to the map Mr. Hobson has 
taken notes of every feature pertaining to the most 



accurate and comprehensive survey with the idea of 
recording all facts relating to the geological structure 
and formation of the mineral region; its area, condi- 
tion, past and prospective value. No Government 
employed engineers, scientists or explorers have ever 
made such full and accurate measurements and obser- 
vations of the formations classed variously as glacial 
drift, auriferous gravel, ancient channels, or "Dead 
Blue River." These observations have extended 
through many years, accompanying the practical 
labor of a miner, and the performance of the scien- 
tific duties of a mining engineer. The results of his 
labors Mr. Hobson has furnished for the I'eaders of 
this history, but cannot be fully represented without 
elaborate maps and engravings beyond the scope of 
this work. 

THE GRAVEL FORMATION. 

Many theories have been advanced relating to the 
formation of the gravel deposits dotting the mount- 
ain side from the verge of the great subjacent valley 
to the summit ridges, lying in mountain basins, hang- 
ing to a cafion's side, perched on some lofty ridge, or 
buried deep beneath the congealed lava of unknown, 
unlocated, wonderful volcanoes. With the theories 
of formation have come elucidations of the problem 
of the gold occurrence with thegarvel, the eroding of 
the basins and channels, the polishing of the bed-rock, 
and the coloring of the strata. The most popular 
theories have emanated from literary gentlemen, of 
the cities, who attribute the gravel deposits of 
the Sierra to one great "Blue" river, to one cause 
and one period or age of time, but to those who have 
studied the question on the ground, after years of 
mining labor, careful thought and acute observation, 
the subject grows more mysterious and unaccount- 
able. The poet has said " God moves in a 
mysterious way His wonders to perform," and in 
contemplating the gravel formation and golden in- 
termixture of the Sierra Nevada, the mysterious and 
wonderful works of nature appall the student. The 
grandeur of the scale, the mighty power, the incon- 
ceivable time, the quietness of some periods and the 
violence of others, the periods of ice, and cold, and 
floods, the pei'iods of raging torrents and quiet 
waters in the same and almost every locality, the 
periods of the glacier, when ice embraced the high- 
land and the lowland, and the period when volcanoes 
thi'ough a thousand miles of mountain range belched 
untold volumes of ash and molten rock over the icy 
domain, all impress the beholder as he contemplates 
the creation of those most singular deposits. No 
theory yet promulgated can bear the critical presen- 
tation of facts. The formation of gravel is attributed 
to the action of ice in the form of the grinding gla- 
cier, which fiistens upon projecting rocks on mount- 
ain height and through the action of the varying 
seasons grinds while it carries its load to a place of 
deposit. Many of the gravel hills and successions of 
them throughout the gold-bearing region exhibit for- 
mations not inconsistent with the glacial power in an 



MINING LAWS. 



215 



age of cold, and the Sierra in its present general 
position, while there are other localities and condi- 
tions that refuse to be accredited to such a cause. 
The difference of levels, the varying directions of 
flow, the accumulations of drift-wood, the horizontal 
layers of sand, the beds of pipe-clay, the large bowl- 
ders in and on the clay, the fine gravel, the great 
width of the channels, and the depth of gravel, are 
all inconsistent with the theory of one great'river of 
sixty or seventy miles in length, flowing at a fall of 
thirty or forty feet per mile, or any river flowing con- 
tinuously in any direction. That the channels and 
basins of the gravel hills are [ice and water worn, 
and the gravel, sand and clay, ice and water made 
is unquestioned, but whence came the material, 
whence came the abundance of free gold in large 
nuggets and flattened scales, so dissimilar to that now 
found in quartz in place, though similar in purity 
and alloy to that in neighboring veins; and whence 
came the incalculable masses of barren quartz, gravel 
and bowlders which fill the channels and compose 
the hills, are the puzzling, unanswered questions. 
Since the deposition no violent changes have occurred 
in the position of the Sierra. The bed-rock and the 
strata of drift are unbroken, the sand and clay lie level 
as when formed in quiet waters, and the covering of 
volcanic matter rests as when it first flowed over the 
channel. 

While the bed-i'ock has evidently remained station- 
ary, the surveys and examinations by Mr. Hobson 
show formations of different eras, volcanic eruptions 
of diffei-ent times, ice and water currents in different 
directions, and channels eroded at different dates 
with different coui'ses. 

ALTITUDES ON THE DIVIDE. 

By barometrical observations of his own and by 
Prof^ Goodyear, he has ascertained the altitude 
above the sea of the following localities on the Iowa 
Hill Divide:— 

FEET. 

Rice's Bridge on the north fork of American 

River . ... 1 ,147 

Mouth of Canon Creek 1,467 

Bed of North Fork of American in Giant Gap 

Gorge. 1,595 

Ridge south side of Giant Gap Gorge . 4,139 

Town of Iowa Hill, at post-office .2,850 

Summit of Sugar Loaf Mountain ... 3,064 

Town of Wisconsin Hill 2,920 

Summit of Independence Hill 3,110 

Mononatown. . . . 3,194 

Summit of Roach Hill 3,554 

Town of Grizzly Flat. .3,150 

Town of Succor Flat . 3,460 

Hill's Reservoir, on Shirt-tail Caiion 3,492 

Iowa Hill Canal Company's Reservoir. ... 3,990 

West Damascus Hoisting Works, in north 

branch of Shirt-tail Cafion . . 3,840 

Top of ridge north of West Damascus shaft. 4,320 

Town of Damascus _ . . 4,016 

Town of Sunny South . . 3,805 

Surface at Centennial Shaft 3,860 

Forks House 4,789 



Indian Springs (Alameda Consolidated), top of 

ridge 5,468 

Secret House . 5,486 

New Basel Consolidated Hoisting Works, in 

Black Canon 5,186 

Town of Last Chance 4,545 

Town of Deadwood 3,943 

Summit of Secret Hill . . 6,229 

Summit of Canada Hill. .6,229 

Head of Iowa Hill Canal in Tadpole Canon . . .5,540 

Summit of Bald Mountain 7,197 

Soda Spring Valley, near head of North Fork of 

American 6,002 

Elevation of bed-rock of ancient channels where 
exposed by drift miners or prospectors: — 

FEET. 

Jameson Mine, Iowa Hill, lowest rock at out- 
let on the northwest 2,642 

North Star, highest rock at south near Indian 

Cafion 2,668 

Morning Star, fronting Indian Canon. ... .2,687 

Columbia Mine, at Wisconsin Hill 2,740 

Grizzly Flat mines, lowest rock near front . . . .3,020 

China Point . . . . 2,748 

Homeward Bound, rock where drifted in 

front. 2,805 

Golden Gate, rock where drifted in front. . 2,945 

Trio 2,980 

Dutch Claim 3,012 

White Pine, near back line .3,024 

Wolverine, near north line. 3,041 

Gleneoe . 3,090 

Shelby 3,188 

Watt's Mine, at breast 3,224 

Succor Flat Mine 3,329 

Bottom of Mohawk Slope, rock pitching 3,462 

Bottom of Surprise Slope, rock pitching. ... .3,480 
Giant Gap Mine, uprise No. 1, rock pitching. 3,540 
West Damascus, in gravel on rock pitching from 

north uprise No. 1 . . 3,700 

Colfax Tunnel, rock pitching. . ' 3,796 

Centennial Mine, bottom of shaft, rock pitching. 3, 780 

Mountain Gate Mine, blue gravel channel 3,764 

Mountain Gate Mine, white quartz channel, 

front of north end . 3,914 

Mountain Gate Mine, white quartz channel, 

where cut away by blue gravel channel. . .3,844 
Hidden Treasure Mine, white quartz channel, 

south end . . 3,674 

Bob Lewis, blue gravel . . 3,769 

Dam claim, rock j)itching ..... 3,840 

Cape Horn Tunnel, rock pitching at angle of 

42°. - 4,156 

Alameda Consolidated, proposed new tunnel.. .4,040 
Alameda Consolidated, bottom of shaft north 

front 4,615 

Bear Hunter Tunnel. 4,470 

New Basel Consolidated, bottom of shaft, rock 

pitching. - ..5,106 

Whisky Hill Mine, rock pitching west 5,210 

Uncle Sam and Spartan shaft, rock pitching 

west 5,450 

Union shaft, rock pitching east 5,380 

Union Tunnel . 5,275 

Canada Hill mines, channel of angular quartz 
gravel : — 

Oriental, bed-rock at bottom of shaft 6,205 

Reed Claim. 6,090 

Hill Bros.' Claim Tunnel 5,930 

Sterret Gravel Mine, head of Sailor Cafiou 5,640 



216 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



MINES ON THE DIVIDE. 



The following are the mines of the region sur- 
veyed, with name of mine, class, name of owners, 
and amount of gold pi-oduced. 



IOWA HILL MINES. 



Jameson jtl'ft & hjdr'c 

North star | " 

Big Union . I " 

Orion hydraulic . 

NorthPoint 

Alta 

China Point | 



■Co. 



Wm Weisle 
North S'l 

AL Lighton 

Orion Mining Co. 

G Booth 

CFMac.v&Co. 
Chinese Co . . 



Independence H 



INDEPE.NDENCE HILL MINES. 

hvdraulic . iMitchler & Hobson . 

■ " , .JWChinn&Co... 

., Mitchler & Hobson 

..N Barber 

" . lEntwistle & Worsley 



Live Call 

Jeffries ... 
Star United 

Dutch . 

Stubb Twist. ,. 

White Pine 

Dayton 

Shelby 

Columbus. .. .. . 

Stockton & S F, 
Glencoe 

Empire 

Wolverine 
Aurora ... . 
Borealis ... 



KO.iCH HILL MI.N'ES 
ihydraulic Mrs Hill 
-- Hill 
d'.tand liy'd 



hydraulic 
d'ft & hydr'c 
drift . 



hydraulic 



John Mill 

A Phillips 

Jos Byrne 

Worslev & Southwick . 

PSloaii 

.John Henry & Co 

Joseph Byrne 

Williams & Co 

William Jolly & Co... 

Jos Fritzer & Co 

Wolverine Mining Co. 
Aurora " " . 

Iowa Hill Canal Co . 



MORNING .STAR HILL MINE.S. 

Morning Star Id'ft & hydr'c|Jobn Coleman & Co. 

Evening Star & Comtt '' Longstaft & Harper 

Typhoon I " I 

bird's FLAT MINES. 



Morning Light . 
Homeward Bound 

Buckeye 

Golden Gate . 

Trio 

Vinco 

Anglo-American 

Enterrri^c 

fumberluid . . 
Medical Point. 



d'ft & hydr' 



drift 

d'ft & hydr'i 



Rodoni Bros 

T G Durning & Co. 

J Gleeson & Co 

Bowlev & Co 

Watson & Co 

J W Kinder 

Worsley & WattB... 
Iowa Hill Canal Co 

D FUnn 

A Rossi 



h} draul 
SfRAWBERRV FLAT MINES. 



Kohinoor 

Strawberry . . . 
Empire 5: Unio 
Onnld 



Succor Flat ... 
Copper Bottom. 
Gold Streak. . 
Zephvr 
Attains .... 



Kidder 

Smith 

I)e Kruse. . . 
Byrne & Irish. 

Belty 

Horman .... 
Sebastopol 



|P Sloan 

Watts Bros 

Woods, Smith & Co. 
I Willis Gould. 



SUCCOR FLAT MINES. 



A Weske & Co ... 

John Peters 

J Benjamin & Co. 
L Metealf & Co . . 
.Macy & Spencer , 



WISCONSIN HILL MINES. 



iClai 



■ritv 



Ra\ 

Gi 

Columbia . . 

Zurmuchler 

Tcnvke . 

Vaughn 

Haramil 

Schwab 

Stewart . . . 

Worley 

Schlottman 

Lebanon 

Pennsylvania. 



jLebano 

|j .Smiley 

GRIZZLY- FLAT .MINES. 



Wm Nichols 

M Smith 

Mrs Hill 

Jo.s Byrne 

Wm Beltv 

H Horman & Co, . . 
James Gleeson . . , 
Tames Gleeson . , . 

Mrs Hill 

James Gleeson ... 

F Zurmuchler 

James Gleeson .... 

Ah Tom & Co 

Edwards & Hammil. 

G W Cross 

Capt Stewart 

Andrew Worley 

C Boeck . 



Rough & Ready. 

Neptune 

Know-Nothing . 



Mcdunc.ok 
Occidcnlal 
Clinton . 



Occidental Co . 
Grizzly Flat Co. 



Wm Liddle & Co . . 
Capt Stewart & Co. 
D MoGctchen & Co 
Dr Rooney & Co. . . 

John Bowley 

Occidental Co .... 
A Hazel roth , . . 



GOLD PROC I 



1,200,000 00 

800,000 00 

22,000 00 

61,000 no 

4,600 00 



40,000 on 



101,300 1 
14,000 on 
9,000 00 
12.200 no 
21,000 00 



6,400 00 
4,.'i00 00 
43,000 oO 
80,000 00 



756,000 00 
156,000 00 
lOo.OOO 00 
100,000 00 
41,000 00 
13,400 00 



805,000 00 
9,000 00 
31,750 00 



3S,000 00 
24,300 00 
90,000 00 
141,000 00 
59,000 00 



^7,040 00 
1,3U0 00 
6,230 00 



103,000 00 
47,000 03 
2.300 00 



12,000 ;oo 

.^4,000 00 



13,000 00 
52,000 00 
350,000 00 



100,000 CO 
120,000 00 
6,000 ) 
5,200 00 
3,300 00 
26,000 01 

14,000 00 



160,000 00 
220,000 00 
80,000 00 
153,000 00 
80,000 00 
30,000 OO 
11,000 00 



.AMB OF MINE. 



NAME OF OWNERS. 



GOLD PROC D 



ELIZABETH HILL MINEI. 



K'ngsHill 

Koen 

Erin go Bragh , 



Sumpter . . 
Elizabeth 
Blakey.. . , 
De Kruse. 



G Robinson .... 
.« Koen &. Co . , 
J Greenbaur — 
S Fritzer & Co 
J F Van Diver.. 

Mrs Hill 

J Blakey 



Kno 

STEVENS HILL MINES. 

Barber . |drift 

Poverty .. 
Blanchard 

Tvner 

Black Oak 
Dead Ox. . 



J L Woods 

J Charpiott 

J Blanchard & Co. . . 
Wm Tvner* Son... 
Wm Bissett &Co.... 
W L Anderson & Co 



1,500 00 
26,000 00 
60,000 00 

1,100 00 



State of Maine 

Oro 

Mountain View 

Mountain View No 2 

Star 

Mohaw k 

Surprise 

Giant Gap 



San Francisco .... 

Yellow Jacket 

Pioneer 

West Damascus. 

Colfax 

Coker & Burgess. . 
J owa Hill Canal Co 
Michigan Bluff... 

Centennial 

Mountain Chief . . . 
.Mt Gate of Damascus 
Hidden Tr of S'y South 

Derby 

Dam 

Bob Lewis 

Red Point 

Forks House Con 
Cape Horn 



MAIN KICGE MINES, 
drift 



Alameda Consolidated 
Bear Hunter. . . . 
Golden Fleece 
New Basel Con . . 

Macedon 

Whiskey Hill.. . . 
Spartan & Uncle Sam 

Union 

CANADA HILL MINES. 



d'ft &hydr'( 



drift . 



■ner & Co . . . 

J F Van Diver & Ci 

J M Smith 

J M Smith 

Anderson & Macy 

Mohawk Co 

C F Macy & Ce 

Giant Gap Co (struck pay 
gra\el Nov., 1881) 

G W Snyder & Co 

J M Smith & Co 

Odgers & Pascoe 

.Miller, Mitchler & Hobson 

J H Nefl & Co 

O F Petterson & Co 

Iowa Hill Canal Co . 

Michigan Bluff Co... 

Centennial Co 

O J Spencer & Co... 

Mountain Gate Co. 

Hidden Treasure Co 

Hardin & Co 

Dam & Co 

•• ^Griffith k Lewis.... 

" [Gilespie & Co 

•■ G WS:!yler &Co. . 

" Ij C Scott 

d'ft &hvdr'c:Mitchler &Co 

drift ..'. jF Chappellet & 

d'ft & hydr'c F Shir ' " ' 
drift 



drift 




& Co. .. 
Britton, Key &Co ... 
J B Brown & Co. 
Snyder, Hobson & Co . 

J B Brown & Co 

G Mitchler & Co 



Heed ... 

Wilcv 

Hill Bros 
Fernandos 
Oriental — 



d'ft & hydr' 



John White 

Bobt Wilcv & Co. .. . 

Wm & James Hill 

Jos Dias & Co 

Barret & Charpiot (struck 
pay gravel Oct, 1831) 



Total Gold produced from hydraulic and deep gravel drift t 
Produced by caflon and surface mining 



I Iowa Hill Divide 



S20,144,.'>70 00 



No reliable data can be obtained as to the product 
of river mining in this region. 

The above figures are from the books of the min- 
ing companies, of the express companies, merchants 
and gold-dust buyers; but as most of the books of 
the Companies referred to, have been destroyed by 
the various fires to which the mining towns have 
been subject, they are, in most cases, very short of 
the true product, while from many no returns could 
bo obtained. Nearly double the amount given is 
believed to have been produced in this region. 

QUARTZ MINES. 

The following are the quartz mines located and 
developed in the Iowa Hill region and contiguous 
thereto: — 

NEAR SDCOOR FLAT. 



Providencia 

Australia 

Providencia extension 

Julian 

St. Bernard 



NOTH OF LOCATI'^N. 



1,500 feet 

1,500 " 

1,500 " 

1,.500 '■ 

1,500 " 



ME OF OWNER. 



Professor Blake 
Hood & Street 
Street ife Co. 
Rodoni & Co. 
Rossi & Co 




\/. S. Gardner 



MINING LAWS. 



217 



This group of mines shows well in free gold in the 
croppings, and appears to extend to a considerable 
depth. The Providencia and Australia have tunnels 
near bed of canon, and show good milling ore as 
far as developed. 

HUMBUG CAN'ON QUARTZ MIXES. 



Pioneer 

Poole , 

Poole 

Dorer 

' ' extension . . . 
Central E. pxten, 



Odgers & Pasco. . . 

Keller 

Keller extension... 
Pioneer extension 

Lynn 

Potosi & Passaic . 



LESOTII OF LOCATION. 



0,000 feet J. H. Neff & E. (J. Spencer 

3,000 " JA. W. Poole 4- Co 

3,000 " I 

1,750 " jPoole & Dorer 

1.500 " I Brown & Co, 

3,000 " Central Co. 

3,000 " iP. Bernard 

3,000 " I Odgers, Pasco & Co. 

6,000 " H. Keller & Co. 

1,500 " John Allen 

1,500 " O. H. Petterson & Co 

4,500 " .Snyder & Lynn 

3,000 " E. C. Uren & Sou 



Patras 

Buena Vista. 
Iowa Hill... 

Sterrett 

Olga 



AXAIIA HILL QUAKTZ MINES 

1,000 feet 
1,500 " 



1,500 
1,500 
1,500 



Pedroles & Brown 
.J. B. Brown & Co 



Winters, .Sterrett & Hobson 
Theodore AVinters 



MINES HAVING STA.MP MILLS. 



NAME or MILL. 


CLASS. 

cement 
iiuartz 


POWER. 

steam 
water 


.so. S AM re. 


OWNERS. 


Morning Star. . 

Columbus 

Bob Lewis 

Ponle 


10 
20 
10 
5 


.1. Coleman & Co 
.7 OS Byrne 
Lewis & Ciriffi'h 
Poole & Co. 



WATER DITCHES. 



The following are the ditches carrying water for 
mining purposes on the Iowa Hill Divide, with 





MILES IN 


INCHES 






NAME OK HITCH. 


LENGTH 


WATER. 


SOIRCE OF BIPPLT. 


OW.VERS. 








Tadpo"e Canon 




Towa Hill Canal . 


■•, 




Seci ct Caiion 


: 


Big Secret Kr. . 


1 




Humbug Caflon .. 


I 


Humbug Branch 


'40 


3000 


El Dorado Cafton 


Iowa Hill Canal Co. 


El Dorado Brand 






(surplus) 




Shirt-tail Brand. 


1 




Surplus water of 
Shirt-tail Cafmn 


< 


Priest Ditch. . . . 


12 


lOOO 


First rightto water 








of Shirt-tail Caiion 




Union 


12 


400 


North Br. Shirt- 
tail Cafion 1st right 


1 


North Indian. .. 


3 


2iO 


Indian Caiion, .st 


;-Mrs. A. Hill 


South 


9 


ICO 


Indian Cailoi,, 2d 
right 


1 


Little Huml.ug 


(! 


100 


North Br. HunibUi? 


; 


McKee 


20 


700 


South Branch of 
Shirt-tail . 


F. Zurn.u. hier 


Vaughn 


9 


400 


Snail Caiion 


Ah Tom .V Co 


Weisler 


H 


.'"' 


Indian Canon 


Wm. Weislcr 










Orion Mining Co. 
.). White 


Canada Hill 






Screw .Auger Cari, 



Of the history of the above mentioned quartz 
mines Mr. Hobson writes: — 

THE SHIRT-TAIL CANON QUARTZ MINES. 

The "Providencia" was first discovered in L852 
by Robert Bowley and others, who found a rich 
chute of ore in the bed of Shirt-tail Canon, the lode 
being about three feet in width. Owing to the water 
and hardness of wall rock, which is a hard slate, 
nothing further had been done to develop the mine 
until October, 1881, when it was re-located by S. P. 
Drury, who started a tunnel on the lode at a point 
thirty feet above the bed of the caiion. The quartz, 
80 far as developed by this tunnel, is found, by 



assay, to contain sufficient free gold to juniify the 
erection of a mill. Professor BlaUe, of New York, 
has recently purchased one-half of the Providencia, 
and intends erecting a mill in the summer of 1882. 

The "Australia" appears to be a large spur of 
the Providencia, and is, so far as developed by a 
tunnel, a gold-bearing vein. This is owned by Hood 
& Street, who have also made arrangements for the 
erection of a mill in the summer of 1882. 

The "Julian" and "St. Bernard " are locations 
made in December, 1881, by Rossi, Rodoni & Co., 
who discovei'cd rich gold-bearing quartz in the crop- 
pings, which are from three to six feet in width, 
and indicate the j)resence ot a strong permanent 
vein, with a foot-wall of slate and a hanging-wall 
of serpentine. 

HU.MBUG CANON MINES DE-^CRIBED. 

The Humbug Canon quartz veins are found in a 
belt of country rock composed of alternate belts of 
black laminated slate, greenstone and talcose slate. 
The quartz veins are found between the slate form- 
ing the west wall and the greenstone the east or 
foot-wall. This belt of country carrying i)uartz 
veins begins about Hayden Hill, in Green Valley, 
east of the great serpentine belt, which crosses the 
country north and south across the North and Mid 
die Forks of the American, and extends east to a 
point on the North Fork about north of Indian 
Springs. 

All the several mines located have chutes of gold- 
bearing quartz, accompanied by iron pyrites and 
galena, which, judging from the developments on 
the several veins at several points var^nng in alti- 
tude from 2,r)00 feet near the bed of the American 
River on the south side in the Poole Mine and as 
high as, 4,000 feet in the " Pioneer," " Keller," and 
the " Lynn " lodes, and on the north side of the 
river to the " Dorer," " Central," and " Boss " lodes, 
where tunnels are at an altitude of 4,300 feet, will 
prove to be permanent gold-producing quartz mines. 
The white quartz gravel forming the upper channel 
in the Mountain Gate Mine overlies this belt of 
gold-bearing quartz lodes, and probably accounts for 
the presence of the numerous gold-bearing bowl- 
ders found in that mine, as well as the gold, which 
resembles gold broken from a quartz matrix, its 
fineness being about 8.50, while the gold found in 
the deep blue channel is 930 fine, where the gravel 
is composed almost entirely of hard slate and other 
rock, quartz being but seldom met with. 

The "Pioneer" is the most important, it being 
developed to a greater extent than any of the other 
mines. This was discovered about 18.53 by James 
Lynn and sold for a few hundred dollars to parties 
who erected a rude ten-stamp mill and crushed the 
first ten tons of quartz croppings, which yielded 
810,000. The mine was worked for several years 
with varying success. A difficulty in the successful 
working of the lower grade of quartz being an insuffi- 
cient supply of water to run the battery. This 



21S 



HISTORY OF PLA.CER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



first mill was finally destroyed by fire, after which 
the mine fell into the hands of McCk'lland & Co., 
who erected a new mill and worked the mine for 
several years successfully when suflicient water was 
to be had. The property next fell into the hands 
of John Coleman & Co., after which the mill was 
again destroyed by fire. The present owners are 
J. H. Neft", E. (r. Spencer & Co., who have recently 
made important developments, having driven two 
tunnels, one cutting the lode at a depth of ISO 
feet below the old works, exposing rich gold-bearing 
quartz, and another tunnel 400 feet below the old 
works, also exposing quartz bearing gold in suffi- 
cient quantity to pay handsomely for milling. These 
last developments prove positively the permanence 
of the Pioneer Mine as a future gold producer. It 
is stated on good authority that the Pioneer has pro- 
duced between $75,000 and $100,000 in gold. 

The " Poole " was also discovered at an early day, 
about 1854 or 1855, by L. P. Burnham, and was 
work-ed for some time with a rude five-stamp mill 
by Burnham & Poole. Burnham's interest was pur- 
chased by Poole & Co. in 1879, who erected a five- 
stamp mill near Humbug Canon, and built a tram- 
way from the mine to the mill. The Superintend- 
ent is Mr. Parker, who states that the quartz taken 
from the mine yields from $18.00 to §28.00 per ton, 
and has paid all the expenses and cost of development. 
The lode appears to be a well-defined and perma- 
nent vein, whose croppings are readily traced on 
both sides of the souih branch of the North Fork 
of the American River, to the ridges where it is 
covered by the volcanic capping. 

The "Dorer" lode, on the north side of the East 
Branch, is also a gold-bearing vein about one mile east 
of the Poole. Several crashings of the ore have been 
made at the Poole Mill, yielding about .SIS. 00 per ton. 

The "Boss" lode, also on the north side, is the 
largest vein of the Humbug Canon group, being 
about eight feet in width, the quartz yielding about 
$7.00 a ton. 

The •• Central " lies between and is parallel to 
the Dorer and Boss, cropping on the slope of the 
precipitous caiion. 

The "Keller" lode crops high on the mountain 
south of the Poole and west of the Pioneer. A 
tunnel cuts the vein at a depth of fort^' feet, showing 
its width to be throe leot, from which the rock 
yields $80.00 per ton. 

The "Lynn "lode is on the brow of the canon 
southwest of the Poole. Several prospect holes on 
the croppings expose the vein, which varies from 
one to three feet in thickness, the rock yielding 
from $7.00 to §14.00 per ton by assay. 

The " Bernard," oil the hill on the south side of 
the river, appears to be an extension of the Boss 
lode, as croppings arc almost ci)ntinuously in sight 
from the mine down to and across the river to the 
Boss. The Bernard has been uncovered by sluicing. 
The vein is a mixture of laminated talcose slate and 



quartz, is about thirty feet thick, much decomposed 
and j'ields considerable of its gold by sluice washing. 
In this manner it has been worked profitably since 
1879. 

CANADA HILL QUARTZ MINES. 

The "Buena Vista" and "Iowa Hill" lodes have 
both been opened and prospected by a tunnel one 
hundred feet below the ci'oppings, the tunnel first 
cutting ihe vein of the Buena Vista, which, on driv- 
ing levels, proved to be a pipe vein, the quartz yield- 
ing $38.00 per ton at the quartz mill. The tunnel was 
continued and a cross-cut driven to cut the Iowa 
Hill lode, which, on development, proved to be a vein 
similar in character to the Buena Vista, but having 
a course almost at right angles to the first-named 
mine. It also carries high grade quartz. There is 
also a shaft on each mine, connecting with the tun- 
nel, although exposing about 2,300 tons of quartz 
above the tunnel level. Some $12,000 has been ex- 
pended in the development of these mines by Messrs 
Van Vactor, Brown and Petterson, a mill being all 
that is necessary to put the mine in operation. 

The "Patras lode" has a rich chute of specimen rock 
which has been worked to the depth of thirty feet 
by Messrs. Brown and Pedrolos, who extracted the 
gold by crushing the rock in a hand mortar. 

The "Sterrett Mine" on Sailor Canon, in township 
IG north, range 13 east, is on an immense lode of 
gold-bearing quartz, and gives promise of developing 
into a large, permanent mine. The east wall of the 
vein is a hard syenite, and the west wall is a pecu- 
liar laminated black slate, showing numerous fossil 
amonites, and is the only belt of rock on the Iowa 
Hill Divide, to my knowledge, carrying fossils. Two 
tunnels have been run in prospecting the vein. Tun- 
nel No.l was driven to cross-cut it at a depth of thirty 
feet below the surface, which exposed eighteen feet 
of dark blue laminated quartz heavily charged with 
arsenical pyrites and galena. Samples from this cross- 
cut yield by assay from $5.00 to $03.00 per ton, the 
richest quartz being found near the walls. Tunnel 
No. 2 cut the vein 300 feet below the croppings, ex- 
posing eighteen feet of quartz similar to that found 
above. Average samples of the vein were taken out 
and packed on mules to be tested by mill process, 
and yielded $7.00 per ton in free gold and three per 
cent, of sulphurets yielding $400 per ton. The own- 
ers intend to drive another tunnel to test the value 
of the vein at a depth of 500 feet before machinery 
will be put on the mine. 

REPORT ON MINES. 

In April, 1881. Mr. Hobson made a i-eport of his 
examination of the Independence Hill, Whiskey Hill 
and other gravel mines of the Iowa Hill Divide con- 
taining a large amount of valuable information relat- 
ing to mining in general, and of certain mines in 
particular, which will be condensed as far as practi- 
cable and applicable to the purpose of this work in 
the following. The special reference is to the Inde- 



MINING LAWS. 



219 



pendence Hill, Blue Wing, Union, Columbia. Sebas- 
topol, and Gleeson, hydraulic gravel mines, and the 
West Damascus Consolidated, Alameda Consolidated, 
and Union, drift gravel mines. 

The greater number of the mines immediately in 
the vicinity of Iowa Hill were extensively worked in 
early days by drifting only, the bottom gravel hav- 
ing been exceeding rich and paid immensely, and, 
with a few exceptions, were worked out on the bot- 
tom. The Morning Star, Columbus, Stockton and 
San Francisco, the Watts and Worley mines at 
Grizzly Flat, not yet worked out, but will pay well 
fOr drifting for several years to come. A large num- 
ber of the mines are now worked by hydraulic, 
working off the top gravel— and the bottom where 
not already worked. This class of mining, where 
large heads of water and proper flumes and under- 
currents are used, is proving remunerative to those 
engaged in it. The annual yield during late years 
of the mines about Iowa Hill, including Bird's Flat, 
Strawberry Flat, Grizzly J'lat, and Wisconsin Hill, 
is about §100,000. The total amount of gold taken 
out of the Iowa Hill Divide, up to the present time, 
is a mere nothing compared to the amount to be 
taken out in the future. This statement Mr. Hobson 
feels safe in making, having based his opinion on the 
area of ground worked out in the past, and the im- 
mense area of both hydraulic and drift ground to be 
worked in the future. The great body of the Divide, 
from the Watts Mine, near Iowa Hill, to Secret 
House, a distance by the blue gravel channel of 
about sixteen miles, is almost untouched. This blue 
gravel channel, about 600 feet in width, with white 
quartz and other auriferous deposits of much greater 
width and depth, is known to be rich in gold, but 
can only be reached by long bed-rock tunnels, or 
sinking deep shafts. 

Extensive drift mining is now carried on success- 
fully at six different places along the line of the 
blue gravel channel in the main ridge, beginning on 
the west with the Watts Mine and going east. P'irst 
the Succor Flat, then the Giant Gap, next the 
Mountain Gate, the Bob Lewis and Dam claims on 
tributaries, and last the Whiskey Hill, all contain 
ing rich gravel. 

The Succor Flat Mine is producing fine gold at the 
rate of #12.00 per day to each man using a pick in the 
mine, besides numerous nuggets found weighing 
from two ounces to sixty-six ounces, and is paying 
dividends. 

The Giant Gap Mine is owned by a Boston com- 
pany, who opened it by a tunnel of 1,G00 feet in 
length and struck pay gravel in November, 1881. 

The Mountain Gate Company, of Damascus, struck 
the blue gravel channel after running a tunnel of 
seven thousand feet. The company had worked on 
a stratum of white quartz gravel for a period of 
twenty-five years, the channel running south with a 
fall of about sixty feet to the mile. While thus 
working under the main ridge, which is capjujd with 



a body of lava seven hundred feet in thickness, they 
came suddenly against the lava cutting across the 
old <|uartz channel. This at first appeared the end 
of their mining. Above the white ([uartz had been 
a stratum of pipe clay, above that volcanic mud and 
other volcanic matter, and over all the solid lava. 
Siidiing in the lava which they encountered in the 
breast of their mine they found its bottom resting on 
such volcanic matter as was above the pipe clay, and 
further sinking revealed the remarkable deposit, or 
channel, of blue gravel. It was a mine lost and found 
again, richer by far than the favorite white quarzt. 

Top of Folks House Ridge. 




SECTION THROUGH .MOUNTAIN GATE MINE. 

«. Lava flowintr from the east. b. Volcanic aedimeiit. c. Stratum of pipe 
cl.i.v- d. White (juartz gravel diaunel, flowin;; south at an incline of sixty feet 
per mile. That north of the intruding? lava is worked out. e. Brown cement 
tictivecn la\a and blue gravel. /. Blue i,'ravel channel, thirty feet in thick- 
ness of yravcl. (iOO feet wide, and eighty feet below white quartz cliannel. 
I/. .Mountain (iate Tunnel, 7,000 feet in length, under the white quartz chan- 
nel, an i to l)liie gravel channel h. Upraises to gravel channel i. Incline 
to blue gravel channel, j. Bed-rock of blue slate. 

The blue gravel was found eighty feet below the 
white quartz gravel. The old workings of the 
Mountain Gate Company in the quartz, or upper 
gravel, yielded #1,500,000, and the working of the 
lower, or blue gravel, yields §5,000 per month. The 
upper gravel paid at the rate of ifS.OO per load, or 
cubic yard in the bank, while the blue gravel yields 
SO. 00 per cubic yard on the bottom, the whole 600 
by thirty feet averaging $8.00 per yard. Twenty- 
one men are employed in mining, that number sup- 
plying all the gravel that the machinery in use is 
able to hoist from the blue gravel channel to the 
tunnel level. There are twenty-one shares in the 
mine, the shares occasionally changing hands at 
from §35,000 to 8-10,000. The developments of this 
company during 18S1 have proven that the blue 
gravel channel is 000 feet in width, all pay gravel, 
and that it is a channel eighty feet below the white 
gravel channel, cutting the latter at right angles and 
eroding a bed in the underlj'ing rock. 

THE HIDDEN TREASURE .MINE 

Was first located by William Cameron, on the 3d of 
January, 1870, as the Cameron Mine, embracing 254 
acres; subsequently, in 1874, a claim of 160 acres 
adjoining upon the east was consolidated with it 
under the name it now bears. Mr. Cameron for 
many years had been an observant miner and a work- 
ing owner in the Mountain Gate Mine, at Damascus, 
upon the extensive auriferous channel which has 
there been explored, and for many years successfully 
worked, and while thus delving in that mine had 



220 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



conceived a theory of his own in relation to the course 
and action of those ancient channels. Acting upon 
this theory, in the dead of winter he left Damascus, 
made the location on the Hidden Treasure, and soon 
after began a tunnel on the border of a small ravine 
west of where the present opening has been made. 
This first tunnel was driven into the hill a distance 
of 602 feet, when the proprietors became convinced 
that the locality was unfavorable, and it was accord- 
ingly abandoned. Mr. Cameron then (in May, 1875,) 
in company with Mr. M. H. Power, made a survey from 
the Mountain Gate, and selected the site of the tun- 
nel through which the mine is now worked, at the 
head of Blacksmith Canon, a small tributary of El 
Dorado Caiion. 

This tunnel was begun in hard cemented gravel 
which overlies a stratum of gold-bearing gravel that 
is locally known as the Black Channel, and continued 
in this material for a distance of 450 feet, when the 
face of the tunnel encountered soft slate bed-rock, 
into which it was driven fifty feet further. At this 
point the theory entertained by the projector was 
that above him must be encountered the continua- 
tion of the white quartz channel coming down from 
Damascus, and which up to that time had been so 
extensively and profitably worked in the Mountain 
(rate Mine. Therefore an upraise was made, and a 
distance of 30 feet brought the shaft into the overly 
ing stratum, one-half the size of the opening being 
where the lava cement connected with bed-rock, and 
the other half in the white quartz auriferous gravel 
identical with that of the mine at Damascus — a 
remarkably close calculation and lucky result. The 
gravel prospected well, and the first gold thus found 
was brought to light February 10, 187G — a litt'oover 
six years after the location was first made. 

Since this time the Hidden Treasure Mine has been 
continuously worked, and the amount of gold pro- 
duced has been great. The channel has been 
explored to the width of 620 feet, and the extreme 
breadth not yet determined; and a length along the 
channel of 3,250 feet has been driven for breasting, 
with no perceptible change in richness. About 70 
men are constantly employed at the mine, and in 
working it the bed-rock is cut down into on an aver- 
age of 2 feet deep, and only about -4 feet of the gravel 
above it removed, leaving an unknown quantity 
overhead. About 85,000 laggings and 14,500 square 
timbers, 7x8, 5 feet long, 10x12, 6 feet long, and 
14x14, 6i feet long, have been annually used in the 
mine, at a cost of 2j cents each, for lagging, and for 
posts from 10 cents each to $1.50 per set for those 
for the main tunnel. 

Until the present time (January, 1882), the gravel 
taken from the mine has been conveyed in cars drawn 
by mules, but a locomotive engine has been ordered 
from Philadelphia, to supersede the animal power — 
the old method of conveyance being found too slow, 
the gravel being soft and easily prejjared for removal. 
Willi this view, the tunnels are now being prepared 



for the new motor; 2,200 feet of T rail, 30 pounds to 
the yard, is already laid; the locomotive is expected 
to consume 500 pounds of anthracite coal (which has 
to be exported from Pennsylvania) each 24 hours 
that it is in constant operation, and will easily haul 
50 loaded cars holding a ton each. Necessarily in 
properly opening a mine of this magnitude and char- 
acter, a great deal of dead work must be done, 
which has been the case with this mine; and thus it 
is that with more than 10,000 feet in length along 
the pay channel, having a known width of over 600 
feet, as yet but about 2,000 feet in length by 300 feet 
in width has been breasted out, with uniform and 
continuous. results. 

Originally there were 36 shares in the company, 
which, by the way, has never been incorporated. 
Some of those named among the original locators, 
however, becoming skeptical as to the successful 
ending of the venture, as they were from time to time 
called upon for small assessments to defray the 
expense of exploring during the six years in which 
the work was prosecuted with no gold in sight, sold 
out for the simple amount they had disbursed. Mr. 
Cameron, with an abiding faith in the ultimate cor- 
rectness of his theory, became the purchaser of many 
of the shares of the malcontents, until he was pos- 
sessed of 15 shares of the original 36 at the time 
gold was struck in the tunnel. The cost assessed to 
each share from the beginning until then was only 
172; while a further expense of $1,100 was all that 
was required to fit up dumping boxes, sluices, hose, 
pipe, etc., for washing the paying gravel. Several 
of those who sold out for the jmount of assessments 
have since bought shares at prices varying from 
$2,500 to iif5,000. 

In the year 1880 the gross receipts of the Hidden 
Treasure Mine were -1114,168, of which there were 
paid for wages (largely to the owners themselves, 
who work in the mine), .1?46,564; contingent expenses, 
$10,358; dividends, $57,240. 

The title to the ground is a patent from the Gov- 
ernment of the LTnited States, the present owners be- 
ing William Cameron, M. H. Power, Harold T. Power, 
Henry M. Power, H. K. Develey, E. E. Guilford, R. 
M. Sparks, J. B. Harden, A. G. Fuller, L. P. Burn- 
ham, Thomas Reese, William Chi-isty, Joshua W. 
Bggleston, Peter N. Juergensen, J. W. Byrd, and 
Lewis Ryder. 

As stated in the foregoing, the gravel channel now 
being worked is what is called the "white quartz," 
while the blue gravel, in contradistinction, is 
called the " black channel." A supposed branch or 
tributary of the blue channel that cuts the Mountain 
Gate, lies to the northeast, at a greater depth — some 
80 to 100 feet. At other localities the black channel 
has proven exceedingly rich, and there is no reason 
why the portion included in the Hidden Treasure 
patent should prove an exception. In the ground 
worked the richest paying stratum has been found 
n-ar and in the bed-rock, which is black slate stand- 



MINING LAWS. 



221 



ing on edge, laminated, and in many places highly 
charged with large, brilliant cubes of iron sulphurets. 
At intervals there occur veins, a foot or two feet wide, 
of a soft material — white and chalky — which the 
miners designate " gouge," but which are probably 
porphyritic in character, and will ultimately be found 
to carrj' in places gold-bearing quartz. There are, 
also, at intervals, found between the laminations, 
strata of slate of a whitish color, upon which are 
imprinted beautiful dendrites. 

MICHAEL HAROLD POWER, 

One of Placer's prominent and successful mining men, 
was born in County VVaterford, Ireland, September 
29, 1829, his father being a gentleman of wealth, and 
the family among the first in social standing in the 
county. His uncle, Joseph Power, served with dis- 
tinction through the Peninsular War, and two of 
his brothers now hold commissions in the British 
army. One of these, Lieut. Matthew Power, has 
for the past eighteen years been Chief of Police of 
Worcester, England, a position of high trust and 
honor. Mr. Power received a collegiate education, 
and, after leaving college, entered the law office of 
his brother, Edmund Power, from which he was 
appointed Clerk to the Crown for the District of 
Waterford, in which office ho remained until his 
departure for America. 

In 1847, before reaching his majority, he emi- 
grated to New York, and there for several years was 
engaged in business, but in consequence of ill-health 
removed to California, where he arrived in July, 
185-t, going to Iowa Hill, in Placer County. There 
he engaged in mining for a few months, and then 
changed his location to Damascus and purchased an 
interest in the Mountain Tunnel Mine, which was 
subsequently consolidated with the Golden Gate 
Mine under the name of the Mountain Gate Min- 
ing Company. There he worked with varying 
success for nearly twenty years, when he, in com- 
pany with others, crossed the ridge and prospected 
the mine known as the " Hidden Treasure Mining 
Company," of which Mr. Power has been Superin- 
tendent for a number of years. He has been very 
successful in mining pursuits and has amassed a eon- 
petence. 

No more popular man, social, affable, public-spirited 
gentleman can be found than M. H. Power, whose 
pleasant and hospitable home at Sunny South is so 
well known to all the people of the " Divide." Polit- 
ically he is a staunch Republican, having entered 
political life as a Douglas Democrat, but upon the 
breaking out of the War of the Rebellion his love 
for his adopted land impelled him to act with the 
Republican party as the direct and unequivocal 
friend of the Union. As a Republican, he helped to 
organize one of the first Union Leagues of the State, 
and was made its President. In 18()7 ho was elected 
Supervisor, one of the most important and responsible 
positions in the county, and in 18(59 was elected as 



a representative of Placer in the Assembly. In 1873 
he was nominated by his party for the Senate, but 
was defeated by a combination of Democrats and 
Republicans styling itself the Independent party, 
but commonly known as " Dolly Vardens," the 
majority for his opponent, Dr. Martin, being only 
thirty-five. Since then he has been repeatedly solic- 
ited to again enter the political arena, but has inva- 
riably refused . 

Mr. Power was married June 1, 1856, in San Fran- 
cisco, to Miss isaline M. Keysner Develey, and now 
has two sons and one daughter. This happy couple, 
on the 1st of June, 1881, celebrated their silver 
wedding anniversary, and with every hope which 
health and contentment inspire look forward in con- 
fidence to the fiftieth anniversary of their married 
life and the celebration of their golden wedding. The 
home of Mr. Power bears the romantic name of Sunny 
South, being on the sunny southern slope of the 
great gold-bearing ridge wherein are the Mountain 
Gate and Hidden Treasure Mines, but his post-office 
address is Michigan Bluff. 

OTHER MINES. 

The next development on main blue gravel chan- 
nel is eight miles eastward, at the Whiskey Hill Mine, 
fronting on Secret Canon, and with an elevation of 
about 1,500 feet greater than at the Mountain Gate. 
The blue gravel at Whiskey Hill is of the same charac- 
ter as that at Damascus, in the Mountain Gate, there- 
fore believed to be a continuation of the channel, 
though somewhat richer in gold. This mine was 
recently opened, but will be in full working order in 
the summer of 1882. 

The Bob Lewis and the Dam claims have been 
working successfully for a number of yeai's on what 
now proves to be tributaries to the main blue gravel 
channel. 

The Hidden Treasure is a mine located on a cross 
ridge running south from the main ridge. This 
mine is worked very profitably, drifting on the 
extension of the quartz gravel channel running south 
from the Mountain Gate, and is pajnng dividends 
amounting to from 840,000 to .|50,000 per annum. 

THE BLUE GRAVEL CHANNEL. 

Mr. Hobson, after having made a personal exami- 
nation of all the developments, prospects, tunnels, 
shaft and inclines now in operation, and the I'im 
rock where exposed on the surface, coupled with the 
course of rim rock where exposed at Whiskey Hill 
workings, Damascus in Mountain Gate, Succor Flat 
and the Watts Mine, and the old workings of Roach 
Hill mines down to where the blue gravel channel 
was cut away in places, by the later fiow of gravel, 
which flowed from the direction of Gold Run, forming 
the gravel banks of the hydraulic mines of Independ- 
ence and part of Roach Hill, Bird's Flat and Wis- 
consin Hill, and the formation of the present canons; 
and these facts confirmed by the altitudes of bottom 
of blue gravel channel where exposed, he is con- 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



vinced of the fact tliat the flow of the ancient streatn 
has been to the west, entering the ridge at the 
Union Mine near Secret House, and passing through 
the entire length of that mine and through the 
Spartan ground into the Whiskey Hill Mine; thence 
through the Macedon and New Basel and Golden 
Fleece Mines; thence into and through the whole 
length of Alameda Consolidated Mine; thence 
through Cape Horn Mine; thence through the Forks 
House, Gillespie and Bob Lewis Mines; thence 
through the Mountain Gate Mine; thence through 
Coker Mine and West Damascus Consolidated Placer 
Mine, where it has cut across an extensive deposit of 
quartz gravel ; thence west. 

The appearance of the channel of blue gravel, as 
described by 'Sh\ Hobson, is that of the bed of a 
stream, but an open river (iOO feet in width, with a 
fall of near 200 feet per mile could not deposit 
gravel, sand and clay so uniformly on smooth bed 
rock so steeply inclined. The stream, more prob- 
ably, was one of ice. 

VARIOUS KOR.MATIONS AND THEORIES. 

The surveys of Mr. Hobson show various forma- 
tions in different eras of time. Conspicuous among 
these are the white quartz channel and the blue 
gravel channel, the white quartz channel being 
the oldest, as shown in the Damascus ridge which 
has been thoroughly explored by the Mountain Gate, 
Hidden Treasure and Bob Lewis Mines. The white 
quartz channel there runs north and south, with a 
fall to the south, and has been cut by the blue 
gravel channel running east and west with a fall to 
the west. The old white quartz channel had no 
connection with the blue gravel, or "Dead Blue 
River." 

The Canada Hill Channel, which appears in Town- 
ship 15 north, range 13 east, by the LTnited States 
land surveys from Mount Diablo base and meridian, 
flowed to the east and crossed Sailor Canon. " This 
channel," says Mr. Hobson, is composed of angular 
white quartz, quartzite and feldspathic rocks, gravel 
and sand. The gold is also rough and but little 
water-worn. The paj^ gravel is about four feet in 
depth, lying on metamorphic slate. Overlying the 
pay gravel is a stratum of cemented white, siliceous 
sediment resembling chalk; overlying the chalk, as 
it is commonly called, is a stratum of brown shale, 
or lignite, and filling and covering the eastern 
channel is the usual .gray, cemented, volcanic matter. 
My observations have led me to believe that the 
Canada Hill (Channel is the oldest on the ridge, 
geologically. 

There also appears to have been at least four 
difterent periods in the formation of the ancient 
streams found west of Secret Canon. First we find 
the white cjuartz deposits on the north side of the 
ridge along Golden Fleece and Hog's-back Consoli- 
dated, and the north and south channel in Mountain 
Gate and Hidden Treasure Mines, the north and 



south channel developed by Mountain Chief shaft. 
West Damascus shaft and its rims exposed at sui-face, 
all of which, judging from the similarity of their 
formation, apjsear to have been formed during one 
period. The next appears to have been a volcanic 
period, when all the above streams were filled with 
volcanic mud. Next we find what is called the Blue 
Channel, which flowed west and crossed the white 
quartz deposits, cutting them away and eroding the 
underlying rock to the depth of eighty feet. Follow- 
ing this comes another flow of volcanic mud, next 
comes the period during which flowed the great 
stream forming the immense deposits of small mixed 
gravel, covering the old blue channel at Gold Run 
and north of that place, and south forming the 
hydraulic banks of Independence Hill, Iowa Hill and 
Wisconsin Hill, also covering the blue, and last a flow 
of material forming the pipe-clay and overlying red 
earth. 

The lines of demarkation showing the deposits of 
different jieriods are to be seen quite well-defined in 
Mountain Gate Mine, West Damascus shaft and side 
hill adjacent to that mine, also between Independ- 
ence and Roach Hills, Homeward Bound, Watts, 
Morning Star and Wisconsin Hill Mines, showing 
plainly where the ditt'erent deposits were eroded 
away and overlap. 

Several white quartz channels are shown, running 
soHtherly and easterly, and of very great difference 
of altitude. The most easterly is that of Canada 
Hill, with an elevation on the west of 6,205 feet and 
on the east of 5,G40 feet. Westward eleven miles, 
in the Bear Hunter, the elevation is 4,770 feet, and 
seven miles further west is the Mountain Gate at an 
elevation of 3,914 feet, and at Iowa Hill, eight miles 
west of the latter, the elevation is 2,642 feet. The 
blue gravel is found in the various mines in the same 
varying elevations, always with a westward trend, 
showing a fall, if a continuous stream ever existed, 
of 2,128 feet in fifteen miles, a physical feature of 
which we have no comparison at present in existence, 
and of which we can form no conception, showing 
conclusively, taking into consideration the magnitude 
of the channel, the power required to move bowlders 
of many tons weight and the most minute particles 
to deposit in the same localities, that the great 
" Dead Blue River" as an open, unobstructed stream 
never flowed as theorists have surmised. 

Perhaps the fineness of the gold and accompanying 
rocks found in the difterent placers and strata maj' 
aid in tracing the sources of the drift. The course 
of the white quartz channel through the Mountain 
Gate and Hidden Treasure Mines of the Damascus 
ridge would carry it over the group of quartz lodes 
about the mouth of Hnmbug Canon, the Poole, 
Dorer, Boss and others, and possibly the ancient 
glacier may from them have obtained its quartz and 
gold, thus accounting for the pi-evalonce of an 
unusual number of bowlders containing gold in those 
mines. The gold of the white ([uartz channel is f 



MINING LAWS. 



223 



850 fine, while that of the intruding blue channel Ih 
930 fine; this srravel coming from the East, and 
having a pi-eJ.)ininanee of slate and other rock, not 
quartz. 

The quartz veins of Auburn and Ophir Districts 
cany gold worth from .Sl-l.OO to .§17.50 an ounce, 
which very nearly corresponds with the value of the 
gold found in the placers of the various ravines in 
the same districts. The gold of Auburn, Secret, 
Miner's and other ravines of western Placer, cover- 
ing many square miles of area, certainly never came 
from the white quartz chaiinel of the high Sierra, 
nor from any Dead Blue River. 

A HYDRAULIC MINE. 

The Independence Hill Mine, as described by Mr. 
Hobson, lies on the extreme west end of Eoach 
Hill ridge, and tails into the North Fork of the 
American River, through the Independence Hill, 
Union, and Blue Wing Canons. The mine is rigged 
up to work on a large scale, using 500 inches of 
water. The rig consists of 2,000 feet of 16-inch 
iron pipe, one No. -t giant nozzle, 800 feet of 40-inch 
flume, with improved iron riffles, two large under- 
currents, also paved with iron riftles, mining tools, 
and tools for making iron pipe, blacksmith shop, 
melting room and assay office, powder-magazine, etc. 

This mine contains about fifty acres of ground, 
twenty-five of wtiich have been washed off'. Nine 
acres of this amount was washed off in a small way, 
during a period of sixteen years; and since rigged 
to wash on a large scale, sixteen acres was washed 
oft' in 2.'5G days, working twenty-four hours a day, 
using 500 inches of water under a pressure of 350 
feet. Under this work the following are the results, 
as obtained from the books of the Superintendent: — 

Total number of working days, using 500 inches 
of water twenty-four hours, 256. Ground washed 
oft' sixteen acres, eight acres averaging in depth, 
thirty feet; eight acres averaging in depth, seventy- 
five feet. 

Total amount of gold produced $62,003.20 

Total expense of mining 2!),078.<S2 

Total net profit from working sixteen 

acres of ground 32,92-1.38 

An average gi'oss yield per acre of $3,878.19 

Gross yield per day 242.20 

Expenses of mining, as follows: — 

Five hundred inches of water, twentj'-four 

hours ---$ 45.00 

Ten miners at $2.50 and $3.00 per day 27.00 

Fuel and lights 5.00 

Powder and incidental supplies 31.60 

Superintendence 5.00 

Daily expenses $113.60 

Leaving a net profit of $128.60, for each day. 

The ground washed off" varied in gross yield of 
gold per acre, according to the depth of ground, 
viz.: Eight acres washed off" produced $25,498.60, 



an average of $3,187.32 per acre, the gravel having 
an average depth of thirty feet; four acres next 
washed off, the gravel averaging ninety feet deep, 
and the gold produced amounted to $20,806.56, an 
average yield of $5,201.64 per acre; and the last run 
closed having washed off four acres, producing gold 
amounting to $15,700, an average yield per acre of 
$3,925, the gravel having a depth of sixty feet. 
The remaining twenty-five acres have an avei'ago 
depth of thirty feet. 

Other hydraulic mines yield from $3,000 to $5,000 
per acre, and the blue gravel stratum, from twenty 
to thirty feet in depth, where found under hydraulic 
gravel in the vicinity of Iowa Hill, yields $12,000 
per acre, making such ground, where it is all 
hydraulicked, yield from $15,000 to $17,000 per 
acre. The average working season is about 120 
days, being governed by the supply of water in the 
reservoirs and upper streams. 

Water is furnished at the mines at nine cents per 
inch for twenty-four hours, from ditches owned by 
Mrs. Adelia Hill, being brought from a reservoir 
near the head of Shirt-tail Canon. The Iowa Hill 
Canal Company's ditch, with branches aggregating 
forty miles in length, also conveys water to the 
various mines in the vicinity. The cost of running 
tunnels, by which nearly all the mines are opened, 
varies from $3.50 to $8.00 per lineal foot, the length 
of tunnel through the rim-rock being from 500 to 
2,000 feet. In a few of the mines, where opened at 
the lower end of the channel, the incline of the bed- 
rock is such that no tunnel is required, a slight 
cutting and grading being sufficient for the sluices, 

THE DIVIDE IN 1850. 

The County Surveyor in 1856, Mr. Thomas A. 
Young, in his report to the Surveyor-General of Cali- 
fornia, includes the following information on mining 
aft'airs: — 

" We have somewhere in the vicinity of 400 miles 
of canals now constructed, and valued at $400,000, 
the cost being four times that sum. The average 
price of water sold to miners is fifty cents per inch, the 
measurement being through an aperture one inch, 
sometimes two inches broad, under a pressure of four 
inches of water. [The price of water from the first 
ditches in the county was $1.00 an inch, without any 
pressure allowed, but the modern method of meas- 
Burement is through a horizontal aperture two inches 
in width under a pressure of six inches, or through 
an inch square aperture under a pressure of six inches 
from the top of the hole, equal to about two and 
one-third cubic feet, or thirty-six gallons per minute. 
Ed.] 

" There are four quartz mills in successful opera- 
tion in this county. One of them is situated at 
Grand Ledge on Humbug Caiion, eight miles east of 
Iowa Hill. It has a sixty-horse-power engine, work- 
ing twenty-four stamps, and capable of crushing 
fifty tons of quartz in twenty-four hours. This mill 



224 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



is under the management of Dr. McMurtry, one of 
the most experienced quartz miners in the State. 
The quartz mill of Watson A Co., situated at Sarahs- 
ville, four miles east of Yankee Jim's, is paying 
handsomely. 

" As for the richness and extent of its hydraulic 
and tunnel mines, Placer, I think, is excelled by no 
county in the State. The mines in many places are 
washing away the banks of gravel to a depth of sev- 
enty feet. The ground on which the town of Michi- 
igan Bluff is located will probably, in the course of 
four or five years be entirely washed away. The 
depth from the surface to the bed-rock is 40 to 80 feet. 

The estimated length of the different tunnels run 
for mining purposes in this county is twenty-eight 
miles; average size, five feet wide, six feet high; 
estimated cost of construction, at 60.00 per foot, 
81,330,560. 

There has been many deep shafts sunk in this 
county, requiring a vei'y large expenditure of money. 
One of them was sunk by a San Francisco and 
Stockton Mining Company, on Roach Hill, two miles 
east of Iowa Hill. The shaft is three feet wide by 
nine in length, and 107 feet in depth; is curbed from 
top to bottom with plank, having a partition of plank 
in the middle, thus forming two shafts. The cost of 
lumber alone was §1,500; a twelve-horse-power 
engine was used in its construction, raising gravel 
and water; the cost of engine and boiler delivered on 
the ground was S3, 000; the average price of labor 
paid for constructing the shaft was $5.00 per day — 
time, eight months; total cost, !S!17,000. The San 
Francisco Company found gravel rich with gold at 
the bottom of their shaft, and al'ter having tunneled 
some distance, and becoming satisfied that the rich 
deposit was extensive, they contracted with Edward 
P. Steen, of San Francisco, to run with his " tunnel 
borer " a tunnel 500 feet long and six feet in dia- 
meter, to strike the bottom of the shaft to drain 
water from their mining ground. The amount of 
the contracts is ?7,890. If the contract is completed 
before the 28th of January next, a bonus of $2,700 is 
to be paid, thus making the expense of the company 
on the completion of the tunnel, •127,590. 1 consider 
the " tunnel-borer " the most useful of all inventions 
for the working of the mines, and as it will be in 
operation in a few days at Roach Hill, J think it not 
inappropriate to describe it. 

"This machine was invented (except the cutters), 
and built in San Francisco by Edward P. Steen. It 
consists of two machines — one for cutting the tunnel, 
which feeds itself in as fast it cuts, and the driving 
machine, which is erected outside, and is stationary. 
The cutting machine consists of a strong iron frame, 
mounted on wheels, which are conical, and run on 
the sides of the bottom of the tunnel. Bolted to 
this frame is an engine, twelve inches bore by sixteen 
inches stroke, the j)iston of which is connected with 
two bell cranks, hung by centers to a wheel or face 
plate, which is moved around from a half to one inch 



at each stroke of the piston, according to the hard- 
ness of the rock. The cutters — four in number — are 
round plates of steel, ten inches in diameter, by five- 
eighths of an inch thick, hung on small shafts, which 
run in boxes attached to the bell cranks at an angle 
of forty-five degrees to the face plate. When the 
piston moves it gives a half circular motion to the 
bell crank and cutters, and when the latter are in 
contact with the rocks, causes them to rotate on their 
axes, and thus cuts the rock with the least wear or 
friction. The tunnel it cuts is six feet in diameter. 

"The driving apparatus consists of a steam boiler 
engine and pump for compressing air; the compressed 
air is conducted any distance through rubber hose to 
the cutting machine and applied to the engine, in 
which it works as steam. The air is exhausted in 
the tunnel, keeping it well ventilated. The machine 
has cut a tunnel in Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, 
six feet in diameter, from twelve to sixteen inches, 
in an hour, and requires about two and a half cords 
of wood per day of twenty-four hours. Eight men 
can run the machine night and day — two engineers 
and two working men at a time. The rock, etc., is 
drawn out under the machine, and run out the usual 
way. 

• It is estimated that Placer County has produced 
from its mines during the past year gold to the value 
of $0,000,000, and expended $3,000,000 for supplies." 

MINING DITCHES. 

The following are the names, miles in length of 
main canal and branches, and assessed valuation in 
the years 1850 and '57. 

In 1855 the number reported was twenty-nine, 
assessed at $375,000; in 1850, the number was twen- 
ty-four, assessed at $399,100; and in 1857, the num- 
ber was thirty-four, assessed at $325,000 — a great 
falling off in value the last year, although an increase 
in number: — 



Names. 



American River W. and M. Co.. 
Auburn and Bear River W. Co. 

El Dorado W. Co 

Gold Hill and Bear River Co. . .. 

Yankee .Tim's Union Co 

Todd's Valley W. Co 

Sarahsville and T. Val Co 

Independent Ditch Co 

Yankee Jim's Miners' Ditch . . 

Dutch Flat Water Co 

Ferguson's Ditch 

Whiskey Digging Ditch 

North Sea Ditch Co 

Elm Slide Uitch Co 

Hose's Ditch 

North Shirt Tail Ditch 

Grizzly Ditch 

Indiana W. Co 

Hill's Ditch 

McKee's Ditch 

Lowry Ditch 

Oak Cottage Ditch 

Buflfalo Ditch 

Bird's Valley Ditch 

Denning's Ditch 

Pugh Ditch 

Denton's Ravine Ditch 

Ilureka Ditch 

Underwood's Ditch 

Eureka Ditch Co 



-alliation 



.■Siso.ooo 

180,000 
■J5,000 
^0,000 
25, GOO 
14,000 
5,000 
5,000 
6,000 



5,000 
2,800 



1,000 
5,000 



ti,500 
6,000 



$100,000 

75,000 

30,000 

16,000 

15,000 

17,000 

10,000 

7,000 

5,000 

5,400 

4,000 

3,000 

2,800 

3,000 

2,000 

5,500 

900 

2,000 

5,000 

6,000 

3,000 

800 

500 

400 

700 

500 

100 

400 

100 

500 






'^m^sfy^. 



■*-fi^*^!? *»* ^ 







I^Wk 







*«J " 



.J^ 








MINING LAWS. 



225 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 

MINING. 
[continued.] 

Quartz Discoveries near Auburn — Rich Strikes — Pluck Rewarded 
by Luck— The Big Crevice - Dredging the River— The St. 
Patrick Mine— Tlie Greene Mine— Rising Sun Mine— The 
Banker Mine— The Forest Hill Divide— Mining at Dutch 
Flat — Cedar Creek Mining Company — ^lining Phrases — 
The "Glorious Days" of '49— The Miner's Lament— The 
Miner's Progress. 

The early histoiy of gold mining, and sketches of 
many of the mines have been given in the preceding 
chapters, leaving those of modern fame to brief men- 
tion in this. So great is the interest, with many 
changes of names and proprietors, the sudden rise of 
property into prominence, yielding largely of the 
j)recious metal, creating a sensation in mining cir- 
cles then disappearing from public notice, greatly 
complicates the story, and to attempt to particular- 
ize into absolute accuracy would be too tedious to be 
interesting, and cumber this volume to the neglect 
of other matters also important. 

QU-IRTZ DISCOVERIES NEAR AUBURN. 

No portion of the State is more elaborately veined 
with quartz ledges than the foot-hills of Placer 
County, and particularly tfce countiy embraced 
within the boundaries of the Auburn, Lone Star, 
and Ophir quartz districts, a region of about six 
miles in width by twelve in length. The surface 
mines of this locality were first worked in 1848 and 
subsequentlj'^ yielded fabulous amounts of gold. 
Many quartz veins were discovered and mills erected, 
as reported in previous chapters, in 1865 this region 
attracted the renewed attention of prospectors, and 
many discoveries and locations were made, several 
of which were in after years extensively worked, and 
became noted objects of public attention. Among 
these were the Conrad, Peter Waller, North Star, 
Great Eastern, Vanderbilt,Tallman's, Bowlder, Wells, 
Poland, Taylor, Pacific, Mallett, St. Lawrence, and 
many others, all within a few miles of Auburn. Some 
assays made in April, 1866, by Mr. G. A. Treadwell, 
a chemist and assayer, at Ophir, gave the following 
results: — 

Tallman's Lode— Silver, $105.60; gold, $24.11 ; total, 
$129.71 per ton. 

Bowlder Lode— Gold, $60; silver, $11.28; total, 
$71.28 per ton. Sulphurets from the same lode as- 
sayed $1,600.90 per ton. 

North Star— Sulphurets, $2,784.12 in gold, and 
$197.88 in silver, equal to $2,985 per ton. 

Peter Waller— Sulphurets, $1,130.12 in gold, and 
$50.27 in silver per ton. This vein yielded rock very 
rich in free gold. 

Vandcrbilt Lode— Gold, $60.28; silver, $8.86; total, 
$69.14 per ton. 

Aspinwall Lode— Gold, $30; silver, $19.61; total, 
$49.61 per ton. Sulphurets from same lode — gold, 
$330; silver, $62.04; total, $392.04 per ton. 



Great Eastern— Gold, $60; silver, $18.80; total, 
$78.80 per ton. 

Poland Lode — Gold, $1,140 per ton. 

The Conrad was discovered October 18, 1865; the 
Peter Waller in the same month, and on the same 
ledge; the Wells in December, and all the others 
named about the same time. 

RICH STRIKES. 

The gold placers of the Sierra Nevada render pos- 
sible the sudden acquisition of wealth as they also al- 
lure people into many successive years of expense and 
toil without yielding a reward. Fortune is called 
the "Fickle Goddess," and gold is the most fickle 
of her representatives. Where gold may possibly 
be found is easily told, but the quantity in the possi- 
ble localities is exceedingly variable. The drift of 
the glacial age directs where to find the placer, and 
the vein of quartz contains it in place, but the drift 
may contain an infinitesimal quantity only, and the 
quartz may be barren, but in either there are depos- 
its of wealth. Many, led on by strong desire and 
abounding hope, have sought for one of these depos- 
its ever since the discovery of gold in 1848, or from 
the time of their appearance in the golden region, 
and it has continually avoided their grasp; but 
others, favored by fortune, have struck upon them 
unawares, gaining wealth for themselves and fame 
for the mines. 

These are called "rich strikes," and when made 
are widely published, so that to a distant observer 
the history of gold mining is made of brilliant suc- 
cesses, with all the industrious miners rioting in 
wealth. But the greater number who toil year after 
year and make no rich strike cannot be enumerated, 
their deeds are not of the exciting character, and 
therefore they are not reported in the newspapers, 
nor do they swell the pages of history. Eare as a 
rich strike may be in comparison to the time elaps- 
ing, number of miners and labor expended, there have 
been many, the stories of some of which are quite 
interesting. Out of the great number for which 
Placer County is distinguished, a few will be given 
as reported by contemporaneous papers. 

September 18, 1852. — The Sub-Marino Company, 
on the Placer side of the Middle Fork of the Ameri- 
can Eiver, numbering thirteen men are averaging 
$3,000 per day, and have reached as high as 84,000. 

The Macatee Company are averaging $3,000 per 
week. The editor of the IleraM remarks, "This re- 
minds us of the days of '49." 

September 25, 1852.— Messrs. Tillinghurst & Co. 
took from their claim at Tamaroo Bar, in one pan 
of dirt, $36.25; and in another, $92.80. The claim 
is paying well. 

October 2, 1852.— At the New York Bar, Evans & 
Co., with five men, in one day took out with one 
tom, $5.")0; and Norris & Co. took out $800, and $195 
in one pan of dirt. 

The E. S. Company, at Little Oregon Bar, have 



226 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



got into the rivor, and are averaging $2 500 per day. 
This company commenced operations on the 5th of 
April last, and flumed 1,450 feet of the river, worlf- 
ing forty hands. 

October 19, 1852. — The Condemned Bar Company 
divided between the members of the company the 
neat sum of $20,000, as the result of the week's 
work. 

December 4, 1852. — At the new diggings recently 
struck near Yankee Jim's, the dirt yields S13.00 to 
the bucket; and at Volcano Slide, on the Middle 
Fork, diggings have been opened that yield from 
$1.00 to 6100 to the pan. 

December 11, 1852.— Mr. Botts at Spanish Flat, 
found a piece of gold weighing eight and a quarter 
ounces. 

December 25, 1852. — Mr. Harper took from his 
claim, at Spanish Flat, one piece of gold worth $350, 
and, the same day, $115 in fine gold. 

Mr. Willis took from his claim in Baltimore 
Ravine, one piece of pure gold, which he sold for 
$112. 

January 17, 1853. — S. P. Ogden & Co., mining at 
Hughes' Flat, near Ophir, took out 8600 in one day, 
one lump weighing thirty ounces, and, on the 19th, 
another lump, weighing twenty ounces. 

A claim on Doty's Flat Ravine yielded forty 
ounces in one day. 

February 12, 1853. — Mr. Henry Hoffman, while 
prospecting at Doty's Flat, found a lump of pure 
gold, weighing 88^ ounces. This is the largest piece 
yet found, although manj' others, of smaller size, 
are reported. 

Mr. Shipley took from his claim, at Purdy's Flat, 
one piece weighing forty ounces and $11.00, con- 
taining a little quartz. 

March 4, 1853.— C. C. Collins & Co., at Hughes' 
Ravine, found a lump weighing 20i ounces. 

A quartz crystal was found, with two pieces of 
gold in the center, a rare and beautiful specimen. 

March 5, 1853. — A lump of gold weighing seventy- 
eight ounces and thirteen pennyweights, was found 
in Spanish Gulch, near Ophir. 

March 14, 1853. — Two miners in Auburn Ravine 
found a lump weighing six ounces and $10.00. 

April 2, 1853. — George Hahn & Co. found a lump 
in the Ophir diggings, weighing eighty ounces, 
which sold for $510, the piece containing quartz. 
Another piece, from the same diggings, weighed 
thirty-eight ounces, and yielded $370. 

Mr. Earthman, at Millertown, took from a ledge 
of quartz he had discovered, two barrels full of 
quartz, estimated at $3,000 a barrel. 

June 2, 1853. — The Railroad Company at Sarahs- 
ville, found a nugget worth $750. 

The claim of Finley & Co., at Michigan Bluff, is 
paying at the rate of $1,000 a day, eleven men 
working. 

August G, 1853. — The Forest Hill Claim is reported 
as paying from $1,800 to $2,000 per day. This is 



on the "Divide" above Yankee Jim's, and is owned 
by Messrs. Brown & Snyder. 

August 13, 1853. — The Herald, of this date, says 
the Noi'th Fork of Middle Fork is flumed from the 
junction to El Dorado Canon. At the slide above 
Oak Flat, Dr. Ketchum, and two others, washed 
from two wheelbarrow loads of dirt, $750. 

At Volcano Bar and Canon, the miners are mak- 
ing from one ounce to $750 a day, each. One com- 
pany of three took out $2,200 in one day, and their 
claim averages $200 a day. 

From Volcano down to Spanish Bar Bridge, are 
a great many flumes; and from the bridge dewn to 
the lower end of Yankee Bar, is one continuous 
flume, of five miles in length. This includes the 
well-known slide at Poverty Bar, where rich strikes 
are expected. Over 1,000 men are employed, and, 
when the water is drained off", the force will be 
increased to 4,000. Large sums were taken out in 
some localities, but the general result at the close 
of the season was not as good as expected. 

November 5, 1853. — A miner at Spanish Flat, 
near Auburn, found a lump of '<old worth $500. 

The Herald reports, in its mining items, that a 
miner at Michigan Bluff, in one night found two 
valuable specimens in his claim. Both father and 
mother doing well. 

April 22, 1854. — The Jameson claim, at Iowa Hill, 
yielded 218 ounces; ten men at work. 

May 2, 1854. — The Grisley Company, of Todd's 
Valley, took out to-day $380. 

October 28, 1854— The flumes on the Middle Fork 
of the American, from the head of Poverty Bar to 
the junction, and on the North Fork from the junc- 
tion to the mouth, have all been swept away by 
a sudden rise of the river. The Joint Stock Com- 
pany had for nearly two weeks taken out $1,000 a 
day, and the prospects were good for a continu- 
ance, but generall}' the claims yielded only enough 
to pay expenses. 

November 25, 1854. — Shipley & Co. took from 
their claim, two miles above Middletown,one nugget 
of pure gold worth $298.50, and two others, one 
weighing eleven and one-half ounces and the other 
six and one-quarter ounces. 

February 10, 1855. — The Hazel Green Company, 
of Iowa Hill, divided $13,000, the result of a fort- 
night's run. The next week's yield was 176 ounces, 
four men working. 

March 2, 1855. — One hundred ounces of gold-dust 
was taken out of Dardanelles claim, near the Forest 
House, $400 of which was taken in a single pan of 
dirt. 

The Wisconsin Tunnel Company took out, on the 
3d, 111 ounces, and on the 2d, eighty ounces, four 
men at work. 

March 7, 1855. — The New York Tunnel Company, 
in Brushy Canon, two miles above Yankee Jim's, 
struck pay dirt which yielded as high as $400 and $500 
to the pan. The gold is in a very hard cement, 



MINING LAWS. 



227 



which requires crushing in a mortar or some kind 
of machine. 

April 25, 1855. — Low & Co., at Roach Hill, in 
two days, washed out $1,000. They had recently 
struck gravel in their tunnel. 

James O'Neil washed out of his claim at Bird's 
Flat, in one pan of dirt, thirteen ounces of gold. 

The Jameson claim, at Iowa Hill, in two weeks 
run, yielded §12,540. 

May 7, 1855. — The Jameson claim yielded, in the 
last four weeks, $22,000, at an expense of $2,000, or 
120,000 clear to divide among ten owners. 

June 2, 1855. — Mr. Hurlburt, a miner working in 
a claim on the plains two miles below Uox's Ranch, 
is averaging from §10.00 to $15.00 a day, the gold 
being quite coarse. This is remarkable from being 
in the plains of the Sacramento Valley. 

June 16, 1855. — The Empire claim, at Michigan 
Bluff, appears to be the richest mine in the State. 
it is no uncommon thing to wash out six or seven 
ounces of gold from one pan of dirt. One day's 
yield was fifty ounces. 

August 2, 1855. — The Bennet claim, at Wisconsin 
Hill, yielded $2,000 for one day's work. Over $200 
was taken out in one pan of dirt. One lump was 
dug up worth $139.20. 

August 17, 1855. — A lump of gold weighing thirty- 
five ounces was found in the claim of Lawrence & 
Co., at Bird's Flat. 

September 29, 1855. — Rich & Co's. claim, at Iowa 
Hill, yielded twelve ounces of gold in one pan. The 
Shelving claim, at the same place, yields from $300 
to $500 a day. 

November 17, 1855. — Rich gold-bearing quartz 
struck in Shipley's Ravine, and four miles of claims 
located on. 

Two '• strapped " hombres of Auburn, says the 
Herald, thinking a little manual labor would be better 
than loafing about town, took their picks and shovels 
and commenced digging at the head of the ravine 
above town, near the Sacramento road, and sur- 
prised themselves by digging into a perfect nest of 
nuggets — the largest one weighing thirty-four 
ounces, considerably mixed with quartz. They dug 
out altogether, in one day, fifty-eight ounces — 
making, at the rate of §17.00 an ounce, $980 — a snug 
little sum for one day's labor. J. VV. Brown and 
" Dutch Jim " are the lucky owners of this claim. 

December 8, 1855. — Two men, working five weeks 
near the head of Little Baltimore Ravine, at Auburn, 
made $1,200, in coarse gold, the pieces ranging from 
$1.00 to §60.00 in value. 

December 22, 1855. — A company of four men 
mining at Cree's Flat, on the road between Auburn 
and Ophir, dug out a lump of pure gold worth §110. 

January 26, 1856. — The Dardanelles claim, near 
Yankee Jim's yielded 33-1 ounces of gold-dust as the 
result of five and one-half days' washing, equal to 
§6,000. 

March 17, 1856. — A Chinaman found a lump of 



gold weighing sixteen pounds, and worth about 
§3,300, between Auburn and Ophir, about one mile 
from the latter place. He started for China the next 
morning. 

March 25, 1856. — Henry W. Starr found in his claim 
at Doty's Flat a nugget of the value of $225. The 
Herald says: " We had a look at the specimen, and 
find our eyes much improved thereby. From Mr. 
Starr we learn there is a perfect mania for quartz 
mining pervading the miners in the vicinity of Ophir, 
and that the success attending their prospecting 
has stai'ted a mill into existence and several arastras 
to active work. 

August 29, 1856. — McDonald and partner, mining 
under Palmer's wagon shojJ, in Auburn, found a rich 
lead and took out $125 in four pans of dirt. 

October 6, 1S56.^A correspondent of the Herald, 
Mr. A. Cristy, writing from Lacy's Bar, on the North 
Fork of the American, says: " All the claims here 
are paying well, and the majority of them first-rate. 
On Manhattan Bar, Boles & Co. are doing well. 
Further down Messrs. Kelly & Smith are doing first- 
rate. They took out, last Saturday-, sixty-five ounces 
of gold, and this week $300, two men at work. 
Between Manhattan and Lacy's the miners are all 
doing well. The flume claim of Martin & Co., on 
Lacy's, is doing first-rate. Then adjoining Martin 
& Co. comes your humble servant, doing first-rate 
and has been for the last three weeks, averaging 
about two pounds of gold a day. The company 
numbers your humble servant and Mi's. Cristy, being 
two of them, and the ' Poughkeepsie ' is the name of 
the claim." 

The miners on the Middle Fork are receiving a 
rich return for the outlay of labor and money. The 
Bay State Company, composed of Messrs. Mussy and 
others, took out in one day sixty-five ounces, and 
the Empire State Company took out a solid lump 
weighing twenty-six ounces. The yield from the 
rivers hereabouts will be more abundant this year 
than for any one previous. 

January 18, 1858. — A piece of gold and quartz 
was found in the claim of Carrie, Chandler & Gage, 
on Temperance Flat, nearEock Creek, which weighed 
ninety-five ounces, and on being broken j-iolded 
§1,060 in gold. 

April -t, 1859. — The Doig quartz lode at Ophir, 
one inch in thickness, yields from §300 to §500 a 
day from the labor of three men. The quartz is 
crushed in a hand mortar, and from a shaft extend- 
ing to a depth of fifty feet $20,000 has been taken 
out. 

September, 1859. — Thirty-three tons of refuse 
rock from the Doig quartz lode was worked in a 
quartz mill and yielded 107 ounces of gold worth 
§16.00 an ounce, being unusually pure for the locality. 
The ledge where the " poor " rock was taken from 
was eighteen inches in thickness. 

August, 1860. — Three men mining in a small vein 
of quartz at Paradise, opposite Spanish Dry Dig- 



228 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



gingB, took oat S3, 000 in one week. The vein was 
believed to be a continuation of the very rich one 
on the opposite side of the Middle Fork, in El Dorado 
County. 

December 24, 1862. — A party of miners at Span- 
ish Flat, one mile from Auburn, found a lump of gold 
worth §1,000. Tnis place was noted for such things 
in early days. Tom B. Harper once found a nugget 
worth S800, and many others have found large pieces. 

August 13, 1864. — A nugget of pure gold weigh- 
ing six and one-half pounds was found at American 
Bar, on the North Fork. 

December 22, 1864. — Messrs. Lowerey and Mitchell, 
two " strapped " individuals recently arrived in the 
eountrj' across the plains, while prospecting for dry 
diggings on Quartz Prairie, or Quartz Hill, three 
and one-half miles north of Auburn, struck some 
friable earth and quartz rich in gold, and in one 
week took out 86,000. This was named the " Green 
Emigrant " claim, and created a great excitement, 
causing the location of many claims on the lead. 
The yield for the first two years was $20,000, after 
which the proprietors refused to report, but it was 
rumored that in the first half of 1867 they made 
8100,000 working the rock in a hand mortar. This, 
however, was very doubtful, as the sequel proved, 
but many rich specimens were exhibited. The two 
owners performed all the work, permitting no one 
to enter the mine. In 1869 a company was formed, 
and the Golden Rule Mill built, with twenty stamps, 
but no more rich rock was found and the mill was 
removed. 

Quartz Prairie is a high, rolling ridge, the soil 
being completely mixed with pieces of quartz, sup- 
posed to come from some vein running through 
the hill. 

December 30, 1865. — Over 100 ounces of gold was 
taken out of the Oro Tunnel claim, near Forest Hill, 
as the week's work of four men. This tunnel was 
commenced in 1853, and this was the first good yield 
obtained. 

May 19, 1866. — The Good Friday Company, in one 
hour's work, took out of their claim 81,400. The 
mine is situated on the west side of Welty's quartz 
mill, near Auburn, and the ledge is two inches thick. 

November 23, 1867. — Henrick Rohards, a miner on 
the North Fork of the American River struck a 
fissure in the bed-rock, and in three days took §15,- 
000 of pure scale gold. 

December 17, 1870. — Mr. William G. Greene dis- 
covered a quartz ledge about two miles from Auburn, 
from which he extracted sixteen pounds of gold in 
one day by means of a hand mortar. This became 
celebrated as the " Greene Mine." In 1871, a four- 
stamp mill was erected, and on May lOlh be is 
reported to have cleaned up 814,000 from twelve 
tons of rock. 

June 20, 1877. — Mrs. Bissett, an elderlj' lady resid- 
ing on Rock Creek, who occasionally went prospect- 
ing around among the rocks on the neighboring 



hills, made a strike by which she cleaned up between 
$400 and 8600 as the result of one week's work at 
mining. 

June 30, 1877.— The Placer Herald has the following 
account of the way a fortune was made in three 
days: — 

PLUCK REWARDED BY LUCK. 

The richest strike made in this county for many 
years, and as rich perhajjs as was ever made, we 
have the pleasure of recording. A. O. Bell, commonly 
called Pike Bell, who with his family has resided for 
many years on Bald Hill, a few miles north of Auburn, 
as many know, is a dauntless prospector. Though 
occasionally making a strike of some considerable 
importance in the past, he has managed, like most 
modern prospectors to keep poor. Last winter in 
particular, he was in very straightened circumstances; 
having no money and the merchants refusing to 
credit him, he offered his horse worth about 850.00 
for 810.00, that he might buy bread for his children, 
and failing in his efforts to sacrifice his horse, he 
pawned the ring off his wife's finger to obtain the 
necessaries of life. Lender such circumstances many 
would have given up prospecting and gone at some- 
thing that promised more certain results. Not so, 
however, with Pike. Day by day he continued his 
researches for the glittering treasure, and whether 
the passing day had revealed a color or not, his 
spirits were alwaj's jubilant, apparentlj' kept up by 
the hope, that seemed never to desert him, of doing 
better on the morrow. At last the lucky day came. 
It was about three weeks ago, when hunting around 
over the hills, he struck his pick into a little mound 
which resembled somewhat in a])pearance an ant- 
hill, and to his delight he unearthed some pieces of 
decomposed quartz, attached to which were some 
colors of gold. Encouraged at this prospect he 
began to sink on his new lead and was rewarded by 
finding more or less gold at every stage of descent. 
Last Saturday he had reached a depth of about 
thirty feet and had taken out in sinking that far, 
rock estimated to be worth about $1,500. The rock 
being rotten, or what is called bj' quartz miners 
decomposed, he had, with little eftort, pounded out 
in a mortar enough to pay expenses as he progressed. 
The result thus far had been very good, and as the 
rock had got richer as he got deeper, he was of course 
entirely pleased at the prospect. Those he had 
talked to about his mine considered he had a good 
thing, but none ever dreamed of the great wealth 
that was in store for him. He had hired men to 
assist him in working the mine, and on last Monday 
morning they went to work as usual. The gouge, 
as we would call it, as it is too rotten to be properly 
called a ledge, was discovered hj noon to have 
become suddenly richer. In the afternoon chunks 
of almost pure gold were taken out, and the decom- 
posed stuff that filled the interstices between the 
rocks was so rich in gold that Pike began to wash it 
out with a pan. From three pansful washed Monday 
afternoon, he obtained gold estimated to be worth 
between 84,000 and §5,000. That evening he came 
into town, and, giving us a hint of what he had got, 
invited us to go out and see it. On Tuesday after- 
noon, in company with Sheriff McCormick, we visited 
the mine. We found Bell with a pan of gold in his 
hands worth from 81,000 to SI, 500, which he assured 
us all came from one pan of dirt; '■ but," said he, "if 
you don't believe it, I will wash another pan and 
show you." We told him to wash. The pan was 



MINING LAWS. 



229 



eenldown in the ^haf'L tindsoou roluriiod tilled witli 
a mass of muddy, roclcy stuff' that sparkled all over 
with pieces of gold. This was washed out, and was 
found to contain fully as much of the precious metal, 
if not more, than the one he had just finished 
panning when we arrived. It was really the greatest 
sight we ever saw, and McCormick, who mined in 
California in its palmiest days, says it knocked the 
spots off anything he ever saw, except on one partic- 
ular occasion. Bell having convinced us of the 
richness of his mine, took us to his house to show us 
the proceeds of the previous days' panning, that we 
might be convinced of all he had told us. The sight 
was one more easily imagined than described. As 
we looked upon the pans of gold before us, we 
thought of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, and 
wondered if the story had not been suggested by 
some such reality as was before us. On Wednesday 
evening, Mr. Bell (it is " Mr." now since he has lots 
of gold, it was "Pike" before) was in town again, 
and he informed us that what we saw was nothing; 
that he had taken out 810,000 in three pans that 
daj'; that he had taken out, all told up to that time, 
between 5^30,000 and $35,000, and that he had an 
off"er and was about to sell for •'520,000. When asked 
his notion for selling, he said he would get away 
with !t?50,000 and that was money enough for him. 
To be sure, it is a good stake, and when we consider 
that it was made in three days, it must be confessed 
that the chances for making a sudden fortune in 
California are not all gone. 

The sale was not consummated as the purchaser 
could not raise the money, and afterwards Mr. Bell 
resumed work. The ledge was found to be about 
one foot in thickness, and some gold obtained in 
after years, but no remarkable " strike " as attended 
the fii'st discovery. As Mr. Bell had been prospecting 
and working for some years with poor success, at 
times suffering in povertj', he gratefully named his 
mine the " Life Preserver," and after taking a trip 
to his old home in Missouri, returned to his mine to 
enjoy his fortune. 

In 1878, Mr. Bell associated himself with Messrs. 
Wilkinson & Hathaway of Nevada City, and in May 
or June of that year, another body of gold was 
struck and 620,000 taken out. The mine was then 
sold to Messrs. Wilkinson & Holland, and called the 
Nevada Hill Mine, and for some time was worked 
successfully. 

August 1 1877, — The Dutch Flat Forum reports 
that a Chinese Company, working a hydraulic mine 
near that place, found a nugget worth $12,000. 

THE BIG CREVICE. 

A wonderful place for gold is what is known as the 
Big Crevice, which crosses the Middle Fork of the 
American diagonally at Murderer's Bar. The opera- 
tions of the year 1851 enabled the working of the 
bed of the river, and disclosed the continuation of 
the crevice across the stream, it having been first 
broken into and worked to the depth of twelve or 
fifteen feet by J. D. Galbraith, in 1850, well back 
under the hill, upon the El Dorado side. A dyke of 
limestone here crosses the country, and this singular 
hole seems to have been a cavern which became 



filled with sediment rich in gold before the present 
river system existed, as it contains no gravel. When 
first found in the stream there was an overlying 
stratum of gravel about two feet deep, which would 
yield from twenty-five to fifty cents to the bucket- 
ful that was thrown away. Under this was a 
stratum of soapy, sedimentary slum, about the con- 
sistency of well- worked putty, that did not contain a 
particle of grit, and which a shovel would cut as 
easily as a sharp, thin knife would go through 
cheese. This material yielded from one to four 
ounces to the bucketful. At this time of working, 
the flume for drainage was very imperfect and did 
not carry more than two-thirds of the water of the 
stream. Constant bailing would not drain the hole 
in which the men were laboring, there always being 
one or more feet of water in which they were com- 
pelled to stand and work. The water being thrown 
out with buckets, this pi'ocess would stir up the 
softer gold-bearing stratum and cause it to run away 
from the top stratum and let it into the hole, caus- 
ing great annoyance. During this operation the 
gold could be seen lying upon all sides of the pit in 
apparent handfuls. But four men could work in the 
excavation, two of whom were constantly bailing 
out water, one was throwing out the top gravel 
stratum as it fell in, while the fourth was grappling 
up the gold-bearing slum. Only for about three 
hours a day could the hole b3 placed in condition to 
enable the fourth man to extract the paying stratum, 
and but eight days could any work at all be done 
there. The yield during that time was $4,600. 

From time to time the Big Crevice has been 
attacked, and is now owned by a Sacramento corpo- 
ration, who have made efforts for several years past 
to fathom its depths, at one time endeavoring to sink 
a large iron tube through which to raise the aurifer- 
ous slum. At one time it was worked under the 
superintendence of W. M. Manning to a depth of 
about ninety feet, and, in some parts, sixty feet wide, 
and yielded many thousands of dollars. Interspersed 
with the slum, the fissure contains wedge-shaped 
masses of limestone, that are generally but a few 
inches thick at one side but gradually thicken to 
from four to six feet upon the other, and weigh many 
hundreds of pounds. Stulls were placed in the 
crevice to prevent these from falling into the pit, but 
as the workings were carried downward, from time 
to time the timbers would give way, when some of 
these masses would fall, and the workmen under- 
neath were in danger. It is the opinion of Mr. Man- 
ning, who has had more experience than any other 
person in working it, that a million of dollars will be 
taken from it if any method is ever adopted by 
which it can be thoroughl}' worked. 

DREDGING THE RIVER. 

The American Eiver Dredging Company was an 
enterprise organized in 1878 by Boston capitalists 
to work the Big Crevice Claim and the locality 



230 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



known as Brown's Cut, between Konnebec and 
Murderer's Bars, on the Middle Fork of the Ameri- 
can, whence millions of dollars had been taken and 
the bottom not yet reached. A dredging machine 
was tried, consisting of an iron tube forced by steam 
power into the sand or gravel, the air exhausted 
from the tube which filled with the auriferous mat- 
ter, and was then raised and swung over a sluice and 
discharged. This was assumed to have a capacity 
of taking out one thousand tons of matter in twenty- 
four hours, but a miscalculation of the power re- 
quired to perform the work caused a failure of the 
apparatus. 

THE ST. PATRICK MINE. 

The St. Patrick Mine was purchased by Mr. Eaton in 
1869, and worked by him in a small way with vary- 
ing success until sold to Messrs. W. H. V. Cronise, 
Capt. S. Lee and Melville Atwood, formerly of Grass 
Valley, in 1870, for the sum of $46,000, who trans- 
ferred it to a San Francisco Company. The San 
Francisco organization proceeded with its develop- 
ment with much energy, and produced a large 
amount of bullion. In 1871 this company erected a 
fifteen-stamp mill, combining all the most complete 
apparatus used in the improved methods of benefici- 
ating ores. The mining pro])erty comprised 18,000 
feet of quartz veins, including fourteen different 
mines, purchased in addition to the St. Patrick, and 
the stock of the corporation was divided into 5,000 
■ shares. Col. James H. Crossman was Superintendent 
in 1872 and '73. The success of the mining opera- 
tions was more apparent in the stock-boards at San 
Francisco, than in dividends to stockholders, the 
stock selling in May, 1871, at S51.00, in January, 1872, 
$46.00, and in August, 1873, at §2.50 per share. The 
assessments in 1873 had aggregated $110,000, and 
no dividends were ever paid. The Superintendent's 
report for the year ending July 1, 1873, says he bad 
worked 3,000 tons of ore in the company's mill of 
fifteen stamps; average yield $20.00 per ton ; total bul- 
lion product $60,000, cost of milling, S2.G8 per ton; 
miner's wages, $3.00 per day; number of miners em- 
ployed twelve. Total disbursements, $84,332; receipts 
from ore crushed, $60,000; two assessments, $20,000; 
other sources, $4,332. The largest item was for 
labor at mine and mill, amounting to $43,722; for 
salaries, $3,600; mine and mill supplies and repairs, 
$19,540; purchase of mine property, $6,000; inci- 
dentals, $9,946. 

The St. Patrick Mines are located about three 
miles west of Auburn, in the Ophir District. 

THE GREENE MINE. 

In 1870, Mr. William G. Greene discovered some 
very rich ore in a vein about half a mile east of the 
St. Patrick. This vein he located and developed, 
and obtained a large amount of gold, by working 
the rock in a hand mortar. In 1871, he erected a 
mill of four stamps, and proceeded to crush the ore. 
The commissioner of mining statistics, in his report 
in 1873, says of this: — 



The Greene Mine has a length of 1,132 feet, the 
ledge running east and west, and dipping south. 
(The ledges generally run north and south.) 

The improvements con.sist of fine hoisting-works, 
run by a 30-horse-power engine; the pumps (Cor- 
nish), are run by a 40-hor8e-power engine. The 
company also owns a mill, run by water power, and 
used principally for reducing specimen rock. It 
contains four stamps, and two Hepburn pans. The 
ledge is a little over two feet thick, and the rock 
from the 240-foot level, will, it is thought, j'ield over 
$100 per ton. There has been, in all, more than 
500 tons of rock crushed from this mine, the average 
yield of which has been about 8100 per ton. Most 
of it was taken from and above the 125-foot level. 
In sinking the shaft from that level to its present 
depth, the rock has maintained its almost unsur- 
passed richness. This mine has never levied an 
assessment, having paid its way from the croppings 
down. 

The remarkable bodj- of ore continued to a depth 
of over 500 feet, and yielded, in 1871-73, $150,000, 
realizing a fortune for Mr. Greene, its discoverer 
and principal owner. 

RISING SUN MINE. 

Gold-bearing rock was first discovered near Colfax, 
in March, 1866, which, proving to be rich, created 
quite an excitement, and the ledge was named the 
" Rising Sun." In August, following, a working 
test of the rock was made at Grass Valley, in 
Nevada Countj', proving it to be worth between 
$27.00 and $28.00 per ton. This was sufficiently 
encouraging to justify the organization of a com- 
pany, and the construction of a mill. After an 
expenditure of over $60,000 in developing the mine, 
erecting hoisting-works, mill, etc., the mine became 
a source of profit to the owners, and so continued 
paying dividends for many years. The gold is of 
a pure quality, superior to that found in Auburn 
and Ophir Districts, being worth $18.50 per ounce. 
The vein is four feet in thickness, and the company's 
claim extends 3,000 feet. The mill, built in 1869, 
had five stamps of 800 pounds each, run by steam 
power, and was capable of reducing ten tons per 
day. The mill was subsequently increased to ten 
stamps, and, in 1881, to twenty stamps, and con- 
tinues a paying mine, according to its latest reports, 
in November, 1881. 

THE PARAGON MINE. 

Among the many mines of the " Divide " that 
have become celebrated for their great wealth, and 
the fortunes they have yielded to their owners, is 
the Paragon, of Bath, owned by Abraham Breeee 
and Judson Wheeler, or, as commonly expressed, 
Breeee & Wheeler. As it is a Paragon in name, so 
it is a paragon of mines, admitting of no superior. 
This has been worked many years, but in a quiet 
manner, its owners contenting themselves with reap, 
ing their golden harvests, rather than making an 
ostentatious show of their wealth to the world. The 
mine has been worked for more than twenty years, 
being first opened by a tunnel, which extended 



MINING LAWS. 



231 



three-fourths of a mile into the mountain, under a 
superincumbent mass of gravel, 450 feet in depth. 
In 1870, a shaft was raised and sunk through the 
overlying earth, for the purpose of ventilation, strik- 
ing the underground workings at a point 3,500 feet 
from the mouth of the working tunnel. This incom- 
parable mine has continued its even tenor through 
all its years of working, quietly. " drifting " its life 
away. The latest reports, closing the year 1881, 
are about the same as those of nearly every month 
of every year, showing a product of about $13,000 
a month, a great j)ortion of which is profit, as only 
a few men are employed in the mine. 

ABRAHAM BREECE 

Was born at Leesburgh, Loudoun County, Virginia, 
February 12, 1825. At the age of twelve years he 
removed with his parents to Knox County, Ohio, 
where he remained until he reached his majority. 
His early years were passed in school, until the 
proper time arrived for him to decide upon what 
trade he should learn. He was apprenticed to a 
tailor, and before reaching his twenty-first year 
had thoroughly mastered his trade. In 1846 he 
went to Cincinnati, and for one year followed the 
business. The next year was passed in like manner 
at Madison, Indiana, and then he settled in Law- 
renceburgh, in tlie same State, and remained six 
years. While in the latter place he formed a part- 
nership with James McCormick, and they carried 
on an extensive business as merchant tailors. 

In 1852 Mr. Breece came to California, by way 
of the plains, and settled at Hangtown (Placerville), 
El Dorado County, arriving at the latter place on 
the 4th of August, that year. During the succeed- 
ing four years he was engaged in mining at differ- 
ent points in the county, and in 1857 came to Placer 
County, locating at Forest Hill. He has since that 
time resided permanently at the latter place. His 
years of experience in the mines places him in the 
front rank as a practical miner. He is at present 
largely interested in the Paragon Mine, owned by 
Breece & Wheeler, which is a valuable one, and 
has yielded large returns to its owners. 

Mr. Breece was married to Miss Margaret Bowen, 
a native of AV'ales, on the 9th day of August, 1866. 
After many years enjoying the profits of the Par- 
agon Mine, he is well situated to most happily pass 
the remainder of his life in the ease and comfort of 
a well-spent manhood. 

THE BANKER MINE. 

The mining peeple of California were aroused to 
quite an excitement in 1866 by the frequent and 
sensational reports of the extraordinary character 
and j'ield of the Banker Mine, known commonly 
as the Harpending Mine, but incorporated under 
the name of " Gold Quartz Companj'." This prop- 
erty was situated at Whiskey Diggings, on the Bald 
Hill Range, about four miles from the village of Lin- 



coln. The meteoric career of the owner, Mr. Asbury 
Harpending, who had figured as a would-be pirate, 
rebel and filibuster in the time of the Rebellion, the 
energy with which he worked and puffed up his 
mine, and the great price he obtained for it, added 
more to the interest of the story than the wealth of 
the property or its product of gold. The success- 
ful manipulation and sale of the mine are among the 
brilliant exploits of this gentleman, whose last Cali- 
fornia operation was in connection with the great 
" diamond fraud " of 1872. 

The Banker Mine was described in the San Fran- 
cisio Afiner, of Maj% 1866, as probably the richest 
ever discovered in the State, differing from any other 
gold mine known; saying: " The gold is not found 
in quartz or gravel, as is usually the case, but is 
disseminated through an entire mountain of ochery 
clay, through which run veins of red oxide of cop- 
per, mundic, variously colored scams of carbonate of 
magnesia, and other minerals, all of which contain 
valuable proportions of free gold. So unusual is 
such a formation as a deposit of gold that the 
miners who worked for years in the rich gulches on 
each side of this extraordinary hill actually sunk 
several shafts on it, through ore which yields $20.00 
to $100 per ton, looking for quartz, without suspect- 
ing that they were throwing away their fortunes. 

" The owner of the mine has been working it 
with Chinamen, crushing the dirt in a mill and 
sluicing it away after extracting !56.00 or $7.00 per 
ton from it, considering that he was doing a good 
business vvhen a couple of Chinamen, with a five- 
stamp mill, crushed forty tons per day. Recently, 
however, suspecting that he did not get all the gold 
out of the dirt, he tried several tons of it in one 
Banx pan, and found it to yield $36.00 per ton, and 
now he is having a dozen of these pans put up. 
With sufiicient mill accommodation, ten men could 
take out §1,000 per day from this extraordinary 
claim, which gives indications of also containing one 
of the most extensive copper veins in the State. 
The ledge on this mine is some 200 feet in width, 
and has been traced 1,000 feet. The entire ledge, 
including the vein of copper ore, is worked for gold 
and pays well." In December, 1865, Mr. Harpending 
is reported to have cleaned up thirty-five pounds of 
hard amalgam from a run of four days. 

This was a very encouraging account of an extra- 
ordinaiy deposit of gold, and naturally attracted 
much attention. On the 18th of August, 1866, the 
riacer Herald published the following: " Within the 
past week an important sale of mining ground has 
been made by Treadwell, Harpending & Co., owners 
of the celebrated Banker Mine (formerly the 
Crosby & Baker claim), at Whiskey Diggings, four 
miles north of Lincoln, in this county. They have 
sold one-half of their ground for 6175,000 to parties 
in San Francisco, Mcssr.i. Geo. D. Roberts, Melville 
Atwood, Ogden Hoffman, Archibald C. Peachy, and 
Edmund Wertheman, who will immediately put in 



2S2 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



operation a twenty-stamp mill. This claim, in the 
character of the earth, chalk, rock, or whatever it 
may be termed that carries the gold, is, perhaps, 
an exception to any other in the State. The gold 
bearing matter is a conglomeration of indurated earth 
and siliceous chalk, generally very friable and easily 
crushed with the hand. This mass crops out on a 
hill, or mound, and is about 150 feet in width. It is 
said it is raised from the mine and reduced at a cost 
not exceeding SI. 00 per ton." 

Thegreatquantity of ore, and the product reported, 
was very encouraging to miners, who opened other 
deposits in the vicinity, and quite a village gi-ew 
into existence. "Valley View" was the name of 
this hamlet, and in March, 1867, it was reported as 
containing thirty houses, with aspirations of equal- 
ing the great quartz mining town of Grass Valley, in 
Nevada CountJ^ 

In December. 1866, the other half of the Banker 
Mine was sold by Mr. Harpending for the sum of 
$225,000, making, for the whole, 8450,000. 

In 1867 a forty-stamp mill was constructed, which 
crushed 200 tons daily, the labor being chiefly done 
by (,^hinese. The entire cost of mining and milling 
was reported as within .?1.00 per ton. 

Professor Silliman, in a paper on this deposit, 
referring also to a similar formation at Quail Hill, in 
Calaveras County, 8a5^8: — 

Accompanying the entire mass of decomposition, 
at both localities, occur both gold and silver, dissem- 
inated with remarkable uniformity in all parts of the 
ore ground. At AVhiskey Hill filmsof metallic silver 
are visible upon the talcose masses, stained green by 
malachite or chrysocolla. The gold is rarely seen 
in situ, being mostly obscured bj' the very rust}- 
and highly stained character of the associated 
materials. But it is rare, that, on washing a small 
quantity of anj' of the contents of these great deposits 
gold is not found in angular grains or small ragged 
masses, from the size of a lew grains' weight to 
impalpable dust. Nuggets of several pennyweights 
occur occasionally. This gold has evidently accom- 
panied the sulphurets and been left in its original 
position and condition by their decomposition. There 
can be little doubt that the gold of the gulches 
adjoining these deposits has been derived from them. 
At Whiskey Hill, the gulch gold ceases to be found as 
soon as the limits of this deposit are passed, and the 
same is true of Quail Hill. The occurrence of depos- 
its of this nature throughout the range of the foot- 
hills seems to offer the best solution which has sug- 
gested itself of the origin of the placer gold, which 
is found in situations so far removed from the gold- 
belt of the upper Sierra, and away from sources 
usually recognized as those to which placer gold may 
be referred. ****** 

The chemical results of the extensive decomposi- 
tion of metallic sulphides which has in former times 
occurred at these localities offer an interesting prob- 
lem in chemical geology. The sulphur has been 
i-emoved chiefly as sulphuric acid, bej'ond doubt, 
which has combined with iron and copper to form 
sulphates of those metals. These have, for the most 
part, disappeared, being washed out by the atmos- 
])heric waters, and have followed the drainage of the 
country. At "Whiskey Hill I found the sulphate of 



iron (coquimbite), sulphate of copper (cyanosite), and 
alum. The water of the shaft contains copper 
enough to redden the iron tools. * * * 

From all the evidence presented, we seem justified 
in regarding these remarkable metallic deposits as 
segregated veins, holding a pretty uniform and high 
tenor of gold and silver, associated with and derived 
from the decomposition of extended masses of metal- 
lic sulphurets and quartzose matter, and carrying, at 
times, ores of copper, the commercial value of which 
is, however, entirely subordinated to that of the pre- 
cious metals, which are found to characterize these 
veins or ore channels. 

THE FOREST HILL DIVIDE. 

The following particulars of the claim belonging 
to the Blue Gravel Range Company is from a corres- 
pondence in the Mining and Scientific Press, of San 
Francisco, in May 18, 1878: — 

"This being one of the most promising and access- 
ible localities of the kind yet fixed upon for explor- 
ation, a description of it will convey a tolerably good 
idea of all the others. 

'■ The property of this company, which embraces 
an area of nearly 1,000 acres, is situated on the For- 
est Hill Divide, in the neighborhood of Todd's Val- 
ley, being about eighteen miles from Auburn Station, 
on the Central Pacific Railroad. It lies on thesouth- 
eriy slope of the ridge overlooking the Middle Fork 
of the American River, which runs in a narrow gorge 
more than 1,000 feet below. Centrally through this 
tract passes one of the ancient gold-beainng chan- 
nels, buried here to a depth of about 130 feet. Por- 
tions of the ground in this vicinity were at one time 
covered with rich sui-face placers, fragments of which 
still remain. There are also within the boundaries 
of the company's tract extensive tracts of auriferous 
gravel, some of which might be washed toadvantage 
by the hydraulic method, and will most likely some 
day be so handled. The deposits resting in the beds 
of the "buried river constitute here, however, the 
feature of peculiar interest and greatest value, these 
being also the most easily available for productive 
operations. 

"As the section of the old channel owned by the 
companj- covers a linear extent of nearly 10,000 feet, 
having an average width of about 16,000 feet on the 
surface, they are supposed to have something like five 
or six million cubic yards of rich bottom gravel, which, 
according to all precedent, will yield at least §1.00 
per yard, the average elsewhere having been much 
higher. There are two main channels bearing south- 
east across the country here — the one coming in by 
Forest Hill and Todd's Vallej', and the other from 
Yankee Jim's, both distinguished for the large quan- 
tities of gold that have been extracted from them, 
first by drifting, and afterwards by the hydraulic 
process. The group of claims worked along the 
Forest Hill branch have yielded as much gold, for 
the area of ground worked, as any other in Califor- 
nia, the following being the product of some of the 
more noted of the number: — 



MINING LAAVS. 



233 



" The Independence, $450,000; New Jersey, 1850- 
000; Deidesheimer, $650,000; the Jenny Lind, 81, 100,- 
000 — mostly from the upper and poorer red gravel; 
the area of ground worked over in these several 
claims not having exceed more than four or five 
acres. 

" A short distance above this claim these two 
channels come together, the united channel thence 
pursuing its course through their ground to its lower 
end, where the old river-bed finally disappears, 
having been eroded and swept away by the North 
Fork of the American. That this section of the 
channel, so deepened and augmented, is well stocked 
with gold, would be fairly deducible from its ascer- 
tained character above, had not this fact been 
established by actual workings and experimental 
tests. The vSpring Garden claim adjoining this on 
the north, has been opened and shown itself prolific 
in gold. 

"The shaft put down bj' this company at a central 
point on their own ground, had also reached good 
gravel at the time the water broke in upon them, 
stopping further operations. The fertility of the 
channel here has, in fact, never been with the 
owners, mostly poor men, a question of such serious 
import as that of commanding the means for 
properly opening it. They know, as a matter of 
fact, that they have a section of the old Pliocene 
Hiver here, and they know in/erentudly that it is 
rich in gold, but they have never been able to get it 
so thoroughly opened that they could reach and 
remove its contents. Even in the flush times this 
was looked upon as a favorable site for a prospecting 
operation. As early as 1857, a company of miners 
started a tunnel from the bank of the North Fork, 
with a vievv to developing the lower end of this 
channel. Having been disrupted by the Frazer 
River excitement, this company scattered the next 
year and never re-assembled, nor, so far as known, 
has any of them come back to prosecute the work 
or assert any claim to the ground, which has now 
for a period of nearly twenty years been in the 
peaceful possession of the present company. After 
sinking a shaft to the depth of nearly 100 feet at the 
point mentioned, and being then prevented from 
going on, by an influx of water too great for them 
to handle with their inadequate pumping apparatus, 
this company drove a tunnel from the lower end of 
their claim. After getting in several hundred feet 
they found the bed-rock pitching before them, show- 
ing that they were too high to bottom the channel. 
The tunnel was then carried down with the incline 
of the bed-rock, and a steam pump rigged for hoist- 
ing the water. 

''But the machinery here again proved insuflicient, 
forcing the company to once more suspend opera- 
tions. This occui-red several years ago, and, as the 
limited means of the company were by these efforts 
exhausted, nothing further has since been done 
towards the development of this property." 



MINING AT DUTCH FLAT. 

The two localities of Dutch Flat and Gold Run 
ai'e distinguished for the extent and value of their 
hydraulic mines, a more extended reference to which 
will be given in the history of those towns. As a 
description of one of the mining properties — all 
having a general similarity — the following is given, 
copied from the Placer Herald of April 9, 1881: 

CEDAR CREEK MINING COMPANY. 

"The extensive mining property of the old Cedar 
Creek Company near Dutch Flat, which, owing to 
certain complications, has lain idle for about three 
years, has at last fallen into the hands of J. P. Hickey, 
of San Francisco, whose intention it is, we under- 
stand, to work it extensively and sj^stematically. 
Mr. Hickey, while giving much of his time to the 
general supervision of affairs, has secured the services 
of John Simons, who, besides being familiar with 
the grounds, is one of the best hydraulic miners in 
the State, and placed him in charge as foreman. 
The property embraces what are known as the 
Yankee Claim, the Potosi, VVhynot, Badger, Baker, 
Wisconsin, New York and Wisconsin, Michigan, 
Deep Shaft, Somersett, VVaukegan, Canon, Enter- 
prise, one-fourth of the Iowa, etc., all forming one 
continuous bodj' of gravel some 3,000 or 4,000 feet 
in extent, on the main blue channel that crosses 
near Dutch Flat. They commenced last fall the 
work of refitting for washing, which, considering 
the shattered condition of the property, the natural 
result of three years neglect, was no small under- 
taking. By dint of hard work and the aid of a large 
force, however, thej succeeded in getting the water 
on early in January, and have already made one 
successful clean up, and are well commenced on the 
second run. 

"They were washing on what is known as the Baker 
ground, and have this claim fitted up in good condi- 
tion. They have four giants, but only use two at a 
time. The double member prevents any delays from 
changes, as when it is necessary to move a giant, the 
water is turned off that one, and on to another 
already in position and the work goes steadily on. 
Through two nozzles five and one-half or six inches 
in diameter, they use 1,600 inches of water under a 
pressure of 500 feet. The old Cedar Creek ditch 
which has a capacity of 5,000 inches, is owned by 
Mr. Hickey, being included in the purchase of this 
property. The pipe for conducting the water to 
the Baker is over a mile long. It is thirty-six inches 
in diameter at the head, and tapers toward the claim 
to fifteen inches. The surplus water in the ditch is 
disposed of by Mr. Hickey, in supplying several 
other claims. Thej^ have on the claim a most excel- 
lent derrick, run by a hurdy-gurdy wheel, which is 
driven by water from their main pipe for hoisting 
out of the claim such bowlders as are too large to 
go through their sluices. They are washing through 
the old bed-rock tunnel which was cut by the Old 



234 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Cedar Creek Company, some 2,200 feet from Bear 
River in under the channel. By the aid of this 
tunnel they are enabled to wash the bed-rock, which 
for an outlet has not been done heretofore in any of 
the many claims in that district, (unless we except 
the Polar Star claim which has a different outlet.) 
An excellent sluice is constructed all the way through 
this tunnel, the head of which is riffled with railroad 
iron and the lower portion with blocks. The whole 
body of gravel included in this property can be 
washed ofl" to the bed-rocli through this tunnel, and 
when we consider the immensity of the deposits, 
embraced in the lower strata, not only of these 
claims but of all the country round about, and reflect 
that it is richer than that taken in past years from 
the surface, we can well realize the force of the 
expression that hydraulic mining is yet in its infancy. 
In addition to his operations in the Baker claim, 
where some thirty or forty men are employed, who, 
we are pleased to say are all white, Mr. Hickey also 
has a force engaged in sluicing on an extensive 
scale, the heavy depo.sits of tailings out of Dutch 
Flat Canon. Different claims have dumped into 
this canon for over a quarter of a century, and by 
driving the tailings down with a heavy stream of 
water, and cleaning up the bed-rock, it is only 
reasonable that he should expect to find a large 
quantity of gold. For this purpose some 2,800 inches 
of water are turned into the caiion every night, when 
it can be spared from the other claims. Mr. Hickey 
expects to greatly improve and increase his facilities 
by another year, and we think it can be safely said 
that his operations, present and prospective, on this 
ground that has for some years been so managed as 
to be rather a drawback than a benefit to the com- 
munity, taken in connection with the activity dis- 
played in other directions in the district, gives a 
brighter outlook to the future of Dutch Flat than it 
has enjoj-ed for a long time. Of course the shadow 
of the debris agitation clouds their otherwise very 
bright horizon a little, though not to an extent 
calculated to cause that degree of alarm which 
shakes the confidence of determined men." 

.VINING PHRASES. 

A drift is an opening from a shaft, six to eight 
feet in height, and from four to six feet in width, 
as circumstances require. 

A cross-cut is the same kind of opening, and gen- 
erally runs cross-course from the drift. 

A winze is a small shaft sunk from one drift to 
another. 

An upraise differs from a winze in that the dig- 
ging is upward instead of downward. 

An ore-bi'east is the ore exposed by the drift, or 
cross-cut, and breasting out is the extraction of the 
ore or gravel. 

Stopes are the same as ore-breasts, with this 
exception, that the former means the ore overhead, 
the latter, in front or on the sides; and stoping out 
is taking out the ore. 



A lateral drift is a side drift, or cross-cut. 

A shaft is " up cast "' when the current of the air 
is upward instead of downward, in not sucking the 
air from the surface. 

Pay-gravel is that which bears sufficient gold to 
make its mining profitable. 

Chute of ore, a body of quartz containing ore con- 
tinuously for a greater or less extent, leading from 
the surface downwards, either direct or indirect; 
sometimes called a "chimney." 

Foot- wall, the rock next to and beneath a quartz 
vein, when the vein is in an inclined position, con- 
tradistinguished from the hanging-wall which over- 
lies the vein. 

Vein and lode are synonomous, being a stratum 
of quartz in primitive rock, which is commonly 
called "country rock." "Ledge" and "lead" are 
improperly used when referring to a vein or lode. 

THE " GLORIOUS DAYS " OF '49. 

At the present date, the impression appears to 
prevail that in the " glorious days " of '49, and the 
early years of mining, all that was necessary to 
accumulate wealth was to go into the mines and 
pick up the gold. In truth, however, it was only 
the lucky ones who found it in greater abundance 
than their daily necessities required; while the busi- 
ness, manufactures, professions, and salaries, of later 
years, give better fortunes and livings than the 
pioneei's enjoyed. The following is a vivid picture 
of early days in the mines. It first appeared in the 
San Francisco Picnyuue, in 1852: — 

THE .miner's L.AJIENT. 

"Why will ye dig?" Son of man! for the light 
of whose presence my spirit yearneth and my bowels 
grumbleth, dost thou ask me why? Is it not writ- 
ten that fortune smiles upon fools? And for the 
sake of these smiles hath not thy servant been mak- 
ing a fool, yea, an ass of himself, in vain ? For 
three years and ten days he has sojourned in this 
place. He has dived into the water; he has torn 
ancient rocks from their resting places, and i-emoved 
them afar off; he has likewise torn his breeches in 
parts not to be spoken of; he has rooted into the 
mud like unto a swine. His beard hath grown 
long; the skin upon his hands and face hath changed 
its color, until he is now likened unto a wild beast; 
and his garments are rent and soiled, so that " sack- 
cloth and ashes" would be as fine linen and purple 
to him. He would fain feed on husks, but there are 
none. Yes, he who in times past was wont to fare 
sumptuously, and to grumble over greater delicacies 
than were piled before Dives, now snuffs with glad- 
ness the fragrance of pork and beans, and gnashes 
his teeth impatiently at a frying slap-jack. He 
bolteth a raw onion with unspeakable avidity. 
Potato skins fear his presence, beef vanishes from 
before him, and dogs look in vain for the bones. 
He sighs for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and mourns 
over the barenness of the land. In his sleep, never- 
theles8,~ the good angel of the past deigns to visit 
him, and delightful visions are opened to his recol- 
lection, for a delicious "bill of fare" floats before 
the mind of the dreamer, and he orders " oysters 



MINING LAWS. 



23" 



and terrapin for six," only to awaken to his infernal 
slap-jacks and molasses. 

All this hath thy servant endured. Is he not then 
a fool, an abomination in the sight of wisdom ? 
And is it not to such, and such only, that fortune 
dispenseth her iavors? Yet she has deserted me. 
I a])proach her and she fleeth ! 1 '' double on her 
trail," and she turneth away ! I await her coming, 
and she stands still ! 1 secrete myself in her path 
and seize her unawares, but she glideth off as though 
I had caught a hog by his greased tail! Sic transit, 
I exclaim, as with a sick heart I revile poverty and 
curse fortune. 

Lo ! are not these evils, and wherefore should 
they be visited on thy servant ? Surely he hath not 
sinned as other men sinneth. He hath not coveted 
his neighbor's ox, nor his ass, nor his man-servant, 
nor his maid-servant, for be it known unto thee that 
there are no maid-servants here. He hath abided 
by the law and the prophets, but the profits have not 
abided by him! 

JNow, therefore, I renounce these diggings; I 
absquatulate the premises; 1 " vamose the ranch;" 
I take off; I put out; 1 go; I slope, without scrip or 
provender, taking no heed for the morrow — for the 
morrow takes no care of me. Ere five days shall 
have passed the shirt-tail of thy servant will be 
waving in the breezes of Nevada. A remnant of it 
will be nailed upon the top of the highest mountain 
that he crosses, as an emblem of the extremity to 
which a man may be reduced in this land of Ophir. 
But think not, oli Elisha, that I would rend my gar- 
ment for this alone. Verily, I say unto thee, an 
evil genius hath long pursued me. She has ibllowed 
so close upon my footsteps that every thread and 
fibre of my shirt-tail are familiar to her eye. And 
if in pursuit of me she should gaze upon this 
relic in the solitary fastness of the mountain she 
will at once recognize it, and, believing me to have 
been torn and destroyed by wild beasts, she will 
retrace her steps, and thus I will escape her. 

1 go hence, Elisha, unto the town of Sonora, where 
it has been prophesied that thy servant will heal the 
sick and prosper with amazing prosperity. As 
Moses reared the serpent in the wilderness, for the 
children of Israel to look upon and be cured of their 
infirmities, so will I elevate my tin among the Gen- 
tiles, that they may gaze upon it and be made whole. 
Their offerings of gold and silver will be acceptable 
unto me, and if they live not afterwards peradvent- 
ure they may find treasure in heaven. 

THE miners' PROOESS. 
[Written by one who has *' been there "] 

The following unique poem was published in the 
Golden Era in May, 1873, describing a meeting 
between tw(j '4!}er8, who compare notes of their 
wanderings in the language of the prospectors, 
which, with the names of localities and persons, the 
routes of travel and incidents, the trials and triumphs 
of the miners' life, will bring vividly to recollection 
in the minds of pioneers man}^ thoughts of by-gone 
days:— 

"Hello!" "HeWow.'" "Why, Jim!" "Why.Dan!" 

" ( iood Lord ! " I want to know ! " 
"Well, well ! old fel ! gives us your lian' — 

But, Jim, how does it go ? " 

"Oh ! sometimes gay and sometimes rough — 

And how's it go with you ? " 
"Well, times jes now's a little tough 

Up here in I-da-ho." 



" But where ye been, Jim, ever sence 

We left the Stanislow; 
And pulled up stakes down thar at Dent's — 

Now eighteen years ago ? " 

" Well, seuee that time that we put out 

On that stampede from Stoney, 
Been mos' the time knockin' about 

Way down in Air-e-zony. 

"Only been back a month or so, 

And thought Id take a tramp 
Through the old diggin's 'long with Jo, 

Who stops at Nigger Camp. 

"Started from Alpha on our trip, 

And passed up the Divide, 
Through Tangle-Leg and Let-Her-Rip, 

Red Dog and Whiskey Slide. 

" Then after leaving thar we went 

Down by the Tail-Holt Mill. 
'C'rost Greenhorn Mountain to Snow Tent, 

And up to Gouge Eye Hill. 

" From Gouge Eye down to Esperance, 

Slap Jack and Oro Fin; 
Through Deadwood over to Last Chance, 

Ifoot Hog and Lost Ravine. 

" From Petticoat to Shirt-Tail Flat, 

And on by Murderer's Bar, 
'Crost Bloody Run and thro' Wild Cat, 

To Poker and Lone Star. 

" From Angels' Camp down by Rawhide 

We took a run one night. 
Through Chinese Roost and Satan's Pride 

Acrost to Hell's Delight." 

"Then came along to Poverty, 

Dead Broke and Bottle Ridge, 
By Haugtown, Poor Man and Lone Tree, 

Garrote and Smash-Up Bridge. 

"Through Nip and Tuck and Old Bear Trap, 

Coon Hollow and Fair Play, 
Along the Scorpion and Fur Cap, 

Kanaka and El Rey. 

" We stopped one day at Never Sweat, 

Another up at Ophir; 
Then moved our boots on to You Bet, 

And struck across by Gopher, 

To Sucker near Grass Widow Bend, 

Whar, as 'twas getting late. 
We brought our journey to an end 

Down by the Devil's Gate." 

"Well, Jim, yon must uv seen a heap; 

I'd like to make the rounds 
As you have done, and cast a peep 

Through the old stamping grounds." 

" Y-e-s, but I tell you what it is, 

The times they ain't no more 
In Californy as they was 

'Way back in Fifty-Four." 

"But 'bout the girls and Schneider's Frow, 

And Kate and Sal Magee ? 
I s'pose they've all got married now — 

Leastwise they ought to be.'' 

"Married ! You can buck high on that; 

Some of them several times; 
First fellers they jest had to get— 

They didn't have the dimes. " 

'' Well ! well ! do tell is that the way 

The gals is goin' on ? 
But how's the boys and old man Ray, 

And Ike and Steve and John ? 

And what became of Zaccheus Wade, 

Who run the big mule train ? " 
"W-a-al, Zach he made his pile, they said, 

And then went back to Maine. 

" And so did old Pop Ray and Steve, 

And Ike and Johnny Yates — 
And made a raise at last, I b'lieve. 

And went home to the States." 



2S6 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



" And Slater, him that took the trip 

With us to Yazoo Branch ? " 
" Wal, Slate, he kind o' lost his grip. 

And settled on a ranch." 

"And Jackass Jones that came about 

With whiskey on the Bar ? " 
" Well, Jackass, too, he petered out, 

And went — I don't know whar." 

" And tell me, W"here is .Jerry King, 

Who kept the Grizzly Bear, 
Jes' down forninst the Lobscouse Spring, 

And kilt the greasers there ? 

"That Greaser Jose, dont yovi know. 
That stabbed Mike at the ball. 

The time we had the fandango. 
At Blood and Thunder Hall ? " 

"Oh, Jerry, didn't do no good, 

Got sweet on a woman, 
And tuck at last to drinkin' hard, 

'Cause she got sort o' common — 

" Y-a-s, was by nature low inclined, 

And went clean to the bad. 
Which worked so on Jerry's mind 

It almost made him mad. 

" Dick went one day up Pike Divide, 

And thar lay Jerry dead, 
A navy pistol by his side — 

A bullet in his head. 

" Tight papers them on Jerry Ring, 

But Jim, just bet your life. 
Them women is a di'eadful thing — 

For me — no, nary wife ! " 

"But Plug Hat Smith that kept a stand — 
Sold pens and ink and sich '! " 

" Wal, Plug he helt a poorish hand, 
And never struck it rich. 

"Got sort o' luny and stage-struck, 

Cut up a heap o' capers. 
And final went below and tuck 

To writin' for the papers." 

" And Sally Jake, that drove so long 

There on the Lightnin' Line, 
And afterwards from One-Horse Town 

To Webfoot aud Port Wine ? " 

"Got hurt on Bogus Thunder Hill — 
Throwed over his horses' necks — 

Was carried up to Coyoteville, 
And thar hant in his checks. 

" 'Twas kind 'o queer; these they said, 
War the dyin' words o' Jake's: 

' Wal, boys, I'm on the dowu-hill grade, 
And cannot reach the brake.' " 

"And Butcher Brown that used to boast 

He'd killed so many men ? " 
" Ah, Butch, he met his match at last — 

Van Sickle settled him; 

Went to Washoe, kilt three thar — 

Found it geltin' hot — 
Health requii-ed a change o' air. 

And so got up and got. 

" Said how he'd sent a baker's dozen 

Acrost lots to the grave — 
Would like to make the number even 

Before he took liis leave. 

" So went for Van aud came blamed nigh 

A gettin' him they say. 
Then on his horse that stood near by 

He jumped and rode away. 

" Now, Henry ain't no hand to blow. 

But jes' that sort o' lad 
On which its always safe to go 

Your very bottom scad. 

"Said to himself, like: ' Now this whelp, 

To get his even tally, 
Will likely go and skelp 

Some neighbor up the valley. 



" Reckon I'd better block his game. 

And do the thing at onc't — 
Besides, I don't much like this same 

Rough way o' being bounced. 

" When Sam had got oflF 'bout a mile, 

He heard a Minie hum. 
Looked round and thar war Van all heeled— 

Who after him had cum. 

"Not fancying much that Minie's tone' 

Sam put off on a run. 
Like he would rather save liis own 

Than raise the ha'r o' Van. 

"And so they rid — wal, I spect, 

Nigh on a three-mild race — 
Exchanging shots without effect, 

When Van gave up the chase — 

Leastwise lay off, for about midnight. 
When Sam came back to Lute's, 

He let him out in a square fight, 
Jes' standin' in his boots. 

"Next day the jury found deceased, 

His name was .Samuel Brown, 
And further that they all believed 

He had been taken down 

By one Van Sickle, and somewhar 

About Lute Old's last night. 
And on tlieir solemn oaths did swar 

He sarved the d — d cuss right!" 

"Bully for Van! He's hard to beat — 

And for the Jury, too — 
Though most a shame that way to cheat 

The gallows of its due. 

"Whar's sailor Jack, that used to cruise 

With Alabam and Yank, 
Them chaps that bilked the boarding-house 

And l>urst the faro bank?" 

"Jack left the country on a ship, 

And t'others, I don't know as 
They ever got back from a trip 

They tuck to Barbacoas. " 

" Hear anything of Teddy Karn, 

Or Bruisee Bob Magoon?" 
" Both down thar at the Bay, I hearn, 

Keeping a ' Bit Saloon.' " 

''And him that wore the big moostache?" 
" You mean that rich French Count — 

He's down thar too — a slinging hash 
At the Miners' Restaurant." 

" Y-a-s, 'Frisco's lousy with them kind. 

And bums of all condition — 
Some capping for the demi monde. 

Some playing politician." 

" But tell me, Jim, about the sights. 
And what you've done and seen; 

Reckon j'ou had some 'Pache fights, 
Down yonder whar you've been?" 

"Y-a-s, got us in a rocky pass — 

And thar corralled one day. 
They had a dead sure thing on us — 

Couldn't fight nor get away. 

" And 'fore our party could back out, 

They shot poor Fred McKean; 
The arrows Hying thick about, 

And not a varmint seen. 

" And when I fouiul tliat Fred would die, 

I felt almighty bad. 
And jist laughed out — I couldn't cry, 

I was so thundering mad! 

'' And then I said, now look here, boys, 

Ef you would save your lives. 
You jist put up them shootin' toys, 

And sail in with your knives. 

" Raisin' quick the 'Pache whoop, 

I started on ahead " 

" And did t'others hack you up?" 

" Yes, Dan, you bet they did! 



AGRICULTURE. 



287 



"And when the cusses seed us come, 

They raised a scrouging yell, 
To whicli our boys sang out each one, 

' Wade in and give 'em !'h — 1 

"And of our band I b'leeve the whole 

Was wounded more or less; 
But we made good Indians of them all, 

And they'll stay good — I guess.' 

"Poor Fred, when I came back to him, 

Thougli trying hard to speak, 
Could only say: ' tell mother, Jim,' 

He was so powerful weak. 

"And next day we made his grave 

Upon a little knoll, 
Under the shade of a mes^uit grove 

On the road to C'ristoval. 

" We had after that another fight. 

With them yar pesky fellows, 
Down at Arroya .Saucelite, 

Among the little willows. 

"But thar they didn't get us foul — 
We'd larnt their sneakin' ways — 

And you can swar we made 'em howl, 
And git between two days. 

" As for their names, why, Dan, sich frights 

You never came acrost — 
'Espiritu Santo,' which the whites 

They call the Holy Ghost." 

" ' Las Mariquitas,' ' Juan de Dios ' — 
These names they seem so funny. 

We christened one the ' Kunty Marias, ' 
And t'other ' Pious Johnny. ' 

" We altered heaps o' Greasers names — 

'Los Ojos de Inez,' 
' Sierra Blanco, ' ' Sebastians, ' 

' El Cobra ' and ' La Paz. 

"So, too, we changed 'mongst other things, 

' San Pedro ' to St. Pat;' 
' The eyes of Inez ' to ' Mud Springs, ' 

' La Paz ' to ' Quaker Flat. ' 

" ' El Pajara' we called 'The Bird,' 

' La Reina, 'Gypsy Queen, ' 
' Salinas ' and ' El Bio Verde,' 

' Salt River' and 'The Green.' 

" 'San Nicholas' we dubbed 'Old Nic, ' 

' Moriuo ' ' Dirty Dun, ' 
'Arroya Muerto, ' 'Murder Creek,' 

' Puerco, ' ' Ground-Hog Run. ' 

" We cut our name on every cross, 

And burnt some to the ground. 
To let the natives know their boss, 

The white man had been round. 

"Warm thar! Why, Dan, 'twas jes' that hot 
That beans were cooked well done. 

And we always biled the coffee-pot 
It standing in the sun. 

"Soldiers who died they nearly froze — 

Least that is what they tell — 
And sent right back for their underclothes 

The moment they got to — well, 

" Not to the land of the holy ones, 

Whar blood shall cease to flow; 
And thar being no use for these sons of guns, 

They're not very apt to go. 

"Staid there three years and then turned suutl 

Came back to Camp McPhail, 
And so on down to Quesnelle Mouth, 

And cross the La Hache Trail. 

"To Kamloops and Okinakane, 

And through the Grand Coult', 
By way of the Samilkameen, 

Clean round to Kootenai. 

" Stopped till I made a raise again, 

Then started out anew; 
And striking cross by Ccrur d' Alene, 

Came on to Idaho. 



"Well, Dan, you've been about some, too — 

But tell me, if you know. 
What has become of Ned JIcGrew, 

And whar is Sleepy Joe, 

And Poker Pete and Monte Bill, 

And — I forget his name — 
What used to run the whiskey-mill. 

And keep the keno game ?" 

"Wal, as for Ned, can't 'zactly say, 

But 'bout t'other three. 
The last we heard, were up this way, 

A hanging on a tree — 

Went into tiie Road Agency 

Along with Texas Jim; 
The Vigilants of Montany 

Likewise also got him. 

" Sleepy was drowned at Upper Dalles, 

And so was Al La Tour — 
Went in a skiff over the falls. 

And we didn't see 'em no more. 

" Some think Ned was eat by bears. 

And I most think so, too, 
'Cause didji't one gobble up Nic McNares, 

On the trail to Cariboo ? 

"Cold up North! I've known a name 

To congeal in my mouth ; 
And that's how the saying came 

About the 'frozen truth.' 

"Yes, and I've seen still stranger feats. 

You know, Jim, I'm no liar — 
The flames freeze into solid sheets, 

As they rise up from the fire." 

"Sure that's right cold! But tell me, Dan, 

How goes the mining game, 
And what's the chance here for a man 

To strike a paying claim ';" 

"Wal, jest 'bout here it's rather slim, 

But I've got one that pays, 
So pitch right in here with me, Jim, 

And when we've made a raise. 

We'll put off north with a good rig; 

For yesterday I seen 
Gus Gape, who said they'd struck it big, 

Hisjh up on the Stickeen. 

"Or, if you rather like tlie south. 

Why, then, it's south we'll go; 
The only di'awback is the drouth, 

Down that ar way, you know." 

The next we hear of Dan and Jim 
. May be on the Youkon, 
Or in the forest, damp and dim, 
That shade the Amazon; 

Or what's more likely still, we shall 

Hear of them on their way 
To the diamond fields beyond the Vaal 

In South Africa. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

AGRICULTURE. 

Early Efforts at Cultivation — The Dry Valley Thought a 
Desert — A Change in the Scene — The Pioneer Fruit Planter 
— Claude Ghana — Pioneer Cultivators and Orchardists — 
Early Ranches in the Valley — Assessor's Report in 1S55 — 
Assessor's Report in 1856— Fruit Trees — Vines— Grain — Live 
Stock — Flou ring-Mills Requii'ed — Progress in 1S57 — Ranch 
of J. R. Nickerson — Spring Valley Ranch — Assessor's Report 
in 1870 — Successful Horticulturists — J. W. Hulbert — An 
Unusual Frost. 

The missionaries who in 17(17 brought to Califor- 
nia the semi-civilization of patriarchal, or medireval 



238 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



times, came dependent on the soil for their subsist- 
ence, and, through three-quarters of a century of 
Spanish occupancy, undisturbed by foreign intrusion, 
prospered with their floclfs and herds, rudely tilled 
the ground in favored localities; planted the grape, 
the orange and the olive, and thus to a limited 
extent proved the capacity of the country to sup- 
port mankind. The first Americans came as farmers, 
but -were absorbed in the Spanish settlements and 
adopted the Spanish customs. A few timidly scat- 
tered over the country, selecting the most lovely 
sites, where springs and streams maintained a more 
lasting verdure, and there ventured the planting of 
small areas of wheat, barley, corn and beans. The 
great valley of the Sacramento and the bordei-ing 
foot-hills were deemed arid wastes, fitted only for 
the grazing of cattle; and the high Sierra was totally 
unexplored. Pasturage was the great resource — 
commerce, manufactures and mining being an advance 
to which their enlightenment was not prepared. 

THE DRY VALLEY THOrGHT .\ DESERT. 

Following the discovery of gold, in 1S4S, a new 
element came upon the scene, and a change in the 
order of things was made. Then mining was 
the chief aim of the people. Many of the new- 
comers were farmers fiimiliar with the system of 
cultivation in the Atlantic States and Mississippi 
Valley, where the rains of summer brought to har- 
vest the annual plants, and these looked upon the 
broad plains, sered and sun cracked by the long 
summer drougths, as inhospitable, irreclaimable 
deserts. They had read reports of the great crops 
of wheat harvested by Captain Sutter, but his fields 
were on the low bottom-lands of the Sacramento 
River, which were deemed exceptional, and the 
country in general was condemned as desert. "Cross- 
ing the desert" was the common term for the jour- 
ney from the river to the mountains, or from one 
station where water was found to another. Although 
wild oats and other grasses grew luxuriantly, and 
cattle ranged and fatted over the wide areq, still 
the plains were regarded as incapable of successful 
tillage. Some were so bold as to declare that where 
the native grasses would grow so thriftily culti- 
vated grain would also grow, but were generally 
ridiculed for their opinion, and years passed before 
the experiment was tried. Little by little the 
advance in agriculture was made. Some favored 
spot of sandy loom by a river's bank, or some well- 
watered ravine, was sought and a farm was planted. 
Barley was in great demand for the feed for 
draught animals, and the high price it brought 
ai'oused the enterprising farmer to attempt its cul- 
tivation. It grew and yielded as they had never 
seen before, and its cultivation extended. Thus 
barley became the pioneer cereal of California cul- 
tivation. Graduallj' other plants were tried, and 
all found to grow and mature. The small patches 
where grains and vegetables were produced were 
looked upon as the specially favored localities, and 



while the great bulk of the barley, potatoes, melons, 
and all the wheat and fruit were imported from 
Chili, Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and other dis- 
tant countries, all the available land in California was 
said to be taken up, and men must seek some other 
country if thej' wished to farm. Years passed in 
this slow progress to cultivation. Men most anxious 
to win the fortune for which they had abandoned 
their homes in the East for the distant Pacific 
Coast saw about them as a free gift, ready to their 
hands, the most fertile of soils in the most genial 
and healthful of climates, yet had not the sagacity, 
the patience, or the forethought to appreciate the 
fact, to take hold and plant and reap the certain 
reward. Those who ventured in agriculture were 
truly enterprising, but thej^ were comparatively few 
in the first half dozen or more years following 
the geld discovery. Watermelons at from one to 
five dollars each, apples from Oregon at one and two 
dollars each, potatoes and onions at fifty cents to 
one dollar a pound, barley at ten to twenty-five 
cents a pound, hay at SlOO a ton, eggs at §2.00 a 
dozen, milk at §1.00 a quart, and other articles pos- 
sible to obtain at proportionate rates, would seem 
to have tempted a rush of farmers to the field, but 
with all the sun-cracked plains were shunned and 
the mountain vales and gentle hills were despised as 
unworthy of the notice of the husbandman. 

A CHANGE IN THE SCENE. 

The slow progress of agriculture and horticulture 
made in California where the inducements were so 
great now seems unaccountable. Years have passed 
and the desert plain has become a sea of waving 
grain; the hills are brilliant with orange groves and 
verdant with the wide-spread vineyard. Peaches 
more luscious than those of the far-famed banks of 
the Delaware, and apples surpassing the choice of 
the Eastern States, now usurp the place of the chap- 
arral and manzanita; and the fig, apricot, prune, 
cherry, almond, walnut, and all the fruits, berries 
and products of the gardens of the despised foot- 
hills are sought in all the great markets of America. 
The tropical and the hardy fruits of the north grow 
side by side, and in such perfection that their fame 
has become world-wide. In these productions Placer 
County stands pre-eminent. 

THE PIONEER FRUIT PLANTER. 

While here the progress was so very slow at fii'st, 
still Placer has the honor of being the pioneer of 
mountain counties in agriculture and horticulture, as 
she has now become the most famous in her produc- 
tions. 

The pioneer fruit trees of Placer, as well as of 
the Sacramento Valley, now lie buried deep beneath 
the debris which the ruthless hydraulic poui-s upon 
the plain. As has been previously stated, the first 
miner for gold within the limits of the county was 
Claude Chana. To him is also due the honor of 
planting the first fruit trees, and we will give the 
emainder of the story of 



AGRICULTURAL. 



2.39 



CLAUDE CHANA. 

To the eniii,'ratioii of 1846, which that year was 
considerablt; from the Western States to the Pacific 
Coast, does i'lacer County owe the presence of one 
of its earlii'st settlers; its pioneer fruit culturist; one 
among thu first to till the soil, as well as the primal 
digger after gold within its borders, in the person of 
Claude Chana, born in France in 1811, who now 
livesat Wheatland, Yuba County. In the spring of 1846 
a company to which Mr. Chana belonged started 
from St. Josoph, Missouri, for the then little known 
country of California, with a train of wagons drawn 
by oxen. At Weber Canon, Utah, this train over- 
took and for several daj's kept company with the 
unfortunate Donner party. The company with 
which Chana traveled passed the Donner company, 
and after the usual vicissitudes attendant upon such 
journeys, at length reached the Truckee River, up 
which they traveled, crossed the summit of the 
Sierra, struck the head of the Greenhorn branch of 
Bear River, descended Steep Hollow by dragging 
fallen trees behind their wagons, proceeded down 
the old trail to the head of Wolf Creek; thence to 
Hiram Austin's present place, and from there to 
Johnson's ranch — the first settlement they had seen 
in the country — on the north bank of Bear River, 
where there was then an adobe house and some 
pretensions toward cultivation. This was in October, 
and about two weeks before the occurrence of the 
storm which drove the Donner party, who were 
following, into winter quarters and prevented their 
further advance across the mountains. 

When the company of which Chana was a member 
reached the head of Wolf Creek, there was no 
running water — only holes in the bed of the creek 
in which it was found standing. Previous to arriv- 
ing here, no trouble had been made by Indians since 
crossing the summit; but here, all the night through, 
an infernal din was kept up in imitation of the ci'ies 
of coyotes. To some of the more experienced of the 
men, these sounds had a significant effect; they were 
wakeful and prepared for an attack. Daylight 
disclosed the fact that some of their cattle had been 
shot with arrows, while others had been driven off 
over a trail leading toward Grass Valley. 

On the southern side of Bear River nearly opposite 
Johnson's ranch, was also an adobe house owned by 
Teodore Sigard, a Frenchman who had settled there 
in 1845, and claimed a tract of land under a grant from 
the Mexican Government issued in 1844. Sigard 
was undoubtedly the first white settler in the terri- 
tory now embraced within the limits of Placer 
County. Both he and Johnson had put in and 
gathered small crops of wheat in 1845. Johnson 
had acquired his title to the grant he occupied from 
General Sutter, who, as administrator of the estate 
of the original grantee who had been killed, had 
so'.d fhe land at public sale. Sigard had traveled 
extensively in Mexico after leaving his native coun- 
try, and settled in California in 1839. 



As soon as Chana learned at Johnson's that the 
ranch across the river was owned by a Frenchman, 
he very naturally went there, and being well i-eceived 
made it his home and worked upon the place. Some 
of the company who came with him also crossed the 
stream and camped on the Sigard ranch. Among 
these were a family with children. Sigard and 
Chana noticed that among some dainties which the 
parents had given their children, wei'e a few dried 
peaches — unpealed and unpitted — and that the pits 
had been thrown away. This suggested the possi- 
bility that the rich bottom land of Bear River might 
be adapted to the growth of the peach tree. There- 
upon the two Frenchmen carefully gathered all the 
peach stones thej' could find, and in November. 1846, 
planted them. While doing this Chana bethought 
that'among his effects were a few almonds, and that 
if peaches would grow, almonds also might flourish. 
The day previous to setting out from St. Joseph 
friends of the party about to leave for the unknown 
West had given a grand dinner, and after enjoying 
which, Chana, as he rose from the table, picked up 
a' handful of almonds, and had sacredly kept them 
as a souvenir of the occasion. These were the nuts 
he now thought of, brought forth from their safe 
repository, and this November day, in the year 1846, 
with the peach-pits, they were planted upon the 
banks of Bear River, in California, upon Sigard's 
ranch. 

In the spring of 1847, Claude Chana wont to work 
at Sutter's Fort, and afterwards came the gold 
discovery, and Ghana's mining in Auburn ravine 
and on the Yuba, where he made a fortune and then 
returned to Bear River. [See Chapter XVI, page 66.] 

The peach-pits and almonds that had been planted 
in 1846, as also some apple and pear seeds, plum-pits 
and 200 grape cuttings which had been obtained at 
the Mission San Jose in 1848, and planted, were 
growing finely and bade fair to be productive; while 
vegetables of all sorts grew rankly upon the rich 
loamy Bear River bottom-lands. " Of all places I 
have seen," thought the pioneer, " this spot is the 
prettiest and best in which to make my home." 
Sigard would sell and Chana bought the grant, 
paying •'i?6,000 in gold. Being an enterprising man, 
the new owner began extensive improvements, and 
but few years elapsed before the fruit grown upon 
it found way to the markets and yielded no little 
revenue. The almonds grown from the seed brought 
from St. Joseph, took first premium at the first 
State Fair. Select peaches taken to Grass Valley 
and Nevada City brought one dollar for three, while 
the commoner ones sold at seventy-five cents a 
pound, and the wine pi-oduct soon reached from 
10,000 to 12,000 gallons annually. A flouring mill, 
run by a 16-foot overshot wheel was built and the 
most flourishing condition obtained. The owner, 
during this prosperous era, often refused $25,000 for 
the place — always intending it as his home. But a 
time came when the title was attacked; the grant 



240 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



was found to be defective, and after long and expen- 
Bive litigation, Ghana lost all but 500 acres, which he 
managed to secure in some manner, under the laws 
of the United States. Content with this the old 
man was still cheerful, enterprising and happy. But 
the flood of lStil-'62 brought down the sands from 
the mountain gorges above, and his mill was rendered 
useless. He must build levees. He did this, year 
after year, and although as late as lS7-i, he lived 
upon the place and rented it for S2,000 to a tenant, 
the sand came down the river, piling higher and 
higher and overtopping his levees, finally swept over 
all and buried it out of sight— the most complete 
wreck, the most utterly desolate scene; the most 
sorrowful case of individual hardship wrought in 
the entire State by the devastating erosions of this 
modern age. Money had to be borrowed to fight the 
elements, for which mortgages were given, and a 
few years since the place was sold under the hammer, 
and brought only the pittance of §500. It is now 
said to be entirely worthless. And thus the model 
home of the old pioneer has been destroyed, and he 
sent forth in the world penniless, with his weight of 
years. And yet the cheerful old man repines not, 
nor uttei's curses ujjon those whose acts compassed 
his immediate financial ruin. At Wheatland he can 
be found in a bachelor home, attached to which is 
a winery, where he makes a sim2)le living bj^ manu- 
facturing a light wine, from grapes grown in the 
immediate neighborhood, and which he is obliged to 
purchase for the purpose, having no vines of his 
own. 

PIONEER CULTIVATORS AND ORCHARDISTS. 

With the pioneer work of Claude Chana the valley 
rested unfretted by plow or other implement of 
enlightened husbandly for a period of three or four 
years. In the mining regions the enterprising emi- 
grants found many little glades and valleys exceed- 
ingly attractive lor their future homes, and there 
commenced the first cultivation in the county — 
always excepting the efibrts of Chana. 

In May, 1849, Mr. E. T. Mendenhall located at 
lUinoistown, which he and companions then called 
Alder Grove, and in August of the same 3-ear settled 
there permanently with his family. Mr. Menden- 
hall had come with the first gold-hunters from Ore- 
gon in 1848, returning to his northern home in the 
fall of that year, and again to California in 1849. 
As an Oregonian, he sought for his new home a soil 
wet and heavy, and such he found at Alder Grove. 
This, he thought, was the only soil that would pro- 
duce anything in so dry a climate. In his new home 
he prospered as a hotel-keeper, and thought he would 
adorn it, as were the homes of the Oregonians. 
With this view he went to Oregon in the fall of 1850, 
and procured a number of apple and other fruit trees, 
and returned with them to his place, now Illinois- 
town. An orchard was planted, which is still flour- 
ishing, and thus did Mr. Mendenhall set the example 
to his neighbors. From 1850 the little ranch has 
been in cultivation. 



Following the example of Mr. Mendenhall, came 
Colonel Wm. McClure, of Yankee Jim's, who was a 
pioneer in many works. Mr. Lisbon Applegate, at 
his place named Lisbon, about the same time com- 
menced cultivating the land, and planted an orchard. 
These were the pioneer fruit growers of Placer 
Countj', and among the earliest of northern Cali- 
fornia. 

EARLY RANCHES IN THE VALLEY. 

In 1851, Joseph Walkup and S. B. Wyman, mer- 
chants in Auburn, settled upon a location made bj^ 
themselves on the verge of the plain in Auburn 
Ravine — a choice and valuable selection — and there 
became the pioneer farmers of the valley portion of 
Placer County. Other settlements were made on 
sites which have since become known as fertile and 
highly productive farms, orchards and vineyards, 
but were established as wayside stations or hotels, 
the owners paying no attention to cultivating the 
soil. Large herds of stock were kept and stock 
taken to " ranch," or in charge, for a certain sum 
per month. Cox's ranch, on Coon Creek, was for 
many years a noted stopping-place and pleasant 
rendezvous for a large area of country. The Union 
Shed, now Sheridan, and many places on the princi- 
pally traveled roads, were settled without designs 
of agriculture, but now claim the rank of pioneers. 
After some enterprising per.son had proven that cul- 
tivation of a certain class of soil could be made pro- 
fitable, another station-keeper would venture to try 
the same on his place in a small way, and thus the 
black and cracked adobe of the plain, the loam of 
the intervale, and the red soil of the hills came into 
cultivation. 

In 1851, quite a number of locations were made 
for gardening, and in the following year their pro- 
ducts were obtainable in the markets of the towns 
or upon the tables of the hotels where produced) 
making a most attractive feature for such table, 
and thereby spreading their fame among travelers 
and teamsters. 

Messrs. Walkup and Wjman, on their ranch a 
short distance east of the present town of Lincoln, 
were the first to harvest a crop of wheat in Placer 
County, in 1852. Their report for 1853 gave a pi-o- 
duct of 1,600 bushels of wheat, and 1,100 bushels of 
barley, aggregating a value of S7,000. Such a result 
was very encouraging to farmers, and the successive 
reports of the Surveyors and Assessors show the 
progress that was made. 

.assessor's REPORT, 1855. 

Mr. A. S. Smith was appointed Assessor in 1855, 
and as required by law. reported to the Surveyor- 
General of the State his observation on the condition 
of the county, and a statement of facts regarding its 
property and resources. In his report he says: — 

" The County of Placer, like many uf the northern, 
is naturallj' divided into lands adapted to mining and 
agriculture, and each section is generally improved 
as such. The western or agricultural, joining Sacra- 



j^^>4— -« "^<sT 







■^ 



S pi 




^ 










^m 



AGRICULTURE. 



241 



mento and Sutter, lies below or west of what is 
termed the foot-hills. Into this Bcetion the streams 
that rise in the mountainous sections course their 
way, until lost in the plains of the Sacramento Val- 
lej-, or empty into some of the principal rivers, along 
whose banks are spread out in one great level plain 
the most desirable farming lands. All of these lands 
have long been located, and on which are many good 
and permanent improvements. These ravine bot- 
tom-lands are desirable on several grounds — water 
for stock and domestic use in abundance during the 
long dry season; banks lined with timber, affording 
fire-wood and shade groves for stock. There are a 
few ranchers in isolated spots scattered through 
other sections of the county — on the mountains and 
rivers — but generally speaking, agriculture is con- 
fined to the valley section. 

The principal productions of these lands are wheat, 
barley, oats and hay, though experimental crops in 
corn and other grains have been planted in several 
instances. There were 1,545 acres cultivated in 
wheat, producing an aggregate of 30,900 bushels, 
averaging twenty bushels per acre. 

Through the agricultural or lower portion of the 
adjoining counties of Sacramento and Sutter is a 
general grazing depot, where stock of cattle cross- 
ing the plains the year before, and young and poor 
cattle from the southern counties, are ranched, 
fatted, and fitted for market. During the whole 
season, from this section, little bands of cattle are 
driven north, east, and south, for immediate 
slaughter. Among the citizens of our county are 
many enterprising farmers. 

No reliable or correct record of the number of 
cattle, sheep, hogs, etc., in the county can be given. 

During the past year or two, considerable atten- 
tion has been paid to the introduction of horticul- 
ture. A number have planted the different fruit 
trees, together with grape vines, and are patiently 
awaiting time to decide the important problem. 
These experiments are not confined to the agricul- 
tural portion proper, but are general. The following 
tabular statement from an amateur farmer residing 
near Auburn, is perhaps the most advanced orchard, 
and largest, in the county. 



I'OTAL. 



Apple trees 
Pear " 
Peach " 
Cherry " 
Plum 
Apricot " 
Quince " 
Grape vines 



30 
5 
8 
3 
2 

6 
6 



35 
5 



4 
10 



5 

10 



10 



15 



Total 



105 
15 
20 
17 
5 
6 
10 
25 

203 



There are 143 improved ranches in the county, 
many of which have good and permanent buildings 
and fences — others are only inclosed with brush, 
while some are only surveyed and staked. The 



improvements and stock on these ranches are 
assessed at §219,000." 

asskssor's report, 1856. 

The same Assessor, in his report for 1856, says: — 
"The lower or western portion of the county, sit- 
uated on the foot-hills adjoining Sutter County, is 
almost exclusively an agricultural and grazing coun- 
try. In this section are located the finest ranches 
in the county, if not in northern California, the 
improvements on which are steady and progressive. 
This section is fast being converted into rich grain 
lands, orchards, and vineyards, though occasionally 
in the upper or mineral portion of the county fruit 
orchards arc in a most prosperous condition. Many 
young fruit trees were destroyed last year, or the 
growth retarded for two years by the grasshoppers, 
and, in the higher lands, were more or less affected 
by frost. The coming year Placer County will raise 
hundreds of bushels of the finest peaches, and when 
all the orchards now planted reach maturity, this 
fruit will be as plentiful as tomatoes at present. 
Farmers, who have given their attention to the rais- 
ing of wheat and barley have been very successful, 
and in several instances have reaped large profits. 
This is particularly true of our citizens cultivating 
lands on Coon Creek, which runs through the north 
west section of this county. The average yield on 
these lands has been about thirty bushels to the acre. 
There are 5,844 acres of cultivated land in this 
county, and about 12,000 acres inclosed. Most of 
these lands are good and productive, and entirely 
cleared of timber. All lands in this county are 
claimed under the preemption acts, the Spanish grants 
terminating at our western .boundary. The poorest 
lands in this county would bear one or two years' 
crops, no doubt, but after the second year the soil is 
so thin it would probably fail. Consequently it will 
not pay for improving or farming. A large quantity 
of oat hay is raised yearly on these lands, which 
brings a high mountain price. In listing the cultivated 
lands, I have not included the small patches and 
parcels scattered through the entire county as 
"wardens. Neither was it possible to gather an accu- 
rate account of vegetables raised and consumed at 
home. The growers themselves found it impossible 
to render an account approximate to a true account. 
Suffice it to say. Placer County raises its own vege- 
tables, excepting potatoes, and has the soil to raise 
sufficient vegetables for northern California. 

FRUIT TREES. 

Peach - - 2,607 Cherry 64 

Apple -1,6.37 Figs - 11 

Pear - 360 Gooseberries . . _ 36 

Plum 118 Almonds 2 

Currant 228 Apricots - 20 

Quinces 20 

The peach trees are now in a most flourishing 
condition, and vary in age from one to five years. 
About one-eighth of these will bear the coming sea- 



242 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



son (accidents excepted). More attention has been 
paid to planting this fruit than others, and a rich 
reward is awaiting the pioneers in this county, 
among whom are Messrs. J. R. Crandall, of Auburn, 
and Wm. McClure, of Yankee Jim's. 



Strawberry _ 16,423 

Grape .-..-_ 2,702 

Many of the former produced abundantly this j'ear, 
and it may be safely anticipated the yield next year 
will be much greater. The grape cuts are yet young, 
and no great results can be expected from them for 
several years. 

GRAIN. 

There has been raised: 

Wheat, bushels 59,770 

Barley, '■ 56,760 

Oats, " 4,180 

Hay, tons 1,310 

Corn , acres _ 50 

Peanuts, bushels 100 

LIVE-STOCK. 

Neat cattle 3.899 Sheep 1,388 

Work " 455 Yearlings 750 

Cows 1,554 Bulls 40 

Horses 1,052 Hens 3,500 

Mules 468 Turkeys 263 

Calves... 610 Ducks 82 

Swine 5,543 Geese (tame) . . 5 

The annual product of the dairies of Placer, I am 
unable to report. They are all quite small, and in 
their infancy. The coming year it may be reason- 
ably expected that butter and cheese will be quite 
an important product of the county." 

The Messrs. Cox, at their ranch on Coon Creek, 
were among the successful farmers of 1X56. With 
an expenditure of 82,200 they raised, and prepared 
for market, wheat, barley, and hay of the value of 
$12,800. Four of their neighbors, the same season, 
raised an average of 4,000 bushels of grain each. 
These same farmers were quite extensively engaged 
in stock herding and raising, which business was then 
very profitable. 

FLOURING-.MILLS REQUIRED. 

With the cultivation prior to 1857, the capability 
of the soil to produce grain and many of the fruits 
had been fully proven, and the question next to be 
considered was to find a market. Shipments of 
wheat were made to New York, and flour brought 
back in return, thus traveling over 17,000 miles to 
mill, returning the same, a longer road than an eco- 
nomical farmer usually takes with his grist. So 
distant a market was not very encouraging to farm- 
ers, and the construction of flouring-mills was 
demanded. 

The following letter to the J'/acer J/erald, from 
Coon Creek, dated March 5, 1857, shows how mat- 
ters stood at that time: — 

"Mr. Editor — Having finished seeding and 



nothing much to do until harvest, we will look 
around, like prudent farmers, and see what place 
will afford us the best market. 

Shall we be forced, another season, to haul our 
grain to Grass Valley and Nevada to find a market, 
and in return bring our fencing lumber from another 
county — one that will build up mills, when there is 
a plenty of lumber near and more of easy access, 
and as good market for our grain if we had the mills 
to manufacture it? 

Are there no men of nerve and capital that will 
take hold of the enterprise and push it through in 
California style ? 

Possessing the resources of water, which can be 
had anywhere along Bear River Ditch, at a trifling 
expense, what is to prevent it? 

Though Placer County will raise enough grain for 
her own consumption, under her present manage- 
ment of things scarce a pound of it will be used, 
but wc shall draw our supplies from other sources, 
while the produce of home must be carried abroad 
to be manufactured. 

The flouring business can be carried on much 
cheaper and at a greater profit to the operators at 
home than elsewhere. For instance, there are 
twenty-five farmers on this creek, who will in the 
aggregate cultivate not less than 1,500 acres of 
wheat, which, at thirty bushels per acre, will give 
us 45.000 bushels of grain, and at one cent per pound 
or one dollar per 100 for grinding, will amount to the 
handsome sum of §27,000, which will go into the 
hands of men in another county, while the remain- 
der of the farms on the plains and the ranches in the 
mountains, with what will come from other coun- 
ties, will be sufficient to supply one mill the entire 
season. A mill will manufacture 100 barrels per 
day; running 200 days in the year will grind 6,000,- 
000 pounds of wheat, and at the above rates will 
amount to the handsome sum of S60,000. This may 
be done with a merchant mill, that need not cost 
more than $15,000, with §15,000 contingent expense, 
which ought to cover all expense, and will leave 
then to the operator the sum of $30,000 clear. 

Now all this is within the bounds of reason, and 
as a large profit deserves the attention of men of 
enterprise, and be better pay than an indifferent 
quartz ledge. Thus a ready market can be found at 
home. Placer is the fourth county in the State in 
point of population, yet she is far behind Nevada in 
enterprise. The latter has two fine flouring-mills 
that have realized fortunes to the owners this season. 
The peculiar localities for mills, and the convenience 
of the grain and ready markets, ofl'er a fine oppor- 
tunity' to men of capital to invest. 

This estimate will, I think, fall far below the true 
resources of the grain crop this season, for in this 
vicinity, in ten miles square, there are no less than 
5,000 acres in grain, which, at an average of twenty- 
five bushels per acre and three cents per pound, will 
amount to §225,000. And all of this produce will go 



AGRICULTURE. 



to build up the wealth of another county, and the 
farmers, on returning home from the mills at Grass 
Valley and Nevada, will bring back loads of lumber 
to build fences and houses, which, in all probability, 
will amount, this season, to more than 300,000 feet. 

All of this custom our lumber men are de]:)rived of. 
This sale of lumber would amount to perhaps a 
million feet annually, if there was a right mill in 
the vicinity, and a market nearer to home, and at 
the same time relieve us of a monopoly that is heav- 
ily felt by the grain growers. Though flour is sell- 
ing at this time at the Bay from thirteen to eighteen 
dollars per barrel, and wheat from three and one- 
half to four and one-eighth cents per pound, yet at 
Grass Valley they are only paying four cents for the 
best article of wheat, which is not what it is worth 
below, say nothing about the transportation, which 
is worth from two to three cents per pound. 

Now I hope the citizens of Auburn and vicinity 
will take the matter under consideration and at once 
build a mill that will add wealth to the county, profit 
to the owners, and be a god-send to the farmers. 

PROGRESS IN 1857. 

An examination of the reports of the Assessor of 
Placer for the years 1856 and 1857 show a very 
favorable progress in agriculture, and the fact that 
this industry was becoming one of the great resources 
of the county and State. The improvements made 
were more substantial and homelike, indicating that 
the ftirmers were really prospering; the experimental 
trials had proven satisfactory, and permanency had 
taken the place of the nomadic, cattle-grazing char- 
acter formerly prevailing. The adaptability of a 
large area of the county to horticulture was making 
itself manifest, as the increase in the various trees 
and plants proved. Of these the Assessor reported 
the following in 1857: Peach trees, G,166; apple, 
2,800; pear, 298; plum, 375; cherry, 88; quince, 
1,018; figs, 11; apricots, 39; nectarines, 20; currant 
bushes, 351; gooseberries, 116; strawberry vines, 
20,000, and grape vines, 5,742. This showing, 
although largelj' in excess of the previous year, was 
regarded as falling far short of the real number in 
existence at the time the report was published, as 
the Assessor's count had been made in the season 
before the planting of fruit trees commenced and 
could not be included in his report. 

The cereal product for 1857 was given as follows: 
Wheat 73,000 bushels; barley, 82,8.")0, and more than 
fifty acres of corn, which, being usually marketed 
green, the number of bushels was not given. 

Of neat cattle there was a decrease, owing to the 
fact that but few were raised in the county, but 
driven there from other parts of the State, sold and 
slaughtered; but of other stock there was a favora- 
ble increase, which can be observed by comparing the 
two reports. In 1857 the number was: Neat cattle, 
638; work cattle, 472; cows, 2,194; horses, 960; 
mules, 373; swine, 4,763; sheep, 3,853; yearlings, 



1,052. Poultry— hens, 7,992; turkeys, 660; ducks, 
260; geese, 102. 

These reports have shown the first stages of agri- 
culture in the county, and its progressive condition 
until it had become a fixed and prominent resource. 
From the first the progress has been sure and steady, 
until the present, when Placer ranks among the 
highest in its cereal and horticultural productions. 
There are many instances of great success worthy of 
special notice, among which is the following from a 
letter in the Herald oi April 8, 1871:— 

RANCH OP J. R. NICKERSON. 

One of the most remarkable instances of success 
in life commencing in California under the most 
adverse circumstances, but success soon attained 
by indomitable energy and enterprise may be learned 
bj' a visit to the magnificent ranch of Mr. James R. 
Nickerson, now celebrated throughout the State as 
a viniculturist, orchardist, etc. This rancho in Placer 
County is situated about three miles northeast of the 
railroad depot in the town of Lincoln, and twelve 
west of Auburn, the fair capital of Placer County. 
Mr. Nickerson was born in 1819, in the good old 
State of Kentucky, whence at the age of sixteen he 
emigrated with his parents to Missouri. During his 
stay in the latter State he resided in Howard, Char- 
iton, and lastly Linn County. While in Chariton he 
married a lady of an excellent family, and who now 
adorns and gives luster to their beautiful home in 
California by the urbanity of her manner and genial, 
happy disposition. The issue of this marriage has 
been four sons and three daughters, two of the former 
and one of the latter being married, while the two 
remaining sons and a daughter, just blushed into 
womanhood, yet live with their parents on ihe ranch. 
Ill 1849 Mr. Nickerson, leaving his family for a while, 
came to California, where he engaged in various voca- 
tions till some time in 1851, when he went back to 
Missouri, and in the spring of 1852 returned with 
his family to California, with the determination to 
make it his future home. His design was to settle 
in Tulare County, and was proceeding thither when 
a simple circumstance occurred which caused him to 
change his previous intention. How truly the poet 
Campbell says: 

" How oft our fate from momentous things 
May rise like rivers out of little springs." 

Mr. Nickerson on a certain night encamped with 
his family on the very ground now occupied by the 
town of Lincoln, and getting up in the following 
mcrning discovered that his cattle had strayed, and 
immediately set out in search of them. While thus 
wandering, he stumbled on a grassy glade bordering 
on Doty's Ravine, the waters of which were then 
pure and transparent as crystal; a dense ferest of 
oak and pine trees with matted underbrush stretched 
away in front of him, but his eye took in at a glance 
the adaptability of the region for a splendid home in 
the future. He at once abandoned the previous 



244 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



intention of going to Tulare, and moved his family 
to a spot on the left bank of Doty's Ravine, where 
they still reside. Without one dollar in money, he 
commenced to raise vegetables, which when matured 
commanded a very high price, for there were then 
hundreds of miners in the surrounding region. Every 
spare hour from the vegetable garden was industri- 
ously devoted to the clearing of the forest and under- 
brush, and now we behold, instead of a silent 
wilderness, one of the most magnificent and extensive 
vineyards, with a truly splendid orchard of several 
thousand fruit trees of every species and choicest 
selection we have yet beheld in California, from the 
southern portion of Los Angeles County to Siskiyou, 
in the northern portion of the State. Mr. Nickerson 
has repeatedly received premiums in money, diplomas 
in silverware and gold medals from various exhibi- 
tions, at the State Fair and elsewhere, at diflPerent 
times, and is now an opulent man and an honor 
to the Slate. Proverbial for hospitality, he is unas- 
suming and unostentatious, frank and with generous 
impulses. Not having had the benefit of much 
scholastic education, he is nevertheless a gentleman 
of sound practical knowledge, of varied information 
— in a word, of high intelligence, and with all his 
possession of an abundance of the world's goods, we 
can say of him in truth as the immortal bard, Robbie 
Burns, said of Lord Dace, 

" The faent a pride na pride has he 
Mair than an honest ploughman." 

Should he live for a few year.s longer his asjiirations 
will be realized in being the owner of onegrand vine- 
yard of 500 acres. 

Let us try to describe his new wine cellar just 
about completed. This elegant structure is 100 feet 
long, 50 feet wide and 3 stories high. The walls of 
the first story are of granite, 12 feet in height and 
three feet thick. This granite rock was quarried 
from an excavation made in a gently sloping hill, and 
where the building now stands. Sufficient rock was 
also quarried for the erection of a still-house very 
soon to be commenced, and which in dimensions 
will be 35x23 feet. The first story of the building 
first referred to is supported bj' five sets of massive 
stringers, each 10x12 inches, these stringers sup- 
ported by columns 12x12 inches, and standing 
on brick piers built in cement, the piers resting on a 
bed-rock of solid granite. The columns occur every 
9 feet; then come the joists 4x1^, and only 1 foot 
apart; then a floor of sugar-pine boards, each li inches 
thick; over this floor was spread a layer of pulver- 
ized, decomposed granite, 19 inches deep, and well 
pounded down; and to " cap the climacteric," as it 
were, over all is a bed of cement, 2^ inches thick, 
completely impervious to water and fire-proof also. 
On the top of that occurs another set of stringers, 
precisely alike to that already mentioned as in the 
cellar below, each stringer supported by a brick 
column running up 3 feet, 9 inches, and resting 
on the stringers first mentioned immediately over 



the first column. On the top of these stringers 
come the posts, 4x12 inches and only 8 inches 
apart, and strong enough to uphold the largest train 
of cars that ever thundered over a railroad. On these 
joists is another floor, from which springs the same 
number of columns, half in dimension of those already 
spoken of; then another set of joists and floor; from 
the later springs another set of columns one-third the 
size of those first referred to. These columns rise to 
massive stringers that support the roof. The stud- 
ding in the second story is 6x6 inches, heavily 
braced, mortised and pinned — the corner posts being 
12x12 inches, all framed and mortised into a sill 
10x12 inches. The balance of the studding inter- 
vening to that we have spoken of is 4x6 inches. 
The siding is of clear sugar-pine, dressed and painted 
with three coats of paint. The main body is of 
straw finishing of white, while the doors are of 
slate color. In front of this fine structure is a porch 
50 feet long by 13 wide, constructed of IJ-inch red- 
wood, tongued and grooved in artistic style. Every- 
thing that modern science has devised for proper 
ventilation has been applied in the erection of the 
building. In front are three openings, well guarded 
with iron grates. At the back part are two flues, or 
perhaps more properly speaking, chimneys, running 
up or through the granite wall on the outside and above 
for 12 feet, constructed of brick. There are forty 
windows in the building. Running around the base 
outside is a flume (should you choose to call it such) 
three feet wide, covered with cement and bordered 
with a parapet of granite. This is to carry away 
water which might come from adjacent portions of 
the grounds and from the roof of the building. The 
second story is the fermenting room, and as every 
one knows that when the grape juice is in process 
of fermentation it will overflow, pipes are ingeniouslj' 
laid, which emerge from the walls of the building, 
and thus convey the liquid to the flume beneath. 
The two upper stories are ceiled. The space (6 
inches) between the ceiling and weather boarding 
being filled with saw-dust. The ceiling, of clear 
sugar-pine, is washed with some kind of material 
which will resist the action of fire. Paint would 
not. The front portion of the building is oti level 
ground, then extends backward 100 feet its entire 
length. In this 100 feet an elevation was gained on 
the hill of 17 feet. It is evident, therefore, when 
the ground was excavated and graded for the recep- 
tion of the building, the ascent to the third story by 
an inclined plane from the rear of the structure 
would be very easy. This third story is the fruit 
and crushing room, ceiled and furnished in everj- 
similar resjject to the fermentation room below. 
The grapes are hurled with velocity up the gentle 
incline and crushed. Instead of conveying the 
juice in buckets to the fermentation room, a hose is 
applied, through which it passes through the floor to 
the barrels or other receptacles below for fermenta- 
tion. Again, in front of the second story is a hand- 




RESIDENCE OF JOHN WOODWARD. 
/JEW CAUSTIC Placer cci <./,/ . 




RESIDENCE a STORE OF E.W. CULVER 



AGRICULTURE. 



24.5 



BOine veranda, 13 feet wide. The casks are rolled 
out here from the fermentation room to be prepared 
for the reception of the wine, which is done by thor- 
oughly cleansing by pure soft water from a never- 
failing well, through a hose by a force pump outside. 
Fi-om the fermenting room to the cellar underneath 
the wine is conveyed by a hose through the floor, in 
the same way that the juice is sent from the crush- 
ing room above. Again, all the material in the fer- 
menting room for the manufacture of brandy will be 
conveyed by troughs or flumes to the still-house, just 
about to be built; so that everything that wealth 
could command, and art and ingenuity devise, have 
been lavished here to facilitate his business by Mr. 
Nickerson. All doors are furnished with burglar- 
proof locks and windows, also. The whole edifice 
stands on a bed of granite everlasting as the bills. 
The doors and windows of the cellar have iron shut- 
ters, fire and burglar- proof. This grand structure 
was commenced about the first of June, last year, 
and on an average fifteen men were eniploj-ed daily 
in its construction — the whole being superintended 
and directed by Mr. Kickerson in person; and in 
concluding our discursive, rapid description of the 
building, permit us to say, that in all our peregrin- 
ations through California for more than twenty-two 
years, we have not seen anything of its kind erected 
by one man that manifested to our mind so forcibly 
the results of persevering energy andgo-a-headative- 
ness. Although we had frequently heard and read of 
the gentleman we had never had the pleasure of see- 
ing him until at the request of several friends we were 
induced to visit his splendid domain of 800 acres, 
where we met with a cordial and disinterested recep- 
tion. His splendid orchard and vineyard now cover 
an area of 225 acres; the air, while vocal with the 
song of many tiny warblers, is fragrant with wel- 
come odors; the heavens are tranquil and serene, 
and good old Sol shines brightly over all on God's 
footstool — the poor and the rich alike. We desire 
that you bear in mind always that when the proprietor 
settled here in the fall of 1852, the whole surrounding 
region was a wild forest of oaks and pines, whose 
stalwart arms stretched far and wide, and between 
whose trunks was an almost impassable brake, and 
the courageous pioneer himself settled there with- 
out a dollar, to combat with and " make the wilder- 
ness bloom and blossom as the rose." 

Mr. JS^ickerson does not irrigate his vineyard but 
has an abundance of water throughout the year to 
fructify his grand orchard. The water of the Bear 
River Canal flows through the entire length of his 
ranch, thus aftbrding every facility for irrigating his 
fruit trees. He has no less than 90,000 good bear- 
ing vines now, besides 75,000 more planted a short 
time ago, the greater number of which will bear next 
year. There are no less than 270 varieties of grape- 
bearing vines. Forty other varieties will bear this 
and next year, and those of the choicest selections. 
At the State Fair of 1869 Mr. Nickerson exhibited no 



less than 1,200 varieties of fruits, including 216 of 
grapes. He will have this fall the large number of 
2,000,000 rooted vines for sale of careful and choice 
selection. His orchard contains no less than 6,000 
fruit trees, including 1,000 planted this year. He 
has, in all, 1,400 varieties of fruit, including grapes. 
The orchard presents a magnificent sight, truly, laid 
out in broad avenues; the branches of every tree 
being laden with foliage and blossoms of wondrous 
beauty, emitting a delightful fragrance on the circum- 
ambient air. The soil is simply composed of granite. 
Berries of great variety flourish there, and the 
almond, black and English walnuts, and a great vari- 
ety of other nut trees yield abundantly. Everything 
that flourishes in this climate, except the orange 
and lemon, may be found at Nickerson's — but 
there cannot be a doubt but that those will grow 
there luxuriantly. He will experiment very soon. 
He has wondrous avenues bordered by grand fig trees, 
and even down to the persimmon. He has had two 
depots — one at Reno and another at Truckee, both 
east of the Sierra Nevada. In 1869 be paid to the 
Central Pacific Railroad Company $3,500, exclusive 
of a large amount paid to Wells, Fargo & Co., for 
fruit sent by express. Of wines he has the Muscat, 
Hamburg, Peru, Palestine, St. Peters, Traminier, 
(champagne grape), Angelica, Catawba, Isabella, and 
others too numerous to mention. Of brandies he 
has from the grape, pear, apple, peach, and other 
fruits. Mr. Nickerson's opinion is that the Malaga 
is the best raisin grape. He puts up tons and tons 
of dried iruits, which are sent to all portions of the 
country. Mr. Nickerson has received three gold 
medals for his displays of fruit, and the walls of his 
parlor are adorned by the many diplomas awarded 
to him by the various fairs. He is a constant ex- 
hibitor at the State Fair; often at the Mechanics' 
Institute Fairs, in San Francisco, and District Fairs, 
at Chieo, Marysville, and elsewhere, and has never 
failed in carrying off' the highest prizes and diplomas 
for his fruit, also winning prizes for his display of 
hams, bacon, lard and other products. The region 
is healthy, the water excellent, and any amount of 
timber contiguous to the rancho, while the facilities 
for the transportatin of produce by railroad are all 
that could be desired." 

At the State Fair in September, 1871, the follow- 
ing awards were made to exhibitors from Placer 
County. On wines J. R. Nickerson received §10.00 
for the best white still wine, two years old; also, 
810.00 for the best red still wine, two j-earsold; also, 
$10.00 for the best claret wine at the fair; also, $10.00 
for the best grape brandy, one year old; also, $100 
for the best general display of fruits, embracing the 
best and greatest varieties of any exhibitor at the 
fair. Joshua Reeves, of Lincoln, was awarded the 
first premium, $40.00, for the best stallion, Vibrator, 
for horses of all work. For first-class thoroughbred 
cattle, R. M. Sparks, of Lincoln, received the first 
premium, $30.00, for the best Durham cow, Maggie. 



246 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



two years old or over. Mrs. Lee Chamberlain, of 
Lincoln, also received a premium of §5.00 for the 
best cone work on exhibition, rare skill and taste 
being displayed on the work. James E. Nickerson 
was also awarded a gold medal for the largest and 
best display of varieties of fruit. 

At every State Fair while Mr. Nickerson re" 
mained the owner of the ranch he surpassed all com- 
petitors in displays of fruit, and it is doubtful if his 
exhibit could have been surpassed by anj- one person 
in the world. 

Of Mr. Nickerson and his ranch, Mr. Thomas S. 
Myrick writes in February, 1881: '-Thirty years ago 
the veteran pioneer in fruit culture in Placer County, 
Mr. James R. Nickerson planted an orchard and 
vineyard on Doty's Ravine, three miles north of the 
thriving village of Lincoln. He sold his fruits at 
fabulous prices in the mining camps of Yuba, Nevada 
and Placer Counties. In the process of time he ex- 
tended his grounds until he bad over one hundred 
acres in fruit and vineyard cultivation. The present 
owner of the celebrated Nickerson Vineyard is Mr. 
Herndon Barrett, of Marysville, who puts upon the 
market tons of superior raisins annually, besides large 
quantities of wine. Mr. Nickerson now owns a large 
ranch on Wolf Creek, in Nevada County; and one of 
his sons, Mr. James Nickerson, is the enterprising 
manager of the California Raisin Company's vine- 
yard in Clover Valley, near the village of Rocklin. In 
the early history of the cultivation of the grape in 
California, vineyards were very generally located on 
the deep and rich soil of the valleys, or on the ex- 
tended adobe land of the plains, but subsequent ex- 
perience has demonstrated the problem that the 
ridges and slopes of the foot-hill lands are especially 
adapted to the successful and profitable cultivation 
of the grape, both for raisins aiid for wine. The 
phylloxera has become the incurable pest of the 
vineyards which are located in the alluvial valley of 
the Coast Range, and mildew blights the crops of 
those which are planted on the deep and moist 
soil of the plains." 

SPRING VALLEY RANCH. 

This tract comprises about 20,000 acres; is situated 
in the southern part of Placer County, twenty miles 
north of Sacramento, and between the towns of 
Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln, and is the property 
of Mr. J.P.Whitney. 

The western part of the properly is intersected for 
a distance of four miles and a half by the Oregon 
Division of the Central Pacific Railroad in its route 
from Lincoln to Roseville, while the eastern boundary 
extends to the Central Pacific Railroad at Rocklin. 

The property occupies in Placer County that par- 
ticular locality where the lower foot-hills of the 
Sierra Nevada range of mountains mingle and glide 
almost imperceptibly into the long reaches of the 
Sacramento Valley; diversified here and there by 
ridsjes and little streams of water and the most 



graceful and picturesque valleys imaginable. As one 
descends from the pine region of the mountains 
through the manzanita and chaparral growth of the 
upper foot-hills, his vision is surprised and gratified 
by the graceful contour of the lower foot-hills, and 
their luxuriant growth of oaks and buckeye groups, 
resembling more in appearance the cultivated parks 
of England than a stranger would suppose the foot- 
hills of the lofty Sierra. 

Here is the region most favored in the State for 
the cultivation of vineyards and fruit, yearly more 
appreciated for the peculiar flavor of its products, 
and destined ultimately to be the most valuable in 
the State for grapes and the delicate varieties of 
fruit. 

Here has been demonstrated also the most suc- 
cessful growing of fine wool sheep on the Pacific 
Coast. 

This was commenced in the year 1855 by Mr. 
George Whitney, father of the present owner, now 
residing in San Francisco, at an advanced age, who 
may be accounted one of the earliest pioneers of an 
industry which has of late years assumed such large 
proportions. 

Mr. Whitney imported into the State from Aus- 
tralia, a small flock of pure Saxony sheep, 120 in 
number, at a cost of over $50.00 each, which for years 
were carefully bred in with pure-blooded Spanish 
Merino Bucks, brought from the State of Vermont. 

At the period when Mr. Whitney engaged in this 
pursuit, the total wool product of the State was esti- 
mated at 300,000 pounds, which steadily increased 
until the maximum of State production was reached 
in 1876 of 56,550,000 pounds. Since that year, owing 
to a more extensive cultivation annually of grain 
lands, a moderate decrease has occurred. 

In 1868 Mr. Whitney, senior, retired from the bus- 
iness, disposing of his interests to his sons, J. P. and 
F. L. Whitney, who carried on the business together 
until 1872, when Mr. F. L. Whitney disposed of his 
interests to his brother, J. P. Whitney, the present 
owner, retiring to go into the wool business in San 
Francisco, where he is at present engaged. 

When Mr. George Whitney engaged in the enter- 
prise, and even up to 1868, the whole region was 
unfenced, and open to settlement and the grazing of 
predatory stock. 

Upon the building of the Central Pacific and Ore- 
gon Railroads, from Sacramento through this region, 
a marked change occurred: Towns sprung up along 
the railroads; settlers came in rapidly, and a new 
era of prosperity was inaugurated for the lower 
agricultural portion of Placer County, as well as for 
the mining regions in the upper part of the count}'. 

It was the habit in early days to believe that the 
agricultural possibilities of C'alifornia were limited, 
an opinion now happilj- dispelled by the immense 
products of the State. This belief was generally 
held by the wool and cattle men of Placer Countj- in 
common with others, and farming was carried on in 



AGRICULTURE. 



247 



a very limited manner until 1872, when Mr. J. P. 
Whitney ploughed up and put 1,200 acres in grain 
of his land !> iiig below Lincoln, adjacent to the Ore- 
gon Divisiiiii of the Central Pacific Railroad. 

This laiiil and additional large tracts have been 
regularlj' cultivated since. The total of land under 
cultivation upon the Spring Valley Ranch at the 
present time exceeding 4,000 acres, although the 
system of summer-fallowing pursued, precludes the 
putting in of grain upon over one-half of the culti- 
vated land in one year, the other half Ij'ing dormant 
and resting until the following year. 

By the system of summer-fallowing, and of late 
fall dry sowing upon land which has been well 
ploughed up and harrowed in the spring, good crops 
have been secured, and since this system has been 
pursued, no entire failure has occurred any year. 

In addition to grain growing, large quantities of 
hay are cut and baled at the ranch every year, which 
is mainly disposed of to the lumber men and mining 
companies in the towns above on the line of railroad. 
The property is under the direct management of Mr. 
John T. Whitney, cousin of Mr. J. P. Whitney, well- 
known in Placer County as one of the most prudent 
and experienced of managers. 

In 1877, Mr. Whitney laid out and planted on one 
of his foot-hill valleys, a vineyard of 250 acres in 
Muscat of Alexandria vines, which is the second 
largest bearing vineyard in the vState. This vineyard 
was noticed in the Grass Y&Uey Foof-IIill Tidings of 
December 31, 1881, as follows: — 

More attention has been given in California this 
j'ear than in any other, to the curing of raisins, and 
the shipments East have exceeded the amount of 
last year by many hundred tons. In vSpain, the 
curing of raisins is confined almost exclusively to the 
Malaga district, while we find in California a long 
stretch of country, from north to south, ftivorably 
adapted to cultivation. 

The industry is a comparatively recent one here, 
but is making rapid progress, and it is quite within 
the bounds of reason to say, that the State possesses 
a capability to supply the whole country with this 
choice fruit. 

While the flat lands and irrigable tracts in the 
State are capable of producing a good and superior 
quality, as evinced by the products from the Briggs, 
Blower and other vineyards, and the irrigated 
colonies in different parts of the State; we have 
repeatedly drawn attention to the superior advan- 
tages of our foot-hill lands, for grape and raisin 
cultivation, as well as for most kinds of fruits. 

Our attention is particularly drawn to the adapt- 
ability of the foot-hill region, by the result of this 
year of the California Raisin Company, near Rock- 
lin, in Placer County. 

The vineyard of this company occupies a valley of 
250 acres, two and one-half miles west of Rocklin, 
which five years ago was in its indigenous state, 
considered ap|propriate for sheep grazing, and its 
growth was of buckeyes and scrub oaks. 

This vallej^, now under deep plowing and high 
cultivation, and without any irrigation, may be con- 
sidered OIK' of the most successful in California, 
yielding this year nearly seventy tons of superior 



raisins, while its product may be expected to annually 
increase until the vines have reached maturity. 

The vineyard is inclosed by about four miles of 
fence, and is laid out in blocks of vines, of an acre 
each, intersected with roads and avenues, and in its 
regularity and apportionments of drying grounds 
and buildings, may be presented as a model vineyard. 

The vineyard was laid out by Mr. J. P. Whitney, 
prominently known for his extensive land reclama- 
tion and irrigating works in the State, and who is 
extensively engaged in wool and grain growing in 
Placer County. 

The whole product of the vineyard this year was 
shipped to Chicago, excepting the first selections, 
which, tastefully packed in four-pound boxes, have 
been disposed of in the home market at prices con- 
siderably in advance of those asked for the best of 
foreign layers, and have been mainly purchased by 
Californians for presents, and to send East as a 
sample of what the State can do in the raisin line, 
and for size, bloom and exquisite flavor certainly 
equal, if not surpass any foreign production. 

The Spring Valley Ranch is entirely inclosed with 
substantial walls and fence, with many subdivisions, 
aggregating nearly 100 miles in length, and carries 
now with several thousand acres belonging to the 
estate in Sutter County, 14,000 head of sheep, all 
derived from the original stock, while many thousand 
head have been sold from the ranch, the annual 
increase now being from 4,000 to 5,000. 

These sheep having been carefully bred and 
culled, areunequaled by any large flock in the State, 
producing annually over six pounds of superior wool 
per head, which is well known in the Boston wool 
market, where it has been exclusively sold for the 
last thirteen years. 

The fine quality is indicated by the prices the wool 
has sold for, the spring clips for the whole period of 
thirteen years averaging in its unwashed condition 
thirty-five cents per pound. The spring clip of 1880 
was sold for forty cents per pound, and the spring 
clip of 1881 for thirty-eight cents per pound. 

Mr. Whitney has also been prominently engaged 
in other parts of the State in land enterprises; a few 
yeai's ago he owned the larger part of 120,000 acres 
of the swamp or tide lands on the Sacramento and 
San Joaquin Rivers, and in 1876-77 reclaimed by 
substantial levees or embankments of thirty-six 
miles in length, the upper part of Roberts' Island, 
near Stockton, on the San Joaquin River, a tract of 
20,000 acres which is now under high cultivation, 
and one of the most successful reclamation districts 
in the State. 

In 1878, Mr. Whitney having disposed of his tide 
lands, gave his attention to the irrigation of lands 
in the San Joaquin Valley, where the annual rain- 
falls are insuflS,eient to insure cultivation. 

Selecting a tract of eleven square miles near 
Fresno, on the Southern Pacific Railroad, known 
now as the Washington Irrigated Colony, ho con- 
structed about seventy miles of canals .and ditches, 
and laid out the tract in ton and twenty-acre lots, 
carrying the water over the entire tract, and appli- 



48 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



cable to each lot, by a large canal from King's River 
twenty-six miles distant. 

This project vvas designed to give homes for those 
in moderate circumstances, and has succeeded in 
placing several hundred persons on the colony, whore 
a prosperous community now exists. 

assessor's report in 1S70. 

The Assessor in 1870, reported the agricultural 
products of the year as follows: Wheat, 101,802 
bushels; barley, 57,400 bushels; oats, 2,590 bushels; 
rye, 1,457 bushels; corn, 200 bushels; potatoes, 4,071 
bushels; sweet potatoes, 3,345 bushels; hay, 6,665 
tons; butter, 11,390 pounds; cheese, 938 pounds; 
wool, 151,420 pounds; honey, 7,609 pounds; wine, 
173,128 gallons and of brandy 5,496 gallons. The 
value of these products was $275,000. 

Of grape vines there were 813,514; strawberry 
vines, 171,600; raspberry, 50,536; apple trees, 55,971 , 
peach, 35,864; pear, 19,871; plum, 11,773; cherry, 
5,783; nectarine, 3,410; quince, 2,170; fig, 1,998; 
mulberry, 4,868; prune, 871 ; almond, 824; and walnut, 
597. 

SUCCESSFUL HORTICULTURISTS. 

Among the successful horticulturists at that time 
was Mr. Anton Armbruster, of Neiisburg, whose 
apple orchard was one of the best in the county. 
His location was at an altitude of 1,800 feet above 
the sea, which appeared to be in the favored belt to 
secure the proper temperature for the perfection of 
the apple. In his orchard he had about 400 trees in 
bearing in 1871, from which he gathered 28,000 
pounds of aj)ples of the most choice varieties, for 
market. 

Messrs. Silva, Dr. Frey, Michael Bauman, Rev. N. 
R. Peck and others, of Newcastle, John McGinley, 
of Rose Spring, freorge W. Applegate, of Lisbon, J. 
W. Hulbert, Dr. (Jrandall and others in and near 
Auburn whose places are not particularly described, 
have been distinguished for their enterprise and 
success in fruit culture. 

.J. W. IIULBEKT 

Was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, January S, 
1818, where he lived until about four years of age. 
The removal of the family to Brantford, Upper 
Canada, caused our subject to pass his boyhood days 
on Canadian soil. At the age of eighteen years he 
returned to the United States, and settled in Aurora, 
Cayuga County, New York, whore he completed his 
education by attendance at school for one year. His 
removal to Pennsylvania, where he lived about three 
years, gave him an opportunity of learning the ways 
of the people of that great State. His next location 
was near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and he finally 
settled at Columbus, Columbia County, where he 
lived until 1861. In the latter year he came to 
California by way of the plains, and settled in Sutter 
County, on the Sacramento River; he afterwards 
lived on the Butte Slough, and at this place had a 



fine orchard. His home was in Sutter County until 
1875, at which time he came to Auburn, where he 
resided one and one-half years. He then removed 
to his present location, situated about three miles 
northwest of Auburn, on the Marysvillo road, where 
he has one of the finest orchards in the county, 
covering about forty acres, and containing _over 
6,000 trees. A view of his residence and surround- 
ings will be found in this volume. 

Mr. Hulbert has always taken a great interest in 
the cultivation of fruit, being a careful and advanced 
student on the subject, and has done much to advance 
the business in Placer County. 

AN UNUSUAL FROST. 

About the middle of April, 1872, a severe frost 
was experienced throughout the entire State, which 
inflicted much damage to the fruit. During Feb- 
ruary preceding the weather had been so mild as to 
bring vegetation forward, almond trees being in full 
blossom and peach buds showing their color before 
the last of the winter month, and, as a consequence, 
the frost in April was more destructive than ordina- 
rily. In the vineyard of J. R. Nickerson fully 100 
acres of vines were blighted, but this did not destroy 
the ci'op as the vines put forth new wood, and a 
two-thirds yield followed, but the almonds, peaches, 
nectarines, plums, and other tender fruits, were 
nearlj' all destroyed through the western section of 
the county, and on low lands throughout the State. 
On elevations, however, of 800 feet altitude the 
frost was not felt, and in many sheltered localities 
the fruit was saved. The fact was proven, that 
through a certain belt of elevation thei'e was 
greater security against loss bj' frost than in the 
apparently more fertile and favorable localities in the 
lower valleys. 



CHAPTER XXXI V. 

AGRICULTURE. 

[l'ONTINTED.] 

Orange Culture— M. Andrews — Foot-hill Fruits — Silk Culture — 
Works and Life of B. Bernhard — Productions of the Granite 
Hills — Cotton Culture — Alfalfa, or Chili Clover — Angora 
Goats — Agriculture in the Mountains — William N. Lee — 
Statistical Report for 1SG9 — Statistics for KS7o. 

The orange in its beauty and delicacj" is tho fitting 
crown of Pomona's kingdom. The tree of perfect 
symmetry of form, a foliage of deep, brilliant, and 
unchanging green, with flowers so incomparable in 
their loveliness and fragrance that the}' have given 
the distinctive name of "orange blossoms" as the 
title of perfection, and when studded with fruit in 
its setting of rich and glossy green, the whole is a 
picture of unequaled arboreal loveliness. Of this the 
poets have sung through all the ages of civilization, 
and with the orange all comparisons are made. 




' l^'SP^^i^i^^ \ 




\ 



<_| [ r r f f 






ii 






HOTEL OF E GRANT 

P£MPVN PLACER COUiVTr CAL. 




AGRICULTURK. 



24!t 



Where the orange grows there, it is known, is a 
genial climate and a fertile soil in a record more sat- 
isfactory to the ignorant, as well as the educated, 
than columns of official statistics of temperature, 
humidity, and anaij'zalion of soils. To jieople of 
northern latitudes, the orange is associated with 
distant tropic climes. 

— "of the land of the celai- and vine, 
Where the flowers ever blossom, the leaves ever shiue; 
Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume; 
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in their bloom; 
Where the orange and olive are fairest of fruit, 
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute, 
Where the tints of the earth and the hues of the sky, 
In color though varied, in beauty may vie." 

The countries of the Mediterranean, the Indies, 
and the isles of the Pacific were the lands of the 
orange. In our own country wore the orange groves 
of Florida and Los Angeles, but no one looked to 
the higher latitudes for the golden fruit. Like much 
of the progress in cultivation, the planting of the 
orange in the northern part of California was more 
of an accident, or pleasantry, than of intelligent 
design. The first growth in the mountain region was 
from a seed planted in 1853 at Bidwell's Bar, in Butte 
County. This was planted more in playfulness than 
in the expectation of its growing; but, to the sur- 
prise of all, it grew and flourished, and, in ten years 
thereafter, bountifully rewarded the fortunate owner. 
This was sufficient proof that the foot-hill region in 
the northern part of the State was adapted to the 
growth of the royal fruit, but still there were few 
who had the sagacity to profit by the lesson. The 
orange tree of Bidwell's Bar has now become cele- 
brated, and in 1881 yielded a crop of one hundred 
dozen oranges. 

To Mr. Moses Andrews of Auburn is due the honor 
of first planting oranges in Placer County. In 1860 
he followed the example of the experimenter of 
Bidwell's Bar, and planted some orange seed. These 
sprouted and grew, taking their chances among other 
fruit trees of a more hardy nature, and in due time 
blossomed and bore the delicious fruit. The tree of 
Mr. Andrews stood on an exposed ridge, fully 1,300 
feet above the level of the sea, and, through all its 
j^ears from sprouting to bearing, withstood whatever 
of winter frosts and summer drought prevailed, 
maturing into a vigorous and fruitful tree, a conclu- 
sive and satisfactory proof of the adaptability of the 
region to production of semi-tropical fruits. In 1871 
Mr. Andrews saw his first oranges, and from that 
time they have become plentiful. 

In the meantime others had planted orange trees 
in Auburn and vicinity, who a few j-ears after 
reaped rich reward for their enterprise. 

The Herald of May 2-1, 1873, under the head of 
■' More Oranges," says: — 

From Rev. N. R. Peck, who has a most highly 
cultivated place at Ophir, excelling in beauty and 
variety of pomological and ornamental trees and 
plants to be found in most of the larger and noted 
places in the State, we learn that he has also an 
orange tree, of which he planted the seed with his 



own hands, that came into bearing last season, and 
is now literally crowded with bloom and young 
oranges. The fruit of last season from this tree was 
equal, if not superior, to any raised in southern Cali- 
fornia, or imported. We note this as we have the 
trees of Mr. Andrews, in Auburn, and Barkhaus, 
near Gold Hill, only to say that the people of Placer 
County, south and west of the American River, live 
in the garden spot of the world if they only knew it. 
W. C. Norton and Robert Gordon, in Auburn, the 
Messrs. Chamberlain, in western Placer, and manj- 
others, have thrifty orange trees ready to come into 
bearing, and the tests of those that have already 
borne will lend an impetus to this branch of business 
in Placer, that will make the orange, lemon, and 
lime groves on our bills and valleys as common in 
the next ten years as are now the apple, peach, pear, 
cherry, fig, etc. There has been no instance, even 
as high up in the foot-hills as Auburn, where the 
orange has not ripened to perfection in the winter, 
and they bloom here in May after all danger of frost 
is over, and from these two demonstrated facts 
another follows, and that is that the orange tree 
grown out of doors here is more reliable for a crop 
every year than either the peach or the ajiple. There 
are now growing and bearing in these hills and val- 
leys apple, pear, plum, cherry, nectarine, almond, fig, 
English walnut, persimmon, and quince, with all 
the varieties of berry, and when we add the lime, 
lemon, and orange, with the other semi-tropical vari- 
eties, why do wc not speak correctly when we saj- 
we live in what uughf to be the garden spot of the 
world ? 

One other word. Our markets furnish the orange, 
lemon, and lime. These can be purchased, the seed 
planted and the trees grown out of doors; and wh}' 
not every man who owns a place plant seeds and 
raise his own plants at home ? It would not surprise 
us if the day was not distant when the lemons and 
oranges from the foot-hills of Placer would, as now 
do our mountain fruit and berries, drive the valley, 
southern, and imported oranges and lemons from 
the city markets. 

MOSKS ANDREWS. 

Son of .Jessie and Sarah (Alvord) Andrews, is a 
native of the State of M^assachusetts, having been 
born in the town of Montague, Franklin County, on 
the 6th day of October, 1822. His education was 
received principally in the comnaon schools of his 
native town, with the addition of tw^o terms at the 
Deerfield Academy, in the town of Decrfield. After 
leaving his studies, he apprenticed himself to a 
watchmaker and jeweler, bj" the name of C. Chand- 
ler, in the town of Greenfield, and afterward was 
with Scth Flag, in the same lino of business, at 
Springfield. Mr. Andrews finally finished his trade 
with Benjamin E. Cooke, at Northampton, and soon 
after, in October, 1843, went to the City of New 
York, and for the succeeding three years was 
engaged with the well-known firm of Stebbins & Co., 
as watchmaker for their establishment. In October, 
1846, Mr. Andrews, desiring to see the southern por- 
tion of the United States, left New York, and, after 
some travel, was engaged at his trade bj- L'Horame- 
dieu Bros., in Mobile, Alabama, until June 1. 1848, 
at which time he returned to New York, and, in the 
following October, started a watchmaking business 



250 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



of his own, ou Courtland Street. This ho continued 
until, inspired by the news of discovery of gold in 
California, and a desire to behold the wonders of the 
Pacific Coast, he joined the throng who were press- 
ing westward. On the 10th of February, 1849, he 
sailed from New York in the ship Big Cameo, Cap- 
tain Tibbets Commander, with twenty-three other 
passengers, and, as he says, " sailed the Horn 
around;" landing in San Francisco September 28th, 
of the same year, 232 days being consumed in this 
trip. 

Three days after his arrival in San Francisco, Mr. 
Andrews took passage on the schooner Sea Witch, 
and went to Sacramento, where he remained until 
the 13th of the following November, when he sought 
the mines in Placer County, and, on the 12th, landed 
for the first time in Auburn. He remained in the 
vicinity for two weeks, one of which was spent at 
Tamaroo Bar, and the remainder at Rich Flat. He 
then returned to Sacramento, and engaged in gen- 
eral merchandising at that place. He was there 
during the great flood, and sufl'ercd heavy losses 
thereby. January 2, 1850, he returned to Auburn, 
and remained until the Ist of May. He had in the 
meantime, in connection with other parlies, opened 
two stores, one at Sacramento, and another at Mur- 
derer's Bar, in El Dorado County. These stores 
were in operation until June, 1850, when the\' were 
closed out, and Mr. Andrews became one of the great 
army of miners and prospectors, being one of the dis- 
coverers of the famous " Secret Ravine," Placer 
County. In the month of September, 1850, he built 
the first house in the ravine, and opened a trading 
post and boarding-house, which received the name 
of " Wild Cat House." In the month of October 
following, he, in connection with his partners, who 
had been with bim up to this lime, opened a board- 
ing-house at Salmon Falls, in El Dorado County. 
They had about fifty men at work for them, whom 
they boarded, besides as many more outsiders. 
About one year later the partnership ceased to exist. 
In the division of the partnership property, the 
" Wild Cat House," in Secret Ravine, fell to Mr. 
Andrews as part of his share, and he conducted the 
business alone until 1855. In 185-1 he was elected to 
the Assembly of the California Legislature, from 
Placer County, ou the Whig ticket, and made a most 
exeniplai'y record as a legislator. In June, 1855, he 
sailed for his old home in the East, going by the 
Nicaragua route, and during his visit was married 
to Miss Hannah Maria Stephens, a native of Staten 
Island, New York. This union was at Wilmington, 
Clinton County, Ohio, on the 20lh of September, 
1855. The last of the following month found him 
and his bride located at Rattlesnake Bar, on the 
American River, in Placer County, California, where 
he engaged in the business of his youth. In 1856 he 
was elected a Justice of the Peace. In 1857 he 
located permanently in Auburn, which town has 
claimed him as .a resident to tlie present time. In 



1866 the firm of Hubbard & Andrews, bankers, and 
agents for Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express, was estab- 
lished. This firm continued until June 1, 1874, 
when Mr. Andrews bought the interest of his part- 
ner, and the present firm of Andrews & Hollenbeek 
was formed. They are the only banking house in 
Auburn, and conduct a regular business with all 
parts of America and Europe. Wells, Fargo & Co.'s 
business for Auburn is intrusted to them, and there 
is also a department in the same building for the 
watchmaking and jewelry business. 

In Mr. Andrews one finds a sentiment peculiar to 
the old pioneer, and coming as he did to this Coast 
at such an eai'ly date in the historj^ of the State, has 
a stock of knowledge of the useful kind. His mem- 
ory of dates is remarkable, and the stories, of which 
he has an inexhaustible supply, he can tell of " earlj- 
times," is simply astonishing. He is a genial, whole- 
souled man, and is well and favorably known 
throughout this section of the State. 

FOOT-HILL FEUIT. 

In December, 1881, the Sacramento Bee published 
the following as showing the condition and progress 
of fruit culture in the foot-hills of Placer County: — 

Robert Williamson, of the fruit firm of Williamson 
& Co., and one of the firm of W. R. Strong & Co., of 
this city, called at the Bee office on Saturday, with 
an armful of tropical fruits grown on his place near 
Penryn, Placer County — the Orange Hill Fruit 
Ranch. The special fruit to which he directed 
attention was the orange, with its many varieties, 
which is, indeed, a phenomenon of the productive 
qualities of our foot-hill soil for the tropical fruits 
and flowers — products that have long been supposed 
indigenous alone to the Italian and Sicilian climate, 
or that on the south borders of our own continent. 
But the gentlemen named are proving by their 
untiring industrj- that far up in our Sierra pied- 
monts nature has supplied a garden plat capable of 
j>roducing in unlimited abundance fruits and flowers 
of everj^ variety intended to gratifj' the palate or 
fascinate the vision of man. Just three j^ears ago 
this month, Williamson & Co. took up their land 
in that spot and begun to grub out the brush and 
stumps; to-day they have 1,400 orange ti-ees grow- 
ing, and the most of them producing that fruit that 
was one of the refections of the gods. This season 
they will add 600 more trees to the plantation. Fig 
trees — a variety unknown, but closely allied to the 
favorite white fig of Smyrna — is also a capital fruit 
in their garden, and thrives like the mountain pine 
surrounding it on all sides. Among the varieties of 
orange productions left at this office five are especially 
worthy of note, viz: The Navel, a large, clear, 
golden-hued fruit, sweet and juicy, as luscious as the 
choicest imported; the Mediterranean Sweet, some- 
what smaller than the Navel, but likewise sugary 
and toothsome as a table fruit; then the Davis Golden 
Excelsior, which, while yet smaller than the tvvo 
preceding, lacks none of their agreeable flavor and 
general excellence. Then there is the Myrtle Leaf 
Orange, having a leaf like the myrtle, hence its 
name; it is about the size of the Manderine and is 
strictly ornamental. It is said to bo the only vari- 
ety — indeed, the only fruit of the kiml in Califor- 
nia — perhaps in existence. The Occidental Seedling 



AGRICULTURE. 



251 



is another ornamental orange, smaller in size, but 
variegated in hue, like Joseph's coat of many colors, 
and must prove a pretty tree in ornamented yards 
and flower gardens. Messrs. Williamson & Co. have, 
as already said, also a variety of figs, but principal 
among which is a white variety assimilated nearly 
to the White Smyrna of commerce, and which is 
held in such high esteem by after dinner connoisseurs. 
The aroma, the saccharine taste, the delicacy of this 
fig, has no superior, and all that may detract from 
its superlative qualities beyond all its fellows of the 
orchard is a slight elasticity of the skin, but which 
objection can be easilj^ remedied by a process in pack- 
ing. The beauty of this delicate fruit for marketing 
is that after maturing, and being allowed to remain 
on the trees, it accommodates itself to man's desire 
and dries on the limb, and is ready to pack as soon 
as plucked. The truth is, the near mountain base, 
for hundreds of miles in a circuit, is a grand fruit 
plateau when our moneyed men will throw a modi- 
cum of their capital into the industry of developing 
the resources and putting to work the idle labor that 
stalks the State. 

SILK CULTURE. 

From the earliest date of California history the 
opinion has been expressed of its favorable condi- 
tion of soil, climate and seasons for the successful 
growth of the mulberry tree, and the health and 
productiveness of the silk-worm. Other branches of 
business, however, were so attractive that none 
were induced to undertake the care and patience of 
experimenting in the culture. Newspapers, lecturers 
and individuals advocated the subject, and the public 
mind was brought to believe that by proper encour- 
agement silk culture could be established as a leading 
industry; profitable to the small landholder, giving 
employment at light labor to the families of farmers 
and the youth of the cities, and whose manufacture 
would afford rich returns to the investment of the 
capitalist. The many pleasant little valleys, ravines 
and gentle slopes of the foot-hills were specially 
referred to where the mulberry would grow most 
thriftily, and was the most desirable home of the 
silk-worm, and these, exhausted of the gold that 
once enriched them, would be re-enriched with a 
pei'petual wealth many times more valuable, reaped 
with less toil, and providing greater happiness 
than did the golden grains for which they were 
torn and rent by the destructive methods of the 
miner. In these warm ravines the willow, the 
alder, the buckeye, the manzanita, and other shrubs 
and trees delighting in a rich, moist and warm soil, 
bad flourished spontaneously and luxuriantly, and 
there would grow the most perfect leaves for the 
silk culturist's purpose. Many years have passed 
since the subject was agitated, and the occupants of 
these choice places have struggled with corn, barley, 
beans, and other garden and farm products, some 
profiting with vines, peaches and other fruits, leaving 
the culture of the royal fabric to bolder enterprise 
and intelligent experiment. 

In 1866 the Legislature of California passed an 
Act authorizing the payment of bounties for the 



cultivation of mulberry trees and the production of 
silk. This enactment was prepared so indefinitely, 
and with such little knowledge of the question, that 
when in 1868 the planters of the trees began to ask 
for their awards the bankruptcy of the State was 
threatened and the law quickly repealed. Many 
thousand mulberries were planted in various parts 
of the State, particularly in Sacramento and Yolo 
Counties, and every sprout of riding-whip size was 
called a tree. The attempted silk culture of that 
period was more of a '' grab " at the public treasury 
than legitimate enterprise, and, as the business did 
not long survive, the proof of the inutility of State 
bounties in leading a people into great and perma- 
nent industry was made apparent. 

The pioneers of silk culture in California were 
Mr. Prevost and the brothers Neumann, of Santa 
Clara; Mr. Haynie, of Sacramento; Mr. Hoag, of 
Yolo; Mr. Edward MuUer, of Nevada, and Mr. Bern- 
hard, of Placer. The reports of some of these, as 
a matter of history and as arguments, are interest- 
ing. Mr. Haynie reported that in 1868 he fed the 
leaves from three and a half acres of land covered 
with two-year-old morus multicaulis trees grown 
where they stood from cuttings. They had been 
cut back the preceding winter and spring, close to 
the ground, and the tops used for cuttings, so they 
did not furnish much over half the foliage they would 
have done had they been pruned with an eye to that 
purpose. The result was 486 ounces and ISi pen- 
nyweights of eggs, sold at 84.00 an ounce — §1,946.70; 
value of eggs retained, $1,897.50; perforated cocoons 
sold at .-?75.00, or a total value of S3, 920. The 
expense for labor, etc., was $472, leaving a profit ot 
$3,448. The feeding commenced on the 1st of June 
and on the 25th of July the eggs wore all made. 
This gave a net return of $1,000 per acre from the 
second j-ear of planting the trees, and not two months 
time occupied in feeding the silk-worms and gather- 
ing the harvest. 

This, however, was at an exceptional period, when 
the demand for eggs in France was great and the 
price high, but it nevertheless demonstrated the 
adaptability of the country for the culture. But the 
season's labor was not closed with the first crop of 
eggs. During the month of August the same gen- 
tleman, from the same trees, fed a like number of 
worms of the Japanese ti-ivoltine variety, and pro- 
dued a large quantity of cocoons. 

The experiments of Mr. Hoag, in Yolo, and Mr. 
Muller, in Nevada, were equally successful, the profits 
being from .$1,000 to $1,500 per acre of trees. In 
1868 and 1869, when these trials were made, the 
value of eggs was from $4.00 to $6.00 an ounce, and 
of perforated cocoons 75 cents per pound. 

The principal eftbrts of the silk culturists were in 
the production of eggs to supply the ravages of disease 
in Europe. The demand at high rates did not con- 
tinue, the bounty was withdrawn, the excitement 



252 



HISTORY OF PLACER OOtlNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



decliued and the fine promise of silk culture disap- 
pointed. 

The art of reeling silk is a necessary adjunct to 
the successful culture, and in silk-producing coun- 
tries is the work of women and children, evincing 
the fact that it is not difficult to acquire. Light 
labor attends the whole pi-ocess, from the picking of 
the leaves to the reeling of the cocoons, making it 
a most inviting industry on small farms with small 
capital — the labor that of the famih^ the market 
unlimited, and the jn-oduct imperishable. 

WORKS AND LIFE OF B. BERNHAIU). 

While the excitement and the "grab" for bounties 
in 1867 and '68 prevailed, most in sight of the Capi- 
tol, there were others who were most earnest in their 
efibrts to produce silk as a legitimate business. 
Among these were Mr. Edward MuUer, of Nevada, 
and Mr. B. Bernhard of Placer. The latter's 
work belongs to the history of Placer County. Mr. 
Bernhard is an experienced, intelligent, industrious 
and very determined expei'imenter. He is a native 
of the Old World, having been born at Foldah, 
in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Cassel, Germany, Sep- 
tember 9, 1833, remaining in his native land until he 
grew to manhood, when, at the age of twenty-two 
years, he emigrated to the United States. In 1846 
he was married to Miss Rosa How, in Pennsylvania, 
also a native of Germany. He lived in different 
parts of the Atlantic States until 1852, when he 
came to California, arriving in San Francisco late in 
March of that year, but did not tarry in the metrop- 
olis, at once coming to Placer Countj', which has 
since been his home. 

From the time of his arrival until 1868 be was 
engaged in teaming over the mountains, and did a 
thriving business. In the last-named year he bought 
the place upon which he now resides. The place 
comprises an area of thirty acres, at the time of the 
purchase of the uninviting red hills and rocky ridges 
found in the suburbs of Auburn. Here he has matle 
his home and reared his family, prospering from 
well directed industry, showing the wealth of the 
foot-hill lands, so often spurned by those seeking 
homes, and so forbidding in their natural state. 
The accompanying sketch shows the wilderness 
transformed into the garden. 

Mr. Bernhard has made horticulture a success, and 
as a wine grower and brandy maker ranks among 
the first. As a silkculturist he is one of the pioneers 
of an industry which is destined to rank among the 
noblest, most important, and most profitable of Cali- 
lornia. Of the experimental trials, however, it is 
doubtful whether to Mr. or Mrs. Bernhard the high- 
est honors belong. While having successfully estab- 
lished his vineyard and orchards, in the winter of 
1872 he entered upon the trial of silk cultui-e, fii-st 
setting out 1,000 mulberry trees, and in the spring 
of that year attempted the raising of silk- worms. In 
this attempt he failed, as all his worms died. In 1873 
he renewed the eflort, purchasing one ounce of eggs 



of the French Annual variety from Messrs. Muller A; 
Gelette, of Nevada, from which grew between 30,000 
and 40,000 worms, and from these he produced but 
about six pounds of silk. The paucity of the product 
was caused by want of food for the worms. The trees 
were planted in a dry locality and cultivated without 
ii-rigation, the determination on the part of Mr. Bern- 
hard being to make the experiment most thorough. 
The second trial was not a total failure, as the worms 
lived to make cocoons, which, though small, were 
sufficient to preserve the seed and bring a small 
return. The experience, too, was worth much. The 
third year, 1874, Mr. and Mrs. Bernhard were better 
prepared to conduct the work. About 1,000,000 
worms were hatched, and the trees had grown 
thrifty, affording abundant food. The worms lived 
and grew, made large cocoons producing 100 pounds 
of silk, worth SIO. 00 a pound. The time from the 
hatching of the worm until the cocoon was ready for 
the market was about seven weeks, during which 
the labor of attendance was all done by Mrs. Bern- 
hard and her three or four children, besides attend- 
ing to their liousehold duties. 

Of Mr. Bernhard's place the Placer Ihrald of Juno 
14, 1873, gives the following description as it was at 
that early stage of its development: — 

Last Wednesday we made a visit to the premises 
of Mr. B. Bernhard, mainly for the purpose of seeing 
his silk-worms, and observing the mode of feeding 
and caring for them; but seeing so much on all sides 
strikingl}' illustrative of what honest industry can 
accom])lish on the apparently forbidding hills, and in 
the uninviting hoUovvs of this section of the country, 
we were induced to extend our observations. Mr. 
Bernhard's farm, which is located on one of the hills 
immediately adjoining Auburn, consists of about 
thirty acres, all told. 

Leaving the silk-worms we were invited into the 
wine cellar, which, though not small, was so com- 
pletely filled with barrels and tanks, which we were 
informed were all full, that we could hardly get 
around. Next we were shown into the brandy 
house, which was also filled with full barrels of the 
very best quality of brandy. Next we took a stroll 
through the vineyard, whence all this storehouse of 
wine and brandy was produced, and to view this com- 
paratively small field with its burdens of growing 
fruit caused us to marvel that the hand of man, 
when i-ightly applied, could, in so short a time, 
accomplish so much. This small field of thirty acres is 
surrounded by thousands of other acres equally as 
good by nature, but while the outside presents an 
almost arid appearance, within this inclosure Mr. 
Bernhard has, besides 1,000 mulberry trees, 850 large 
bearing fruit trees, of various kinds: one-half acre 
of blackberries completely loaded down with the 
nearly grown fruit; a nice vegetable garden, contain- 
ing a great variety of fresh vegetables; and 17,000 
fine, thrifty grape vines, nearly all bearing, though 
promising this year a lighter yield than usual, owing 
partly to the late frosts, and to the visitation of the 
army worm. 

Mr. Bernhard is at present engaged in excavating 
for a new wine cellar, to be twenty-four bj^ sixty 
four feet in extent, the building to be two stories 
hiiili, built of rock, and connected with the old i tllar 



AGRICULTURE. 



253 



by a tunnel. All lliin, and even more tliaii we have 
described is the result of a few years labor. When 
Mr. Bernhard bought this place it had no significance 
in an agricultural point of view, and without any 
capital but his hands he has made it what we have 
described, and we fear vve have not done justice, and 
he assures us he has never went in debt a dollar,com- 
paratively. We give this to show what the country 
is capable of producing; for this place possesses no 
natural advantages that are not possessed by nearlj^ 
anj- tract of the same size for miles around. 

The vvine cellar referred to above was completed 
in the fall of 1874, and was regarded, if not the best, 
at least the second best in Placer County. The walls 
are of stone, well set in the best of mortar. The 
building is two stories high, and being on a side- hill 
the main entrance to the two stories is on a level 
with the ground, thus obviating the neeessitj- of 
lifting or climbing stairs in stowing away his pro- 
ducts in either department. The basement is large 
and will hold many thousand gallons of wine. The 
fine property, with comfortable residence and pleas- 
ant surroundings, as will be seen in the illustration, 
is all derived from the red knoll, in the foot-hills, 
and a few years of frugal industry. With such 
capabilities of country, and such 'products the rich 
'■mining" county of Placer can never be worked out. 

PRODUCTIONS OP THE GRANITE HILLS. 

The Placer Herakl of Jaiiuarj' 17, 1880, gave the 
following review of the character and the produc- 
tions of the granite hills constituting a portion of 
the foot-hill region of the county: — 

"The granite hills, which lie between Eoseville 
and the beginning of the State, a short distance west 
of Newcastle, include about 60,000 acres. The soil 
is feldspar and potash, holding thirty per cent, of 
feldspai-, and is only two feet deep. The surface is 
quite rough, and in most instances the land has to 
be cleared and cleaned. Each acre contains rock 
sufficient to make a fence and bushes and small trees 
enough if carefully put away for one year's fuel. 
The average Ualifornian will burn this fuel on the 
ground. The whole section is exceedingly pictur- 
esque to the eye of an artist, but very forbidding to 
the eye of a farmer. Six years ago this section of 
Placer County was considered valuable only for 
quarries and random mining. A few planted fruit 
trees twenty years ago in the ravines, but no one at 
that time thought of cultivating the hills. 

Six years ago Dr. Frey went to Newcastle for his 
health, and selected a warty granite nob, on account 
of the view, which was superb. He dug up the 
chaparral and removed the bowlders, making a 
heavy fortification around his twelve-acre lot, and 
planted fruit trees. Three years ago his work began 
to tell what could be produced, and people began to 
think that the granite hills might be utilized. Jiut 
even three years ago the land was purchasable for 
a mere song; since that time the land has been in 
great demand. And now let the story be told about 



this wonderful transformation — what the granite 
hills wrill and will not produce, beginning with a fail- 
ure, because all true success begins in that way. 
These hills do not produce the best apples, and the 
reason is obvious. The trees grow and make wood 
continuously, and hence have no strength to put 
flavor and tartness into the fruit. The ground is 
too warm and the climate is too genial for that fruit. 
Hungarian prunes grow luxuriantly and producit 
profitable results in seven years. The fruit is bettei- 
than the imported article. Date i-alms prosiier 
equally well. The peach trees reach their prime in fiv^- 
or six years, and the old trees planted by the miner.-* 
show that careful trimming will continue their pro- 
ductiveness for twenty-five years. The crop from 
good varieties is always profitable. Dr. Prey's 
peaches are very large, and a box seven inches dee]) 
holds two strata of peaches; the best varieties grown 
on the hills being §2.00 a box, when the valley 
peaches bring only 75 cents. The Sacramento Val- 
ley, however, sends to market the earliest peaches. 
An acre of peach trees of good vai-iety will, if pi-op- 
erly cared for, bring regularly -SSOO at lowest prices. 
Mr. Silva this year obtained for the crop of three 
peach trees four years old, and not over nine feet 
high, .§23.00. One tree twenty years old yielded a 
single crop that brought $53.00. All agree that 
peach orchards require but little irrigation and labor. 
The banana tree grows luxuriantly, but needs pro- 
tection from the severest ft-osts. Dr. Prey has one 
tree three years old that has never been housed 
against the weather. No fruit has yet been produced, 
and we cannot anticipate its quality. The pine- 
apple gi'ows well, but nothing in the way of good 
fruit is expected. The orange trees defy the gentle 
frosts of the granite hills, and grow like weeds. 
Dr. Frey has an orange orchard seven years old, and 
the trees fairly groan with heavy loads of large 
oranges. There are now twenty or thirty thousand 
orange trees in the granite hills. The fruit ripens 
one month earlier than the Los Angeles oranges, and 
the quality is unsurpassed. The lemon and citron 
flourish exceedingly well, but the former is inferior 
to the Sicilj' lemon, though equal to any other in 
qualitj'. The defect may be caused by budding. 
The almond tree is a triumphant success, both as to 
productiveness and quality; one tree nine 5^ears old 
is fifteen feet high, with a branching lop that has a 
circumference of at least twentj- feet. Italian 
chestnuts are raised with great ease; they bear pro- 
fusely and bring fifty cents a pound; one is not 
charmed with theta.ste; the Eastern variety does not 
do well. The black walnut is a perfect success, and 
the European variety also. The filbert does not 
prosper, though the wild hazel grows luxuriantly. 
The large black cheriy tree grows to an enormous 
size, and produces the best possible cherry in great 
abundance. In one cherry orchard the trees only 
nine years old were twenty-five feet high and the 
trunk eight inches in diameter. The crop brings 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



regularly twenty-five or thirty cents per pound. 
The quince bush produces large fruit and heavy 
crops, which are .sold at five cents a pound. The 
pear crop is very large, and always in demand. The 
pomegranate reaches unusual perfection, but has no 
commercial value as yet. An excellent wine is made 
from the fruit, and it is delicious when made into 
sherbet. The granite hills apricots are prolific and 
good, and there is always a demand for them. The 
nectarines are magnificent and much sought after. 
The fig-tree is at present a nuisance on account of 
its productiveness. It will obtain a value as soon as 
some one hits upon a method of curing. In that 
event, the United States can be supplied with tigs 
by the foot-hills. No attention has been given to 
this subject for the reason Jhat the sources of money 
making are already so numerous. Red. white, and 
black currants flourish and produce abundantly. 

The berries of the foot-hills demand special atten- 
tion. The pi'oduction is enormous, and they sell for 
one-third more than valley berries. The granite 
hill strawberries are widely known for their superior 
size and flavor. One acre of strawberries will, if 
carefully watched and cultivated, make a return of 
between $1,700 and $1,800, with prices ranging from 
six and ten cents per pound. Very few, however, 
give the required attention, and hence fail, as a rule, 
to attain the highest success. The average return 
for average work is never less than $300 to one acre. 
There are some varieties that bear every month in 
the year, and the granite hills gardener need never 
be without ripe, fresh strawberries. Now and then 
when cultivators grow slack in toil, the vines make 
a very poor return. It is questionable whether or not 
the foot-hills can ever supply the demand for straw- 
berries, as no one chooses to eat the valley strawber- 
ries when those of the foot-hills can be procured at 
moderate prices. The raspberries are prolific and 
highly flavored, but unfortunately for the granite hills, 
the Santa Clara Valley, near the main market, keeps 
down the prices and renders the crop unprofitable. 
A little more vim might, however, succeed in utiliz- 
ing the raspberries, bj^ making them into jam and 
juice for summer drinks. The granite hills farmers 
raise blackberries on the waste corners, and secure 
a return of from $500 to $700 jicr acre, with prices at 
five and fifteen cents. The foot-hill grape is the 
pride of the table. The product per acre is enor- 
mous, while the labor required is not very consider- 
able. The common Mission grape sells for $17.00 and 
$18.00 per ton. But little has been done in the way 
of raisin making, for the reason that the crop pays 
too well when sold for table use. Mr. Kaiser, near 
Pino, makes a wine that has a great reputation. 
Others produce good wine that sells well in Eastern 
markets. Enough has been made to show that very 
fine wine can be produced. Few, however, if any, 
have planted the vines best adapted to wine-making, 
and much of the wine heretofore made was pressed 
I'roni several varieties mixed. Wine making, though 



a success as to quality in the foot-hills, will not be 
extensively made as long as the grapes can be read- 
ily sold at paying prices. A denser population will 
be needed to make wine-making a great industry. 

The reader will notice in the resume that farmers 
of the lower foot-hills of Placer County have planted 
and successfully raised nearly every kind of fruit. 
As a rule, these trees are quite young and not yet 
sufticientlj' mature to pi-oduce their best results, 
though they have done well in every sense of the 
term. In view of these facts, it is hardly necessary 
to say that the garden vegetables are easily produced. 
The common potato of that region is not the very 
best, though it is as good as that of the lower valley. 
The sweet potato is smaller, but about as good as 
that raised in the valley. Sugar or sweet table corn 
of ver}' fine quality is raised, but not sent to market. 
As everywhere else in California, the sweet corn has 
to fight for its life against the worm. Hardly a 
single ear can be found free from this devouring pest. 
Five or six crops may be raised every season. Green 
peas on Christmas never surprise the granite hills 
farmers — the luxury has become a very coramon- 
jjlace affair. Ripe tomatoes are taken from the vines 
throughout the winter. The various melons are 
good, but not exceptionally so. All the common 
vegetables grow exceedingly well, and make hand- 
some returns in cash. All the flowering plants and 
vines grow like weeds, and floral adornments are in 
easy reach of everybody without expense. Vegeta- 
tion is rarely affected with blight of any kind. 
Peach trees are sometimes injured by the curl-leaf 
and occasionally a fruit tree ceases to bear for a 
season without, so far as the eye can see, just cause. 
But, as a rule, all kinds of crops are regular. 

Few farming countries are so happily provided 
with markets as the foot-hills of Placer County. 
The fruit is in demand Ln the valley or coast cities, 
and in the mountain towns, the State of Nevada, 
the Territories and the Western States. These 
extense mai-kets can never be overstocked by early 
fruits and vegetables. In fact, all early products of 
the foot-hills will always have an unfailing market, 
and their energies will be taxed to supply the wants of 
the 20,000,000 of the northern States, who will never 
cease to purchase such articles when they can be had. 
Foot-hill farming is therefore among the assured 
things of the future. Foot-hill farmers have a cer- 
tain measure of independence in other matters. 
They do not raise much horse feed, though they can 
easily do so, and would if the ground was not more 
valuable for other purposes. Those who succeed in 
reclaiming say 160 acres can raise grain and hay on 
a few acres — that will make them independent of 
the valley in that respect. 

So far the granite hills have been spoken of in 
general terms, though refei'once has been made 
especially to the country about Newcastle, as fairly 
illustrative of the section. Let there be now cited a 
single case and not an exceptional one, to show what 



AGRICULTURE. 



one diligent man can do with these rough hills. In 
1854, a man located on 160 acres near Newcastle 
without a dollar. He succeeded in borrowing •'§1,400 
to put on the land, on which he paid 22 per cent 
per month or 30 per cent per annum, S420 per year. 
He obtained the patent in 1865, after he had paid 
over S4,000 in interest. He has had twenty acres 
under cultivation for several years, and they are 
well covered with fruit-bearing trees. He is now 
out of debt, owns a good house that cost 63,000 and 
has money besides. 

If the reader will analyze this case, foot up the 
amount of interest paid and the cost of living, he 
will sec that the man has made quite a fortune out 
of twenty acres. But it must be remembered that 
hard work and irrigation are absolutely essential to 
success in this kind of fiirming. Water will cost 
about SlOO a year and work will cost a large amount 
of patience. No idler, no speculative philosopher 
need expect to make his salt in the foot-hills. Such 
men will do better by going Bast; certainly they 
cannot do worse. In fact, there is no longer room 
in California for lazy people. Even industrious 
muscle without a few hundred dollars will make but 
slow progress. The land in the vicinity of New- 
castle is all taken up, and it is no easy matter to 
obtain land even at high prices. Land that was not 
worth a cent three years ago, is now held as high as 
SlOO an acre. In 1878, Mr. Silva sold forty aci-es of 
improved land, and received for a portion of it §100 
an acre, for the remainder 6175. This is a demon- 
stration of stupendous progress in three years, and 
the people about Newcastle stand on the great high- 
way of the continent a living, withering rebuke to 
all idlers, a vigorous encouragement to all industrious 
people. Time has not sufficed to ascertain how 
many farms there are about Newcastle, but it may 
be said the farms are all small. Some farmers live 
co7nforlably on two or three acres, doing all their 
own work. To illustrate more completely the success 
of the small farms of the granite hills, the following 
transcript from the books of the railroad and express 
agents at Newcastle are given :^ 

Fruit and vegetables shipped from Newcastle by 
rail and express from .May 1 to December 1,1878: — 

May - S 55,645 

June 157,940 

July - - - 271,172 

August - - 34.3,487 

September - 192,876 

October 131,319 

November . - - 16,049 

December . - - - 5,777 

Total for eight months. 1,170,091 

The account for 1879 at this writing, November, is 
not made up, but the above-named agents say 
that the shipments for this year have been consider- 
able over one-half more than last year, as reported 
above. Add the lowest estimate of the increase and 



it will be seen that there has been shipped from one 
office (there are five offices from which shipments 
are made in the granite hills) in seven months, 
1,755,436 pounds of fruit and vegetables. The head 
men of the fruit association say that these shipments 
would average at least four cents per pound. 

The small farms about Newcastle have then 
marketed, beside what they have used in the last 
seven months, $70,217.20 worth of products. As to 
the amount shipped from the other four centers and 
railroad offices, the sum total must be immense. 
Let the reader bear in mind that these stupendous 
results have been achieved within three or four 
years. Notice the facts also that these results have 
been accomplished by poor men, who were compelled 
to pay exorbitant interest for every dollar they 
borrowed. There is no parallel to this in the history 
of agricultui-e, either in California or elsewhere. And 
grand benefits to California from these people may 
bo counted on. Their children may be hardy, 
intelligent and quick-witted, and they will enrich 
our population by their superior qualities. 

The immediate future of these cultivated granite 
hills is exceedingly attractive. Very pretty houses 
and elegant grounds may already be found. But in 
three or four years the people will have money to 
spare, and then they will adorn their homes and 
farms. Let it be prophesied here, that in less than 
ten years the granite hills in Placer will be celebrated 
for their beauty, a:i they have heretofore been 
notorious for their ugliness. As stated there are 
about 60,000 acres of this granite land. In the 
article cannot now be given the number of acres 
unoccupied and unclaimed, but assurance is given 
that the whole region is as good as that about New- 
castle, and that manj- thousands of acres may be 
obtained at some little distance from the railroad. 
At the furthest point the granite lands ai"o not 
more than twelve miles from the railway. Men who 
know say that some of this land can be procured at 
Government prices. Some belongs to the railroad 
and can be obtained at very low prices. Water can 
be obtained from ditch companies, money can bo 
boiTOwed, and labor and money can redeem every 
acre of this land. 

COTTON CULTURE. 

In 1861, Mr. Duchstein, residing at Gold Hill, tried 
tho cultivation of cotton in his garden at that place, 
and succeeded beyond his expectations. A gentle- 
man familiar with the culture of the famous plant in 
South Carolina and Mississippi, regarded the product 
of Mr. Duchstein as equal to the best upland of those 
States. From one stalk taken as a sample, were 
over forty pods of matured cotton, the staple being 
a trifle shorter than the best Mississippi upland, but 
the seeds were only one half the usual size. 

ALF.\L1A. oil ClIIM CLOVER. 

Alfalfa was introduced in California by (rov. John 
Bigler, who, while Minister to Chili in 1857-61, 



25(5 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



forwarded the seed to this iStato with strong recom- 
mendations for its use. In 1872, Governor Walkup 
reports experimenting ujjon its cultivation in Auburn, 
meeting with great success, and others tried it in 
various parts of the county. 

ANQORA GOATS. 

(3apt. Edward Shirhind is awarded the honor of 
introducing the business of raising the Angora goat 
in Placer County. The first arrivals of these animals 
is not reported, but in 1872 we find Captain Shirland 
the possessor of between 1,500 and 2,000 graded 
Angoras, varying from full-blood to half-breeds, in 
July of that year he imported by rail from the East, 
seventy-five thorough breds, there being thirty-five 
bucks and thirty-nine docs, some of the bucks being 
valued at S250 each. 

AGRICULTURE IN THE JIOUNTAINS. 

Placei' Cduuty, cxlendingas it does from the plains 
of the Saci'amento Valley on the west, to the eastern 
slope of the Sierra Nevada on the east, is topograph- 
ically classified as divided into plain, foot-hill and 
mountain regions. These divisions blend into each 
other so that no positive lino of demarkation can be 
drawn. The western border of the county has an 
elevation of about 55 feet. Roseville is usually 
regarded as in the plain, with an elevation of 163 
feet, and I'ocklin in the foot-hills four miles east, with 
an elevation of 249 feet. Lincoln and Sheridan are 
on the ])lain, but within two or three miles eastward 
the fdot-liills are manifest. The i'oot-hill region is 
usually regarded as extending to between 2,000 and 
2.500 iVct of elevation, or on tiie Central Pacific 
Pailroad from Roseville to Colfax, a distance of 
thirty-six miles; beyond are the mountains in their 
majesty, rent in precipitous canons, clad with tower- 
ing ])ines and subject to the deej) snows of winter. 
Below the line of 2,500 I'eet is the region of gentle 
se;iM)ns, although the snows sometimes extend much 
lower, and there the growth of the most delicate 
fruits has become the chief resource of the Jiusband- 
man. 

The mountain region from an elevation of 2,000 to 
4,000 feet is subject to snow and frost in winter and 
spring, though while the snows are deeper, the cold 
is not as severe as in the northern States east of the 
Rocky Mountains, and the vegetation of those States 
is adapted to this belt. Above 4,000 feet, frosts are 
aj)t to be ex])crienced during many of the summer 
nights suffic-ient to destroj' tender plants. Through- 
out the mountain belt many plants flourish luxu- 
riantly, it being the natural field for potatoes and 
other litirdy vegetables, and the apple, peach, plum 
and fruits of the northern clime grow to perfection. 
About the many mining towns of the high Sierra 
are gardens, orchards and farms of value, and their 
number could be multiplied many fold upon ground 
far superior and in a more genial clime than occupied 
as costlj^ farms in the Middle and New England 
States. 



In the early history of Dutch Flat numbers of 
its pioneer residents, as Wm. N. Lee, E. L. Brad- 
ley, Josejih Hauser, John Thomas, M. S. Gardiner, 
D. \V. Strong, and others, made gardens and planted 
fruit trees and flowering shrubs, giving jjleasure 
and profit to themselves and adding homelike and 
civilizing ornaments to the town. 

WILLIAM N. LEE 

Is a native of the State of Michigan, having been 
born at Farmington, Oakland County, October 9, 
1831. lie remained during his minorit}' in his 
native place, his time being divided between attend- 
ing school and other occupations incident to boy- 
hood's life. On the 10th of May, 1851, he arrived 
in San Francisco, coming by way of the Isthmus 
of Panama. After a short stay in the city he came 
to Placer County, and located at Ophir. During 
the succeeding two years he was engaged in min- 
ing in that then flourishing camp. In 1853 he 
removed to Dutch Flat, and has resided there, or in 
the immediate vicinity, to the present time. His 
business has been divided_.between mining and agri- 
cultural pursuits. He is at present residing upon 
his ranch near Alta, a view of which will be found 
in this book. Mr. Lee was married July 19, 1854, 
to Miss Minerva A. Bliss, a native of Michigan. 
Though Mr. Lee does not claim to be a '49er, he has 
had many vears experience in the mines of this 
Stale, and is thoroughly conversant with that branch 
of industry. 

STATISTICAL REPORT FOR 1869. 

John C. Bogg, Assessor of the county, reported to 
the Surveyor-General, in 1870, the following statis- 
tics of the year 1869: — 

Ijand inclosed, 78,175 acres; land cultivated, 29,633 
acres; sown in wheat, 10,000 acres, yielding 150,000 
Inishels, or 15 bushels average to the acre; barley. 
2,200 acres, yielding 33,000 bushels. It is proper to 
remark that a very considerable portion of the 
wheat, barley and rye sown in this county is never 
cut, but used for hogs, chickens, etc., pasture; and 
nearlj' all the oats raised is cut for hay. One 
hundred and eighty acres of potatoes yielded 15,212 
bushels. Of hay there was returned 8,500 tons; 
butter, 9,350 pounds; cheese, 2,500 pounds; wool, 
76,000 pounds; honey, 10,000 pounds. Offruittrees 
and wines there were returned, apple trees, 31,000; 
peach, 18,000; pear, 11,000; plum, 2,500; Cherry, 
1.200; nectarine, 900; quince, 2,000; apricot, 400; 
fig, 2,100; lemon, 40; orange, 20; prune, 250; mul- 
beny, 2,700; almond, 600; walnut, 225; gooseberry 
bushes, 1,200; raspberry, 40,000; strawbciny vines, 
133,420; grape vines, 617,618; wine, 125,000 gallons: 
l)randy, 5,000 gallons; six breweries, producing 
55,744 gallons of beer; three distilleries, producing 
3,000 gallons. 

LIVE-STOCK. 

Horses, 1,832; mules, 181; asses, 15; cows, 876; 
calves, 850; beef cattle, 1,100; oxen, 510; sheep, 





Mr.w. n. lee. 



, *'^i w i- ^ ii 



U ^ 



a 








Residence of W.N. LEE, Alta, Placer County, Cal. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



27,000; Angora goals, 18; hogs, 9,080; chickens, 
15,640; turkeys, 1,000; geese, 300; hives of bees, 
1,000. 

I.MPROVE.MENTS. 

Saw-mills, 15, producing 17,000,000 feet of lumber; 
shingles made, 2,000.000; quartz mills, 14; quartz 
crushed, 5,000 tons; mining ditches, 36, aggregating 
379 miles in length and running daily 14,000 inches 
of water; railroads. 2, aggregating 112 miles in 
length; registered voters, 6,028; estimated popula- 
tion, 11,500. 

STATISTICS FOR 1875. 

In 1875 there were 288,836 acres of land listed by 
the Assessor, of which 191,369 were in the district 
classed as Western Placer, including the plains and 
lower foot-hills as far as Newcastle; 85,584 acres in 
the district including Auburn and the country north 
of the North B'ork of the American Eiver, and 
11,883 acres in the district south of the North 
Fork. In the first district the land was valued at 
an average of $3.54 an acre; in the second at S3.12i, 
and in the third at 83.66. The first produced 31.000 
gallons of wine, valued at 15 cents a gallon, and 
1,400 gallons of brandy, valued at §1.29 per gallon; 
the second 7,360 gallons of wine and 2,500 of brandy, 
valued at $3.11 per gallon, and the third, 3,600 
gallons of wine, valued at 20 cents a gallon. 

Of live-stock there was the following: American 
horses, 1,438; Spanish horses, 1,140; colts. 598 — 
total horses, 3,146; mules, 258; stock cattle, 1,736; 
beef cattle, 301; cows, 2,285; calves, 952; oxen, 501; 
graded sheep. 23,068; common sheep, 42,728; hogs, 
3,135. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

riiicer County Schools in 1857 — Schools of Placer County — 
Office of County Superintendent — Salary of County Super- 
intendent — Miscellaneous Statistics — Teachers' Institute — 
Alta District — Auburn District — Bath District — Blue Caiion 
District— Butcher Ranch District — Central District — Chris- 
tian Valley District — Clipper Gap District — Colfax District 
--Consolidated District — Coon Creek District — Damascus 
District — Daueville District — Dry Creek District — Dutch 
Flat District — Emigrant Cap District — Excelsior District — 
Fair View District — Forest Hill District — Franklin Dis- 
trict^GoId Hill District— Gold Run District— Iowa Hill 
District — Lincoln District — Lone Star District — Michigan 
Bluff District — Jlount Pleasant District — Mount Vernon 
District — New England Mills District — Newcastle District 
— Ophir District — Penryn District — Rock Creek District — 
Rocklin District — Roseville District — Sheridan District — 
Spring Garden District — Sunny South District — Todd's 
Valley District — Union District — Valley View District — 
Van Trees District — Lapsed Districts — Statistical Tables 
— 0. F. Seavey. 

The founders of the State Government looked 
prophetically forward to the time when families 
and children should follow in their footsteps to the 
golden land. In the Constitution of 1849, provision 
was made for the school system which has carried 
the schools to the front rank among the high edu- 



cational institutions of the LTnion. The Government 
of the United Stales grants to all new States and 
Territories the 16th and 36th sections of land in 
the public land surveys; and this grant, and 500,000 
acres, also expected as granted to other new Stales 
for educational purposes, were devoted to the public 
schools, by that noble instrument, the Pioneer.-^' 
Constitution of California. The Legislature of 
1849-50, failed to organize any school system, or 
levy a tax, for the purpose. The second Legis- 
lature, in 1851, passed an Act concerning public 
schools, but no efficient system was adopted. 

Schools, both public and private, had been cslab 
lished in the large cities and towns, though not 
through State aid imr uiiiier State organization. 
The missions, of course, were the first schools of 
California. The first American school in California 
was a private enterprise, opened by a Mr. Marston. 
in San Francisco, in April, 1847. This he continued 
nearly one year, having twenty or thirty pupils, 
whose tuition was paid bj- their parents. In Feb- 
ruary, 1848, a meeting of citizens was held in San 
Francisco, and a board of school trustees was 
chosen. Mr. Thomas Douglas, a graduate of Yale 
College, was engaged as teacher, and a public school 
was opened, April 3, 1848. In April, 1849. Rev. 
Albert Williams, pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church, organized a private school, charging tuition. 
Late in the fall of 1849, Mr. J. C. Pelton opened a 
school in the Baptist Church of that city; and these 
were the pioneer schools. 

John G. Marvin was the first Slate Superintendent 
of Public Instruction. In his report to the Legis- 
lature, in 1852, he recommended several important 
changes in the imperfect school law of the previous 
Legislature. Among others, that a tax of five cents 
should be levied on each $100, for school purposes; 
that the office of County Superintendent should be 
created; that provision should bo made for school 
libraries; and that the jn-oceeds of the sale of swamp 
and overflowed lands, which had been granted the 
State, should be ai)plied to the school fund. He 
estimated the number of children in the State, 
between the ages of four and eighteen years, at 
6,000. In the second annual report, 1852. the num- 
ber of public schools in the State was rejiorted at 
only twenty. The sales of public-school lands had 
produced a fund of $300,000; the number of school 
children was 17,821, and 3,314 attended school. He 
recommended that the Couiitj- Assessor should be 
ex ojjfe'cjo Supcrinl»)ndent of Public Schools, also, that 
no Catholic schools be allowed any portion of the 
school fund. 

In 1853, the Legislature enacted that the school 
fund should not bo used for any other purpose 
whatever; that religious and sectarian schools 
should not have a pro rata of the school fund. The 
County Superintendent was authorized to appoint 
three School Commissioners for each district. 

In 1854, the Legislature provided that fifteen per 



258 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



cent, of the poll-tax should be paid into the school 
fund. An attempt was made to repeal the Article 
prohibiting the granting of money to sectarian 
schools, but the proposed law did not reach a vote. 
The Superintendent reported the number of children 
attending school as having increased from 2,000, in 
1853, to 5,751, in 1854, this being the first attempt 
to get a tabulated statement of school matters. 

In 1855 a bill introduced in the Legislature became 
a law. This provided that no sectarian doctrines 
should be taught in schools receiving public money; 
also that no public money should be appropriated to 
any school not taught by a regularly examined and 
licensed teacher, and important provisions in the 
election of County Superintendents. This statute 
appeared to be the one required to settle the contro- 
versy regarding sectarian schools, and the division 
of public money as the policy has since become as 
fixed as a constitutional provision. 

PLACER COUNTY SCHOOLS IN 1857. 

[From the HeroM of November 28, 1S67.) 

By the examination of the Superintendent's books, 
and the yearly report of the County Treasurer to 
the State Superintendent, which have been kindly 
furnished us by Mr. Milletto, the present efficient 
head of the schools of Placer County, we are enabled 
to furnish our readers with some items of interest 
relating to the cause of education in this county. 

The following exhibits the return of children 
between the ages of four and eighteen years, for the 
years 1856 and '57: — 



1856. 

Auburn . . 127. 

Gold Hill 46. 

Iowa Hill.. - 90- 

Michigan Bluff 27. 

Ophir 29. 

Dutch Flat. . . - 34. 

Yankee Jim's 49. 

Coon Creek 20 . . 

Mt. Pleasant. . 34. 

Secret Ravine. . ... 85. 

lllinoistown 35. 

Dry Creek . 22.. 

Wisconsin Hill 21 . 

Todd's Valley 



1857. 



Total .628 



856 



The district of Rattlesnake was included in 1856, 
in that of Auburn. 

The returns from some of the districts last year 
were mere guess work, consequentlj' it is difficult to 
tell what the actual increase in number has been. 
This year the districts have been canvassed by the 
school marshals. 

The Treasurer's Report for the year ending Octo- 
ber 31, 1857, exhibits the amounts paid into the 



school fund of the county, and sources from whence 
derived as follows; — 



FROM 
STATE. 



FROM 
COUNTY. 



Auburn 

Gold Hill 

Ophir . . . 

Mt. Pleasant. . 

Coon Creek 

Dry Creek . 

Secret Ravine . 
lllinoistown . . 
Yankee Jim's 

Iowa Hill 

Wisconsin Hill 
Michigan City 
Dutch Flat . . 

Totals - . . 



0341 63. 



104 


91. 


91 


46. 


228 


65. 


131 


81. 


280 


05. 


23 


92. 


72 


63. 


91 


46. 



«1,366 52 



$368 29. 


133 


39. 


113 


06. 


98 


59. 


57 


99. 


63 


80. 


246 


50. 


98 


63. 


142 


09. 


260 


96. 


60 


94. 


78 


29 


98 


63. 


«1,821 


22 



•S706 92 
133 39 
218 00 
190 05 

57 99 

63 80 
475 15 

98 63 
267 90 
541 04 

84 86 
150 92 
190 09 

S3187 74 



The total amount of money from all sources paid 
out during the year was $3,007.33. The amount of 
school moneys remaining on hand October 21st, was 
$953.32. 

The State makes its apportionment of school 
moneys on the 1st of January and 1st of July, each 
year. The county made its apportionment on the 
1st of June and the 3lBt of October. The January 
apportionment of the State was $1.65 for each child 
returned, between the ages of four and eighteen 
years, and the July apportionment was $1.04; the 
June apportionment of the county was $1.05, and in 
October eighty-four cents. 

By the above table it will be seen that but nine 
schools received money from the State last year 
This was caused by a failure to make proper returns. 
Five others would have lost their apportionment but 
for the exertions of the present Superintendent, he 
having taken the office in time to cause the necessar}' 
returns to be made. At the present time there are 
fifteen public schools in the county, and an additional 
one will soon be in operation. More interest than 
foi'merly is manifested in the cause of education by 
parents, and the advantages offered by the school 
system of the State are more readily embraced. 

Mr. Millette has exerted himself to systematize and 
establish the different schools ol the county, and 
extend the facilities for school attendance to the 
children in all the settled parts of the county, and 
we are pleased to note that his efforts have been so 
successful. 

Our common schools are yet in their infancy, but 
the benefits to be derived from them may even now 
be felt, and as years increase their number and util- 
ity, the wisdom displayed by the State in fostering 
these primary institutions of learning will be more 
apparent in the impi-oved tone of California society. 

SCHOOLS OP PLACER COUNTY. 

For the following historj' of the schools of Placer 
County we are indebted to Hon. O. F. Seavey, the 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



259 



present eflScient County Superintendent of Public 
Schools: — 

OFFICE OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT. 

Not until the third session of the Legislature was 
any provision made for Countj' Superintendent of 
Schools. During the session of 1852 the Legisla- 
ture enacted a law one section of which made 
County Assessors ex officio County Superintendents, 
and defined the duties of such officer. Through the 
carelessness of the Enrolling Clerk the section cre- 
ating the office was omitted, and the duties of that 
office were specified without creating the office. In 
1853 the Legislature amended the school law, and 
provided that County Assessors should be ex officio 
County Superintendents. 

During the sixth session of the Legislature, in 
1855, the school law was revised. The law, as 
revised, provided for the election of County Super- 
intendents and defined their duties. Under the pro- 
visions of this Act II. £. Force was elected first 
Superintendent of Placer County in September, 1855. 
Within a few months after entering upon the duties 
of his office he died of consumption, and Theodore 
Hotchkiss was appointed to fill the vacancy occa- 
sioned by his death, 

LIST OP COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. 

1855— H. E. Force, elected September, 1855; T. B. 
Hotchkiss, appointed February 5, 1856. 

1856— P. C. Millette, elected September, 1856. 

1857— P. C. Millette, re-elected. 

1859 — S. S. Greenwood, elected. 

1861— A. H. Goodrich, elected. 

1863 — A. H. Goodrich, re-elected. 

1865— S. P. Case, elected. 

1867— S. K. Case, re-elected. 

1868 — C. C. Crosby, appointed. 

1869— J. P. Kinkade, elected. 

1871— J. P. Kinkade, re-elected. 

1873— J. P. Kinkade, re-elected. 

1875— B. Calvin, elected. 

1877—0. F. Seavey, elected. 

1879—0. F. Seavey, re-elected. 

SALARY OF COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT. 

The salary of County Superintendent has varied 
considerably. In the " minute book " of the Super- 
visors the following order is entered November 8, 
1856: "The County Superintendent shall receive a 
reasonable compensation for services, but the same 
shall not exceed $500." During the term of A. H. 
Goodrich the salary was raised to $1,000 per annum. 
While S. R. Case was Superintendent the salary 
paid was .?1,800 per annum. While J. P. Kinkade 
was in the office the compensation was fixed at$l,200, 
and has remained unchanged since that date. The 
expense incurred in visiting schools is paid out of 
the General Fund. 



MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS. 

The following items concerning the six years suc- 
ceeding the introduction of the public school system 
into the count}' have been added because, although 
they give but a vague idea of the condition of the 
schools at that time, yet they throw some light upon 
a period now well-nigh forgotten, and afford some 
information concerningtheearlyyearsof our schools. 

In 1857 there were fifteen districts, representing 
856 census children between four and eighteen years 
of age. 

Amount of State money apportioned for the year 
$269. Fifteen teachers were employed. The school 
year at that time ended on the 31st day of October 

1857. At the end of the year 1857 there were 14 
schools and 628 children. Average length of school 
five months. For the year ending October Slst, 

1858, there were 15 schools and 854 children. For 
the year 1859, total number of children of all ao-es 
1,569; between four and eighteen years of age 609- 
723 children of Californian birth. Amount appor- 
tioned, $6,061.81. In July of that year there was 
apportioned, of State money, 8985; of county money. 
$1,701.64. There were eighteen schools in session 
that year. For 1860 there were 2,703 children of all 
ages; 721 between four and eighteen years of age: 
914 born in California. The total amount appor- 
tioned cannot be ascertained. It appears that $1,792 
came from the State, and $1,701 from the county. 
The public fund paid less than one-half of the school 
expenses. Average length of time school was main- 
tained, five months and eleven days. Four new dis- 
tricts, although formed in 1859, were not enumerated 
till this j'ear, viz.: Forest Hill, 87 census children; 
Pock Creek, 45; Monona Flat, 36; Van Trees, 51. 
Nineteen districts in existence. For the year 1861 
there was apportioned, of State money, -52,142; of 
county money, $2,911; amount raised by subscrip- 
tion, $4,508; amount raised by distinct taxes and rate 
bills, $3,420. Average length of school term , six months 
and three and one-half days. One district main- 
tained school the whole year. Number of census 
children, 1,440; number born in California, 1,364. 
Stewart's Flat, Mad Caiion, Lone Star and Lincoln 
Districts receive public money for the first time. 
For 1862 there were 1,786 census children, and 
Union, Franklin and Smithville were added to the 
number of school districts. Twenty-six schools 
were maintained that year. 

ALTA DISTRICT. 

Formed February 12, 1872. E. M. Panvard, N. 
Pedlar and G. Kodgers constituted the first Board of 
Trustees. Miss A. V. Kelly taught the first term of 
school, which began in the spring of the same year. 
Forty pupils attended. The school house is situated 
in the town of Alta, fronting the railroad, and is 
23x45 feet in dimensions. It was built with money 
raised principally by giving dances. Fifty-three 



260 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



pupils can be seated in tiic main room. Seats are till 
patent. Pretty well supplied with maps and charts. 
Diirmg the last term taught bj' R. D. Faulkner, 
fift3--one pupils attended, five of whom were in the 
grammar grade. 

The library number.'^ 108 volumes. J. Q. Baxter 
is the present District Clerk. 

.WBL'RN DISTRICT. 

John G. Marvin, the first Superintendent of Public 
Instruction, in his first annual report states that 
there was a small school at Auburn in 1851, but the 
oldest residents are unanimous in the opinion th:it 
the first school was taught in 1852. According to 
their best recollection a private school was opened in 
the fall of 1852 by a Mrs. Horton in a house known 
as the Parsonage, which stood on the west side of 
Sacramento Street, a short distance above the site 
of the present American Hotel. Rev. J. R. Rodgers 
succeeded her, using the Methodist Church, located 
>till higher on the hillside, and on the opposite side 
of the street. For several years the lower story 
of the Masonic Hall, standing on the northeastern 
side of the common, now inclosed in the Court House 
yard, was used as a school room. In 1868 the trus- 
tees bought Ira Grant's house, standing then just in 
front of the new school house site. This house was 
torn down and a school house erected, which served 
the needs of the district till 1874. At this time the 
increased number of children demanded more room 
and more teachers. To meet this need a new and 
larger school house was built during the summer of 
1874. Twenty-five hundred dollars were raised by 
tax and 81,049 were donated. In 1879 the two upper 
rooms were finished and furnished at a cost of si, 512. 
The building as finished con-^ists of four rooms — two 
in each story. It is 34x56 feet in size, and each story 
has an ante-room 14x26 feet in size. Each room is sup- 
plied with patent furniture, charts. maps and all the ad- 
juncts necessary to the success of the school. There are 
four schools: one grammar, one intermediate, and two 
primaiy. J. H. Firehammer is the Principal. Forty- 
one pupils are enrolled in his room. The seating 
capacity is fifty. Miss Bell May has charge of the 
intermediate, with forty pupils attending. The 
seating capacity is forty-three. The first primary is 
in charge of Miss C. M. Lytle, with an attendance 
of forty-two. The seats are all occupied. Miss 
Esther Brown teaches the second primary, having 
ninety enrolled, with a seating capacitj' of only sixty- 
two. The average monthly expense of the schools 
for the last year was 8401. The school library con- 
sists of some two hundred volumes. The school 
house is located on Railroad Street, and presents a 
fine architectural ajipearanee. O. \V. Hollenbeck is 
the District Clerk. 

teachers' institute. 

The Legislature, during the session of 1865, 
empowered Superintendents to hold Institutes in 
their respective counties, providing there were 



twenty districts in the county. Prior to this session 
the Superintendent was required to apply to the 
Supervisors for an order authorizing him to call an 
Institute. The first Institute was held in the Court 
House, beginning October 7, 1862. Since that time 
an Institute has been held every year. 

bath district. 

Organized February 11, 1866. School was opened 
in May of the same year in a building erected the 
preceding winter. Miss Carrie A. Green was the 
teacher. About thirty pupils attended. Henry 
Long, Henry Ford and John Miteherson were the 
first Trustees. The school house is situated on the 
south side of the road as you enter the town, and is 
25x35 feet, with seating accommodation for thirty- 
eight children. The seats are not patent, but are 
nevertheless very comfortable. The school is well 
supplied with charts and maps. The district at one 
time had quite a large librarj' for a small mountain 
school. H. H. Richmond is the present teacher. 
Thirty-one pupils are enrolled, of whom two are in 
the grammar grade. Mr. Dougherty is the District 
Clerk. 

BLIE CANON district. 

This district was organized November 9, 1867. 
Miss Sara Jackson taught the first school. A. B. 
Mosher was one of the Trustees. In 1880 the citi- 
zens built, by subscription, a very well finished school 
house, and t'urnished it with good furniture. The 
school house does the district credit. Last term 
twenty-two pupils attended, and Miss M. S. Belcher 
taught them. Library is small. G. P. Bartlett is 
the District Clerk. 

butcher ranch district. 

Formed in May, 187S. School was immediately 
opened in a cabin near the Hibernia House, with 
Miss K. McElwee as teacher. Nine pupils attended. 
The Trustees were, Pej'ton Powell, Thomas Sheridan 
and Archie Maither. The school house is 10x18 
feet, and plainly but comfortably furnished. Miss 
McElwee has taught every term since the dis- 
trict was organized. E. B. Gilbert is the District 
Clerk. 

CENTRAL DISTRICT. 

This district was formed February 13, 1872. H. 
C. Curtis taught the first public school. M. Wal- 
dron, H. M. Whaley, and H. Newton were the first 
Trustees. The district has a good echool house, well 
supplied with improved furniture. G. W. Fuller has 
charge of the school. Forty children attend. 
Library is small. E. B. Heryford is the District 
Clerk. 

CHRISTIAN VALLEY DISTRICT 

Once formed part of Clipper Gap District, from 
which it was set oft' in April, 18G8. A Miss Mor- 
gan taught the first school ; fil'teen pupils attended. 
The school house is 16x30 feet, and has been greatly 
improved the last year. The district needs new fui-. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



2fil 



niture. J. M. Lowell is at present teaching, with 
twenty pupils enrolled. E. F. Cook is District 
Clerk. 

CLIPPER GAP DISTRICT, 

Formerly Neilsburg District, was organized May 7, 
1864. School began August, 1864. N. B. Steward 
taught the first term, and thirty-one children 
attended. The Trustees were Mr. Campbell, G. W. 
Predmore, and George W. Honn. The school house 
is a substantial building, 26x28 feet, located on the 
Auburn and Colfax wagon road, about one-quarter 
of a mile north of Clipper Gap railroad station. 
Can seat thirty pupils. The seats are plain and 
home-made, but comfortable. Miss Daisy Radcliffe 
is at present engaged in teaching the school, having 
nine pupils enrolled. Twenty-nine volumes com- 
pose the library. G. VV. Honn is the District Clerk. 

COLFAX DISTRICT. 

Frank Sanderson taught the first school in Colfax, 
or, as it was then called, Illinoistown, in 1854 and 
'55. The first public school was taught in 1858 by 
a teacher whose name was Bluet. R. S. Egbert, E. 
J. Brickell, W. A. Hines were the Trustees. From 
1858 till December, 1872, the school was taught in 
what had once been a packing-house in Illinoistown. 
In 1872 the citizens, by a series of dances, collected 
money to erect a school house. This was finished 
near the close of 1872, costing SI, 350. It can seat 
ninety pupils. All the seats are patent. The rooms 
are ceiled and very well finished. In 1880, by an 
increase of census children, the district became 
entitled to another teacher, and to accommodate 
this school another room was added to the main 
building, at a cost of S700. This room can seat fifty 
pupils. At present the Colfax School consists of 
three departments — grammar, first and second prim- 
ary. G. W. Wj-llie teaches the gi-ammar grade, and 
has twenty-eight pupils enrolled. The first primaiy 
is under the charge of Miss Emma Nickell, with 
thirty-five pupils attending. Miss Annie A. Quick 
teaches the second primary, having an attendance 
of forty-eight. One hundred and twenty six volumes 
compose the library. W. A. Hines is the District 
Clerk. 

CONSOLIDATED DISTRICT. 

This is a pioneer district. The first public school 
was taught in 1859. Mrs. Woods was the first 
teacher. The school was at first taught in the widow 
Miller's house. This was burned and the school 
used a house which stood on the ground now occu- 
pied by Mr. McBride's orchard. Afterward the 
school was taught in a building belonging to a Mi's. 
Price. This was formerly Eattlesnake District, but 
was united to Wild Goose District, in El Dorado 
County in 1875, and was called the Consolidated 
District. The present school house is located on the 
top of the River Hill. It is a well-built house, and 
furnished with patent furniture. Miss M. E. McCann 



has just closed the term of 1881, with an attendance 
of twentj'-one pupils. There are some sixty vol- 
umes in the library. E. D. Shirland is the District 
Clerk. 

COON CRK.EK DISTRICT. 

This is one of the pioneer schools; organized in 
1857. J. Barnes, F. L. Chamberlin and J, Hulbert 
were the Trustees. John McConighey was the first 
teacher. Fourteen pupils attended his school. The 
school house is very pleasantly situated in a grove 
of oak and manzanita. Size, 32x32 feet, having 
a seating capacity of thirty. A. Spooner is the 
teacher this term. Fifteen children attend, three of 
whom ai"e in the grammar grade. The school has a 
very small library. The District Clerk is Phillip 
Dippel. Sr. 

DAMASCUS DISTRICT. 

Organized November 8, 1867, with J. T. Ashley, 
M. H. Power, N, Lombard as Trustees, Miss Clau- 
dine Eounder taught the first school in a miner's 
cabin, with twelve pupils in attendance. School was 
maintained several years by rate-bills and a little 
public money. The school house is small, and plainly 
furnished with seats of home manufacture. The 
library is very small. J. P. Darwin is the present 
teacher, with some twenty pupils enrolled, F, E. 
Cameron is District Clerk, 

DANEVILLE DISTRICT, 

Formed May 8, 1874, Trustees were O, P, Rich- 
ardson and H, Nader, L, C. Gage was the first 
teacher. The school house is well finished and has 
some patent furniture. Last term, thirty-six chil- 
dren attended school, P. S. Dippel is the present 
teacher. The library is small. O. Clark is the 
District Clerk, 

DRY CREEK DISTRICT, 

This is one of the pioneer districts, being a district 
in 1857, but it does not appear upon the records 
before 1863, In 1862 it received an increase of terri- 
tory, the Van Trees District being divided between 
it and Franklin District, In 1863 E, J, Schellhous 
taught the school. The school house stands upon 
the Sacramento road — 26x40 feet in size, has some 
patent seats, but needs considerable renovation. 
Miss M, G, Devine is the present teacher. Fifteen 
pupils attend, N, Mertes is District Clerk. 

DUTCH PLAT DISTRICT. 

The first school in Dutch Flat was taught in 1856 
by W. C. Stratton, afterward State Librarian, in a 
small wooden building on Main Street, now forming 
a part of the residence of Postmaster Smart, The 
school was private, having an attendance of twelve 
or fifteen pupils. In 1875 James Jameson, C, A, 
Barrett, and R, Hoskins being Trustees, the district 
erected a two-story school house on Stockton Street, 
at a cost of near S7,000. The main building is 30x80 



262 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



feet, with an ante-room 18x30 feet. This is the finest 
school house in the county. It is well finished through- 
out, convenient of ingress and egress. There are four 
rooms, three of which are occupied. The schools are 
well supplied with patent furniture, charts, maps, 
and all the apparatus necessary to the well-being of 
a prosperous school. The district has more than 
two hundred volumes in the school library. L. 
F. Coburn is Principal having the grammar depart- 
ment in his immediate charge. Fifty-six pupils 
are enrolled in his room, nine of whom are in 
the advanced grade. Miss F. H. Folwell has charge 
of the first primary, with fifty-one enrolled. In the 
second primary fifty-seven pupils are registered, 
under the tuition of Miss Rosa Brown. The three 
rooms together have a seating capacity of 189. 
For several years Dutch Flat reported more census 
children than any other district in the county. The 
average monthly expense of the school is $255. C. 
A. Barrett is now District Clerk. 

EMIORANT GAP. 

Formed May 10, 1873. J. B. Chinn was one of 
the Trustees. Miss Annette Greenleaf was the first 
teacher. In 1880 the district subscribed money and 
built a very nice school house. The furniture is all 
patent. The library is small. School is not in ses- 
sion at present. Last term twenty-one children 
attended. G. F. Boldon is the present District 
Clerk. 

EXCELSIOR DISTRICT. 

Organized February 5, 1869. A Miss Burke taught 
three months of the first term, and was succeeded by 
Miss S. V. Boles. The first school was taught in a 
house about one-half a mile from the present school 
house, which is situated on the Auburn and Sacra- 
mento wagon road. G. R. Grant and a Mr. Hawkins 
were the first Trustees. Ten pupils attended. At 
present there are twenty-two pupils attending under 
the tuition of Miss Lizzie King. School house can 
accommodate thirty-five children. The seats are of 
home manufacture. There are eighty-six volumes 
in the library. Charles King is District Clerk. 

FAIR VIEW DISTRICT. 

This district was formed in August, 1867. It is a 
joint district with Fair View in Sutter County. The 
school house is situated in Placer, just over the county 
line. During the last term the average daily attend- 
ance from the Placer side was four. The school house is 
comfortable and is furnished with improved furni- 
ture. The library is small. C. E. Beilby is the 
District Clerk. 

FOREST HILL DISTRICT. 

This district was organized in 1858, with R. 
Winspear, Esq., as teacher, and Albert Hart and J. 
W. Philips as Trustees. The first school began in 
June, 1858, with eleven pupils attending, in a one- 
story building on the corner of Main and School 
Streets. In October, 1872, this building was burned, 



and the school was taught in the Union Hotel for 
two months. Three hundred library books were 
also destroyed by the fire. The citizens immediately 
subscribed money, bought a lot and built a new 
school house. This is situated on the south side of 
Main Street on the old Fitzimmon lot, is -10x80 feet 
and can accommodate 1-10 pupils. There are two 
departments, grammar and primary. The furniture 
in both schools is patent. The schools are well 
supplied with charts and maps. The school house 
commands a fine view of the Sacramento Valley. 
G. W. Simpson is the principal; Miss E. F. Colton, 
assistant. There are over 200 volumes in the 
library. Joseph Dilts, Esq., is the present District 
Clerk. 

FRANKLIN DISTRICT. 

This district received its first public money in 
1862. A teacher by the name of Crosby taught the 
first public school. In 1864, a portion of Van Trees 
District was joined to this district. The school house 
is small and is supplied with old-fashioned desks. It 
is situated on the old Sacramento wagon road. Miss 
Mar^' McKay is teaching the present term; fourteen 
pupils attend. The library is very small. M.Lucas 
is the District Clerk. 

GOLD HILL DISTRICT. 

J. Henderson taught the first school in 1855. The 
school house is situated one-half a mile south of the 
once prosperous mining camp of Gold Hill, and can 
seat forty children. Miss Bell Fogg now has charge 
of the school; twelve pupils attend, two of whom 
are in the grammar grade. The library is small. 
J. S. Philbrick is District Clerk. 

GOLD RUN DISTRICT. 

Organized August 11, 1863. D. Rice, S. Palmer, 
and O. W. HoUenbeek were the first Trustees. Miss 
Lizzie Herbert taught the first school which began 
June 19,1864:, in an old building on Main Street in 
Gold Run; eighteen pupils attended. In 1865, the 
citizens held a meeting to provide means to purchase 
a site and erect a school house thereon. In one day 
8552 was subscribed. The school house cost S772. 
The remainder, 8220, was paid by means of concerts 
and donations. In 1867 an addition was built at a 
cost of 8640. The school house, 25x60 occupies a 
commanding position, afiTording an extensive view of 
the surrounding country and the Sierra. The 
furniture is patent; the seating capacity is ninety. 
Miss Maggie Barrett is the present teacher, having 
fifty-four pupils enrolled, eighteen of whom are in 
the grammar grade. The district has a library of 
over 200 volumes. F. A. Schnabel is District Clerk. 

IOWA HILL DISTRICT. 

The first school was taught by J. S. Binney in 
1855. A Mr. Straton taught the first public school 
in 1857. The names of the Trustees cannot be ascer- 
tained. In September, 1863, the Monona Flat 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



268 



District was consolidated with this district. The 
old school house located a little west of the town on 
the hillside, consisted of two small rooms and could 
barelj' accommodate the children. In 1878, the 
people erected a fine building of two rooms, one story 
high, on the main street of Iowa Hill. It is,34x72 feet 
in size and cost $3,000. The grammar and primary 
rooms are supplied with patent furniture and all the 
accessories of a well-ordered school. Mr. H. M. 
Drew is the Principal; Miss A. C. Murphy teaches 
the primary pupils. One hundred and seventeen 
children attended scheol last term. The library is 
small. J. W. Chinn is the District Clerk. 

LINCOLN DISTRICT. 

This district was formed in 1860. Mr. P. S. 
Leavey was one of the Trustees; the names of the 
other two are forgotten. The first school was 
taught by P. Singer, Esq., in 1861. Until 1868, the 
district had no school house of its own, but used a 
building located on the corner of Fifth and J Streets. 
Fifty-four children attended the first school. In 
1868, a school house was erected. In 1879, the 
citizens taxed themselves, and, with the money thus 
raised, built an addition, 20x24 feet; the whole 
building now measures 24x60. There are now two 
schools. The primary is taught by Miss Delia Man- 
ning; has forty pupils enrolled. The grammar, 
taught by J. P. Eonald, has thirty pupils enrolled. 
The district has only twenty-five books in its library. 
F. Wastier is District Clerk. 

LONE STAR DISTRICT. 

This district was formed in 1860. M. Orr, L. 
Utt, and W. Page, were the first Trustees. In the 
same year, the present school house, 18x24 feet, 
was built. Mr. Davis taught the first school, with 
ten pupils in attendance. Lone Star once included 
Eoek Creek, Christian Valley, and a large portion 
of Mount Vernon, Districts. The furniture is old. 
and the district needs a new school house veiy 
much. F. Evinger is teaching the school now, hav- 
ing twenty-one pupils in charge. P. Oest is the 
District Clerk. Became Smithville District in 1862. 

SMITHA'ILLE DISTRICT. 

This was formerly known as the Secret Ravine 
District. P. Lynch, L. Stout, and J. Turner, were 
the first Trustees. Miss Mary Powner taught the 
first school, in 1856; the school house cost 8480. 
The jiresent school house is well furnished with 
patent furniture; Miss L. W. Colton is the present 
teacher. Thirty-one pupils attend school; sixty- 
one volumes compose the library. C. F. Fobes is 
the District Clerk. 

.MICHIG.W BLUFF DISTRICT. , 

There was a school there as early as 1856, taught 
by P. Singer, Esq., in a building re-modeled for this 
purpose, on Maiden Lane. The Trustees were W. 
\V. Cunningham, J. VV. Brady, and Mark Shawl; 



near twenty pupils attended. This district, in 1866, 
absorbed the Mad Caiion District, located on the 
Middle Fork of the American River. The present 
school house is located south of the town, on the 
river-hill slope. In 1880, during a high wind, it 
was moved several feet, sustaining considerable 
damage; it can just accommodate the pupils of 
the district. The larger portion of the desks are 
patent. This district has managed to keep long 
terms by means of school parties, given in the spring 
of each year. Miss Jennie Morgan is the present 
teacher. Seventy-two pupils are enrolled; six of 
these are in the grammar grade. There are 118 
volumes in the library. H. L. Van Emon is Dis- 
trict Clerk. 

MOUNT PLEASANT DISTRICT. 

First school began in 1855, with thirty pupils in 
attendance. Judge Henry, now of Sacramento, was 
the teacher, and Stephen Birg and Peter Myers, were 
the Trustees. The school house was located on the 
present site, section thirty, township thirteen north, 
range seven east, 24x30 feet in size, and was burned 
in 1871. The citizens immediately erected another, 
to which additions and improvements have been 
occasionally made. The school is now in charge 
of L. C. Gage; thirty-two pupils attend. The 
library is very small. John Thorpe is the present 
District Clerk. 

MOUNT VERNON DISTRICT. 

This district was formed May 10, 1877, and school 
was immediately opened, by Miss Kate Dunphey, 
with ten pupils attending. S. Logan, J. Holmes, 
and H. Bosse, were the Trustees. The school house 
is one of the best in the county; it is almost 
entirely supplied with patent furniture. The par- 
ents have been very liberal in furnishing a pleasant 
and comfortable school room for their children. 
Miss Mary Skinner now has charge of the school; 
eighteen pupils attend. S. Logan is the District 
Clerk. 

NEW ENGLAND MILLS DISTRICT. 

This was organized as the Lisbon District, in 
1864. First school began in August, 1864, having 
Miss Lydia Hinckley as teacher, and G. W. Apple- 
gate, J. E. Simpson, and M. Mendenhall, as Trustees. 
The school house was a commodious building, located 
one mile east of G. W. Applegate's present residence. 
Within a year many of the people moved away, 
and the building was sold for a farm-house. The 
present school house has been moved four times, 
and is situated nearly a mile north of New England 
Mills Station; is 20x30 feet, and can seat forty-five 
pupils. This district retained the same teacher 
nearly seven years, paying her §65.00 per month 
— «2,991.10. Miss M. E. McCann is teaching at 
present, with an attendance of forty pupils. The 
district has a very small librarj\ Some of the 
desks are patent, but the greater part are home- 



264 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



made; the school room is very pleasant. W. B. 
Osborn is the District Clerk. 

NEWCASTLE DISTRICT. 

Organized in 1864. John Holden, John Hanson, 
and H. Mullen, constituted the first Board of 
Trustees. A Mr. Patton taught the first school, in 
1865; the school house is situated a little south of 
th'j town. In 1880, an addition was built, render- 
ing it more commodious, and better adapted to the 
needs of the growing district; the furniture is wholly 
])atent. The school house is now 25x60 feet, and 
can seat fifty-six children. O. P. Harvey has charge 
of the school; number of pupils attending, fort}-- 
four, eleven of whom are in the grammar grade. 
The library' is small. Berry Mitchell is the present 
District Clerk. 

OPHIR DISTRICT. 

The fiv-t ^-f hdol was private, taught by a Mrs. 
Long in a private house. Mrs. Horton taught the 
first public school, in 1856. A. Walker and D. Olds 
were two of the Trustees. About this time, it is 
supposed, a school house was built. In 187-1 an addi- 
tional room was built for the accommodation of an 
assistant teacher. On the first Saturday of Septem- 
ber, 1874, the school house was fired by an incendi- 
arj', and it was burned. All its contents, including 
a library of 350 volumes, an organ and some new 
desks, were destroyed. This building stood on 
Crater Hill, nearly opposite the Crater House. The 
citizens immediately raised money and built another 
school house nearer the center of the town. This is 
situated in the center of a fine j-ard covered 
with a natural growth of oak. The building is 
24x48 feel in size, with an ante-room 10x20 
feet. There are two departments — grammar and 
primary — and each room is well supplied with 
]>atent furniture, charts and maps. R. D. Faulkner 
is the Principal. In his room forty-three pupils are 
(inrolled; fortj'-eight can be seated. The primary 
school is taught by Mrs. L. A. Billett, with an attend- 
ance of fifty. The seating capacity is fifty-four. 
There are 180 volumes in the libraiy. Nearly all 
are standard works. James Moore, Esq., is the Dis- 
trict Clerk. 

PENRYN DISTRICT. 

This was formerly called the Stewart's Flat Dis- 
trict, and with the Secret Ravine District formed 
l)istrict No. 0. In 1856, while Miss Powner was 
teaching, one of the Trustees became dissatisfied 
with the location of the school house, and started 
another in a miner's cabin on Pennsylvania Ravine. 
This became known as the Stewart's Flat District. 
A. H. Goodrich taught the first school in 1856. In 
1872 its name was changed to Penryn. The district 
now has two departments — grammar and primary-. 
.Miss Octavia Wetmoro has charge of the grammar 
school, with thirty pupils enrolled. Miss Eliza Jam- 
ison has charge of the primary school, with fifty 
enrolled. There are two rooms in the building, each 



24x36 feet in size. One room was built in the fall of 
1881, at a cost of S900. Both rooms are supplied 
with patent furniture. A. Ross is District Clerk. 

ROCK CREEK DISTRICT. 

This was known as the Live Oak District till 1860. 
when It received its present name. Rock Creek. 
School began, according to the record, in 1859, but 
old residents say there was a school as early as 1857, 
taught in a building located on Missouri Flat. This 
was the first school house. It was a small building 
only 10x12 feet in size. In 1862 or '63 a new school 
house was built on Bald Hill, near the Nevada road, 
24x36 feet in size, with a seating capacity of forty- 
two. The furniture at present is nearly all patent. 
The district has a good library in fair condition. 
C. M. White is teaching the present term. There 
are thirty-six pupils enrolled, three of whom are in 
the grammar grade. Frederick Dependiner acts as 
District Clerk. 

ROCKLIN DISTRICT. 

This district was formed August 18, 1866. Miss 
Ellen Hinckley's name appears upon the record as 
the first teacher. The district now has two schools 
— grammar and primary — in charge of H. C. Curtis 
and his wife, Mrs. A. E. Curtis. The school house 
can barely accommodate the pupils. Each depart- 
ment is supplied with patent furniture. One hun- 
dred and twenty-two pupils attend this term. There 
are 106 volumes in the library. John Ertle is the 
District Clerk. 

ROSEVILLE DISTRICT, 

Originally a part of Dry Creek District, was set oft" 
and formed May 14, 1872. E. J. Schellhous taught 
the first school, in the building now occupied by 
Jesse Blair, on Atlantic Street. The district now 
has two good school houses. The grammar school, 
taught b}' S. J. Pullen, occupies the brick, and the 
]iriraary, taught by Miss Lily A. Cross, occupies the 
wooden building. Eighty-eight pupils are attending 
school this term. Both rooms are well supplied with 
furniture, blackboards, and the conveniences neces- 
sary to the welfare of a school. The library consists 
of fortj'-five volumes. L. D. Thomas is the District 
Clerk. 

SHERIDAN DISTRICT 

Was originally formed as the Norwich District. May 
7, 1864. In 1879 its name was changed to Sheridan. 
The first school was private, taught by L. H. McDon- 
ald, in a shed a mile south of the town. A teacher 
by the name of Reynolds taught the first public 
school. The present school house was built in 1877, 
is 30x60 feet in size, and can seat sixty pupils. 
The house is well finished and furnished with patent 
furniture. It commands a fine view of the vallej- 
and mountains. Miss Luana (^'arns has had charge 
of the school this term. Fifty pupils have been 
attending, and nine of them are in the grammar 
gradt'. J. .M. Long is the District Clerk. 




O. F- Seen 



'avey. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



265 



SPRING GARDEN DISTRICT. 

Formed May 8, 1874. Miss A. MacDonakl imme- 
diately began teaching in a log cabin at Spring 
Garden Eanch 'witii twenty ]iupil8 in attendance. 
Thomas Dodds, Esq., Peyton Powell, and Hamilton 
Bryan were the first Trustees. In the summer of 
1874, the district built a school house. Money raised 
by dances and subscription paid its cost. The school 
house is 20x30 feet,and can seat twenty-seven childi-en. 
Miss Mollie Adams taught this last fall term, having 
fourteen pupils in attendance. There are thirtj' 
volumes in the school library. The District Clerk 
is Morris Smith. 

SUNNY SOUTH DISTRICT. 

This district was formed February 9, 1878, and 
includes the territory upon which the Hidden 
Treasure Mine is situated. Miss Ida Williams taught 
the first public school. The Trustees were Wm. 
Cameron, E. Burwell and J. P. Just. In 1880 the 
citizens built a small, well-finished school house with 
monej- collected by subscription. It contains twenty- 
six homemade seats. Robert Burns is the teacher, 
and VV. J. Sparks the District Clerk. Twenty-one 
volumes compose the district library. 

TODD'S valley DISTRICT. 

This is one of the pioneer districts. H.Miller was 
the first teacher that drew public money. A. A. 
Pond and Thomas Dodds were, I think, the first 
Trustees. Cannot ascertain the number of children, 
but judging from comparing reports there were some 
fifty odd. The district had a pretty good school 
house, but suffered it to fall to pieces. For several 
years the district rented a room under the Odd 
Fellows Hall. In the fall of 1880 the citizens sub- 
scribed, and built a school house at a cost of $500. 
C. P. K. Tracy is the pi-esent teacher, with an at- 
tendance of twenty-four pupils. Six pupils are in 
the grammar grade. There are about one hundred 
volumes in the library. A. A. Pond is the District 
Clerk. 

UNION DISTRICT. 

Formed in 1862. Gould, D^^er and J. Williams 
were the first Trustees. A Miss Howe taught the 
first public school. The school is small and in fair 
condition, having been thoroughly repaired during 
the last year. E. E. Panabaker is the present 
teacher. Seventeen pupils attend. O. J. Gould is 
the District Clerk. 

VALLEY VIEW DISTRICT. 

School began in 1871 under the tuition of Mrs. 
Barman, nineteen pupils attending. School was 
maintained eighteen months by subscription. In 
1872 the district received its first apportionment of 
public money. The Trustees were S. J. Lewis and 
L. W. Scott. The school house stands on a high 
hill, overlooking long reaches of the Sacramento 
Valley, and affording a panoramic view of the Sierra 



Nevada. Twenty-four pupils can be seated. The 
furniture is rough and cumbrous. The library is 
verj- small. Miss L. J. Hyde is the present teacher. 
She has twenty-four pupils enrolled, eight being in 
the grammar grade. The District Clerk is S. J. 
Lewis. 

VAN TREES DISTRICT. 

This was formed in 1859. The first teacher that 
drew public money was Mrs. Hite. In 1864 Van 
Trees District was divided between Dry Creek and 
Franklin Districts. 

YANKEE JIM's DISTRICT. 

This is one of the pioneer schools. Three terms 
of private school were taught before it became a 
part of the public school system. The first private 
school was taught by Albert Hart in 1855. Each 
pupil paid SIO.OO per month tuition. The attendance 
was about fifteen children. The school house was a 
log building, once known as the Bloomer Hotel, 
which stood between the saloon and the dwelling- 
house of the late Martin Tubbs. This log house 
became the property of R. 0. Cravens, (afterward 
State Librarian) and was sold by him for a church. 
The district was organized in 1837, Col. Kerr, John 
Co!ner and John Vail being the first Trustees. The 
present school house is situated east of the town, and 
is 30x40 feet, and has a seating capacity of forty-six. 
Two hundred and thirty volumes compose the 
library. Miss Elsie Buckley is the pi-esent teacher, 
with twenty-five pujjils in attendance. There are 
four in grammar grade. Chas. Trafton is District 
Clerk. 

LAPSED DISTRICTS. 

The following districts have ceased to exist: — 

Cisco District was organized in 1867. A person 
by the name of Curtis taught the first school. School 
was intermitted October 1, 1871. 

Last Chance District was formed in 1862. School 
was opened in 1863. Cannot ascertain who were 
the teacher and Trustees. This district, through the 
moving away of many of its residents and the con- 
sequent lack of school children, was consolidated with 
Deadwood District in 1874. In 1865 that portion of 
Last Chance District Ij'ing between El Dorado Canon 
and the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Ameri- 
can River was set off and formed into the Deadwood 
District. In 1865 a Miss Irving taught the first 
school, ten children attending. The people paid by 
subscription. The school house, 14x20 feet, was 
built by the Sons of Temperance, and donated to the 
school. In August, 1879, there not being the legal 
number of children in the district it was discontinued. 

Monona Flat District was formed in 1859. Trustees, 
M. McDonald, J. La France, M. Tiegler. Miss 
McDonald was the first teacher. The district was 
consolidated with Iowa Hill in 1863. 

Pleasant Grove District was formed August 2 
1864. Mrs. J. E. Hill taught the first school. V. 



266 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



M. Leonard was one of the Trustees. School district 
lapsed April 25, 1880. 

Shady Run District was formed May 10, 1877. 
Miss Mary A. Curran was the first teacher. J. P. 
Talbot, H. K. Devely, J. H. Thomas were the 
Trustees. District was consolidated with Blue 
Canon in August, 1879. 

Washington District was formed May 7, 1864. J. 
T. Darwin taught the first school. The district 
lapsed January, 1880. 

SCHOOL STATISTICS FOR 1881. 



Valuation of 



Alta , 


? S'-O 


Auhmn... 


7,oon 


Bath 


300 


Blue Cafton . . 


700 


Butcher Ranch 


37 


Clipper Gap. ... 


I.O'IO 


Central 


700 


Christian Vallev. 


e.iO 




2,500 

son 


Con.solidated.. 


Coon Creek . 


4 JO 


Damascus 


400 


Daneville. 


900 


Drv Creek. . . 


800 


Dutch Flat 


9,000 


Emigrant Gap 


500 


Eucelsior . . . 


600 


Fair View ,. 


800 


Forest Hill. 


2,500 


Franklin .. 


300 


Gold Hill 


500 


Gold Run... 


850 


Iowa Hill... 


4,000 


Lincoln .... 


1,700 






Michifran Bluff 


1,000 


Mount Pleasant .. 


600 


Mount Vernon . ... 


120 


New England Mills 


460 


Newcastle ... 


1,350 


Ophir 


2,500 


Penrvn .... 


2,100 


Pleasant Grove 


300 


Bock Creek... 


950 


Rocklin 


1,200 


Roseville. . . 


2,000 


Sheridan . . . 


2.100 


Smithville 


980 


Spring Garden, 


260 


Sunny South. . 


300 


Todd's Valley. . 


600 


Union 


360 


Valley View... 


400 


Washington ... 


30:' 


Wisconsin Hill 


400 


Yankee Jim's.. 




Total 


57,187 



60 


1,570 


50 


2,750 


9U 


2,305 




350 


62 


1,287 


50 


1,4.10 


40 


2,150 


m 


2,250 


40 


1,100 



Alta . . 
Auburn 
Bath ... 

RlueCafion 

Kutcher Ranch. 

Central 

Christian Valley 
Clipper Gap 



28 


23 


115 


114 


13 


16 


9 


13 


4 


4 


17 


23 


20 


15 


9 


13 


82 


66 


9 


14 



7 




1 


1 


0.6 




3 


3 


8 




T 


I 


0.4 




1 


1 


7.5 




1 




7.3d 








6 






1 


7.6 




1 


1 


6 
7 




2 
1 


1 

1 



School Statistics. Continued. 



Coon Creek 


6 


10 


16 


11.24 


8 










Damascus . . 


16 


11 


■il 


16 


fi 




1 






Daneville . 


22 


14 


36 


25 


7.1 










Drv Creek. 


7 


9 


16 


14.95 


7 




1 


■• 




Dutch Flat.. 


96 


84 


180 


130 


6.4 




2 






Emigrant Gap. . 


» 


12 


21 


9 


6.8 










Excelsior 


'U) 


12 


32 


11 


K 










Fair View . . 


6 


9 


14 


3 


6 




1 






Forest Hill 


69 


60 


119 


75 


8 




1 






Franklin — 


in 


7 


17 


11 


8 




1 






Gold Hill 


14 


13 


2V 


11 


6.65 










Gold Run. 


3? 


2« 


58 


43.17 


H.5 










Iowa Hill 


.■57 


60 


11 V 


76.7 


7 




i 






L-ncoln 


48 


42 


90 


61 


7.5 




1 






Lone Star 


17 


10 


il 


17 


7 




1 






Michigan Bluff 


41 


3(i 


11 


62.6 


S 










Mount Pleasant 


18 


23 


41 


24.6 


6.6 




1 






.Mount Vernon 


S 


13 


21 


15.73 


6 




1 






New England Mills 


21 


26 


46 


34 


7.45 




1 






Newcastle 


27 


;,7 


64 


34 


6.15 










Ophir 


50 


62 


102 


65,8 


7.5 




1 






Plrasant Grove. .. 


3 


7 


10 


4.6 


3 




1 






Penrvn ... 


49 


49 


98 


60 


8.2 




2 






Rock Creek. 


23 


29 


52 


31 


8 




1 






Rocklin . 


74 


68 


132 


76.2 


V.6 




1 






Roseville 


44 


48 


92 


51 


7.75 




1 






Sheridan . 


33 


30 


63 


32.2 


6.36 




1 






Smith\ille... 


22 


14 


36 


■20,15 


7.5 




1 






Spring Garden 


IS 


y 


2'i 


13 


8 




1 






Sunny South. . 


11 


12 


23 


21.65 


8 




I 






Todd's Vallev 


16 


13 


29 


21.6 


6 










Union 


11 


6 


IV 


7.39 


6 










Valley View. 


13 


14 


27 


16 


6.4 




1 






Washington . 


4 


4 


8 


3.2 


2.5 




1 






Wisconsin Hill. 


22 


15 


3(' 


27.7 


6./ 




1 






Yankee Jim's - 


14 


19 


33 


20.13 


7.4 




1 
















ave. 










Total . . 


1,220 


1,182 


2,408 


1,649.65 


6.8. 


21 


39 


39 


21 



Alta 

Auburn 

Bath 

Blue Carton . . . 
Butcher Ranch 

Central 

Christian Valley 
Clipper Gap 



ek. 



Damascus 

Daneville 

Drv Creek 

Dutch Flat 

Emigrant Gap. . 

Excelsirr 

Fair View. 

Forest Hill 

F.anklin 

Gold Hill 

Gold Run 

Iowa Hill 

Lincoln 

Lone Star 

Mifhigran Bluff. 
Mount Pleasant. 
Mount Vernon . 
New Eng-. Mills. 

Newcastle 

Ophir 

Penryn 

Rock Creek 

Rocklin 



Roseville 

Sheridan 

Smithville 

Spr'ng Garden. 
Sxmnv South. , . 
Todd's Valley... 

Union 

Vallev View.... 
Wisconsin Hill. 
Yankee Jim's. .. 
Pleasant Grove. 
Washin^toD.... 



so 


28 


123 


134 


18 


21 


9 


13 


11 


9 


17 


23 


27 


28 


9 


13 


116 


87 


19 


17 


9 


12 


16 


16 


19 


17 


7 


10 


111 


94 


9 


12 


24 


IV 


5 


9 


SO 


71 


16 


19 


25 


17 


37 


39 


6/ 


5s 


65 


50 


20 


12 


40 


38 


22 


22 


9 


13 


33 


35 


3S 


32 


69 


6S 


63 


65 


43 


34 


105 


92 


48 


65 


30 


38 


19 


18 


16 


5 


10 


13 


17 


11 


10 


14 


22 


18 


23 


19 


16 


20 


1,511 


1,436 



Total 44 Districts 1,511 1,436 2,947 2,951 1136 2,282 



tt 



41 62S 160 



RAILROADS. 



2C7 



MISCELLANEOUS STATISTICS. 

Number Grammar tjchools. . 35 

" Pi imary .schools 25 

" School-houses built of wood, 45 

" School-houses built of brick 1 

" New school houses erected. . 3 

" Male teachers 21 

" Female teachers 39 

" Teachers graduate of California Normal School 5 

" Teachers graduate of any other State Normal School . 3 

" *' holding State educational diplomas 11 

" " life educational diplomas 5 

*' " " county certificates — first grade 39 

** *' '* county certificates— second grade. 21 

'* Schools maintained less than si,x months . , ..2 

" Teachers who attended Comity Institute ,57 

Average monthly wages paid male teachers $ 77 61 

'* " *' female trachers 67 99 

Salary uf County Superintendent per annum 1,200 00 

Rate of county school tax levied October, 1S80, 12 cents on the 100 00 

Amount of taxable property in county 7,999,343 00 

0. r. SEAVEY. 

Oscar Fitzallan Seavey was born in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, January 8, 1847. His parents were Eli 
Seavey and Lydia A. (Thorn) Seavey, natives of 
Maine, who had removed to Boston shortly after 
their marriage. The family can boast of their 
Puritan origin, as tradition has it that the first of 
the Pilgrim mothers to step foot upon Plymouth 
Rock, from the Mayflower, on the 22d day of 
December, 1620, was the maternal ancestor, on the 
father's side, of the present Superintendent of Public 
Schools of Placer County. Through both father's 
and mother's families, Mr. Seavej' traces back the 
family line to the stalwart Puritans, who rebelled 
against the tyranny of Charles I. and supporters of 
Cromwell. Over Plymouth Rock came the liberty- 
loving element that refused to submit to oppression 
in the Old World, and, with determined courage and 
steadfast principles, established and maintained 
freedom in the New. Of this ancestry New Eng- 
landers are justly proud, and wherever the descend- 
ants of the Pilgrims may be found, most tenaciously 
do they hold to the ancient line. 

The childhood and youth of Mr. Seavey was spent 
as many others not born to affluence but who had 
their own way to make in the world. When but 
five years of age he went to Maine, to live with his 
maternal grandmother, where he remained until 
his seventeenth year. During these years he at- 
tended the common and high schools; from the ago 
of fifteen supporting himself by farm labor, and 
attending school in the spring and fall. In 1863, 
then in his seventeenth year, he obtained a situa- 
tion in a wholesale dry-goods jobbing house in Bos- 
ton, to which city he removed. Here he remained 
in business until the fall of 1864, when his ambition 
inspired him to seek a higher education, and he 
entered the Boston Latin School, from which he 
graduated in 1866. He then entered Harvard Col- 
lege, one of the highest educational institutions of 
America, and graduated, with the degree of B. A., 
in the class of 1870. 

Mr. Seavey entered College with the intention 
of adopting the profession of medicine, but, upon 
graduation, concluded to try his fortune in Cali- 
fornia; and, therefore, came to this State in Septem- 
ber, 1870. Here he has sought the fickle goddess 



as miner, farmer, and teacher, struggling through 
several years of trial as a miner, but has been more 
successful as a teacher and farmer. 

The happy event of his life was consummated 
September 3, 1874, in his marriage to Miss Annie 
E. Patterson, at Forest Hill, in Placer County. 
This lady is a native of Brooklyn, New York, whore 
she was born February 3, 1857. 

In 1877, Mr. Seavey was nominated on the Demo- 
cratic ticket for the position of County Superin- 
tendant of Public Schools, to which position he was 
elected, being one of the two Democrats elected on 
the county ticket that year. Serving his term with 
much satisfaction, in 1879 he was again nomi- 
nated by his party for the same position, and 
re-elected, having the distinctive honor of being the 
only Democrat elected, the Republicans carrying 
all the other offices. This position, more honorable 
than profitable, he still holds. 

While performing the duties of his office, he 
attends to the cultivation and improvement of a 
farm, located near Auburn, there intending to 
establish his future home, '■ beneath his own vine 
and fig-tree," in the genial clime and amidst the 
pleasant surroundings of the famous fruit belt of 
Placer County. 

Mr. Seavey is a member of the Independent 
Order of Odd Fellows, of the Order of Good Tem- 
plars, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
indicating a love of society, and attention to duties 
toward his fellow-men. While not a member of 
any church, he has been observant of his duties as 
a Christian, always connected with the Sabbath- 
school; and, for nearly five years, was Superin- 
tendent of the Sunday-school at Forest Hill. Hav- 
ing been born on the 8th of January, the day held 
sacred by the Democrats for the glorification of 
Andrew Jackson, the apostle of Democracy, he first 
breathed Democratic air, and has, through his life, 
been a consistent member of the party, and now 
sees no reason to change. 



CHAPTER XXXVl. 
RAILROADS. 

Traveling in " Old Times " — New York to Boston in Four Days 
— Anecdote of Stephenson — Pearly Traveling in California — 
Strange Terminus to a Railroad — First Locomotive in America 
— A Historical Railroad Excursion — First California R.iil- 
roads — Railroad Extension — California Central Railroad — 
Auburn Branch Railroad^.Sacramento, Placer and Nev,ida 
Railroad — Transcontinental Railroad l'rojecte<l — EfiTorts of 
Theodore D, Judah— Central Pacific Railroad Company — Rail- 
road Bill Passed Congress — The Work Comuuneed — Placer 
County a Stockh4)lder — Address to the People — The Election 
Contest — Progress of the Road — The First Surprise — Great 
Energy in the Work — Triumph of Engineering and Finance — 
Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railway — John B. Whitcomb. 

At the date of the acquisition of California, rail- 
roads were comparatively rare in the United States, 
and many of the pioneers of 1849 saw one for the 
first time — the " Sacramento Valley " — in 1855. The 



2fi,S 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



gold of California poon gave an impetus to business, 
and from that time their construction has gone on, 
accelerating continually, until we may expect at no 
distant day, to see every country and farm-road laid 
with the parallel rails. This system of transporta- 
tion is one of the greatest of the many great triumphs 
of this century. For it the world is indebted to 
George Stephenson, an English collier, who first 
made the experiment in 1814, and in 1829 his son, 
Robert Stephenson, brought the invention to perfec- 
tion. The railroad in its eifectiveness, far surpasses 
all means of transit by land ever put in practice or 
conceived by ancient or modern people. Two simple 
bars of iron lying upon the ground, almost concealed 
amid the growing herbage or in the drifting sand, 
constitute the channel of a mightj' commerce. Over 
mountain and plain, through watery marsh and 
sandy desert, the railroad bears its equal way, and 
upon it, as part of itself, the apparently vitalized 
machine rushes along with its laden train, with the 
r.peed of the wind and as tireless as the elements. 

TRAVELING IN ''OLD TIMES." 

So simple and effective a system becomes indis- 
pensable to an enterprising people, and in this age 
80 blessed by the inventor, we refer with wonder and 
curiosity to the methods of travel and commerce 
))racticed anterior to the railroad. As a sample of 
traveling in '-old times" is the following from an 
ancient publication. 

NEW YORK TO B'jSTON IN FuUR DAYS. 

The first stage coach from Xew York to Boston 
started on the 24th of June, 1772, from the "Fresh 
Water." It was to leave each terminus once a 
fortnight. The fare was four pence, New York 
currency, per mile. It reached Hartford, Connecti- 
cut in two days and Boston in two more. The 
pro]jrietors promised a weekly stage, " if encouraged 
in their great enterprise." 

ANECDOTE OF STEPHENSON. 

To Mr. Stephenson is commonly awarded the 
honor of first constructing a railway for general 
transportation. Three years elapsed from the com- 
mencement of the work, and those interested began 
to be impatient. They wished — as was natural — 
for some returns from the vast amount of capital 
they had expended. 

"Now, George" said Fjiend Crupper to him one 
day, "thou must get on with the railway and have 
it finished without further delay. Thou must really 
have it ready for 0])ening by the first da}' of Januaiy 
next." 

" It is impossible," said Stephenson. 

"Impossible! I wish I could get Napoleon at 
thee. He would tell thee that there is no such word." 

"Tush! don't speak to me about Napoleon. Give 
me men, money and materials, and I will do what 
Napoleon couldn't do — drive a railroad from Liver- 
pool to Manchester over Chat Moss." 



EARLY TRAVELING IN CALIFORNIA. 

It is not unlikel}' that the man who figures in the 
following whirligig of fun was a Yankee, having an 
eye to " sites," " water privileges," etc., and ready 
for an "operation" when the opportunity should 
present itself. Assuming this very reasonable proba- 
bility, we are only too happy to give it a place in 
these pages. 

Across the Yuba River, some enterprising individ- 
ual built a dam as the head of a mining ditch, and 
on the banks somebody else built three or four 
houses. The inhabitants called theplace Yuba Dam. 
Three bars were instantly erected and the " town" 
increased rapidly. About noon one cool day, a 
traveler and sojourner in the land passed this flourish- 
ing locality, and seeing a long-legged specimen of 
humanity in a red shirt, smoking in one of the bars, 
thus addressed him, "Hello!" "Hello!" replied the 
shirt with vigor, removing his pipe from his mouth. 
" What place is this?" demanded the traveler. The 
answer of the shirt was unexpected: "Yuba Dam." 
There was about fifty yards between them and the 
wind was blowing. The traveler thought he had 
been mistaken. "What did you say?" he asked. 
"Yuba Dam!' replied the stranger, cheerfully. 
"What place is this," roared the traveler. " Yu-ba 
Dam," said the shirt in a slightly elevated tone of 
voice. " Lookee here! " yelled the irate Yankee, "I 
asked you politely what place this was; why in 
thunder don't you answer?" The stranger became 
excited; he rose and replied with the voice of an 
eighty pounder, " y'UBa dam." "You hear that?" 
In a minute the traveler, burning; with the wrath of 
the righteous, jumped off his horse and advanced 
toward the stranger with an expression not to be 
mistaken. The shirt arose and assumed a posture 
of offense and defense. Arrived within a yard of 
him the traveler said, "I ask you for the last time; 
what place is this ?" " YUBA DAM." The next 
minute they were at it. First the traveler was down ; 
then the shirt, and then it was a dog-fall — that is, 
both were down. They rolled about kicking up a 
tremendous dust. They squirmed around so ener- 
getically, that it appeared they had a dozen legs 
instead of four. It looked like a prize fight between 
two pugilistic centipedes. Finally they both rolled 
off the bank and into the river. The water cooled 
their wrath. They went down together but came 
up separate, and put out for the shore. Both reached 
it about the same time; the traveler scrambled up 
the bank, mounted his warlike steed and made tracks, 
leaving his foe gouging the mud out of one of his 
eyes. Having left the business jiortion of the town, 
that is to say the corner where the three bars were 
kept, he struck a house in the suburbs, before which 
a little four-year old girl was playing. " What place 
is this, sissy?" he asked. The little girl, frightened 
at the drownedrat figure which the stranger pre- 
sented, streaked it for the house. Having reacLud 



RAILROADS. 



269 



the door she slopped, turned and said, " Oo-bee-Dam!" 
" Good Heavens!" said the traveler, digging his heels 
between his horse's ribs — "Good Heavens! let me 
get out of this horrid place, where not only the men, 
but the very babes and sucklings swear at inoffen- 
sive travelers." 

STRANGE TERMINUS TO A RAILROAD. 

There is a town on the Southern Pacific Railroad 
called Yuma; and Yuma is a hard place, a very Lard 
place. In one of the ears on this road, on a certain 
occasion, sat, with his feet upon the cushions and his 
hat down over his eyes, a flashy but dirty-looking 
individual, evidently some "three sheets" gone. 
'J'he conductor, in coming around, gave him a shove, 
and aroused him with a short, "Ticket, sir!" "Ain't 
got none," said loafer. "Pay your fare, then." 
"How much is it?" demanded the fellow. "Where 
are you going to?" inquired the conductor. " Guess 
I'm (hie) goin' (hie) to the devil!" with an air of 
truthfulness. "Then," said the conductor, " paj' 
your fare to Yuma, $27.00." 

FIRST LOCOMOTIVE IN AMERICA. 

Every nation, every locality, every people are 
exceedingly tenacious of the honor of producing any 
man who has distinguished himself as a benefactor 
to the world by deeds of skill, invention, arms, 
literature, oratory, or great enterprise. To Amei*- 
ica, through the genius of Fulton and the enterprise of 
Livingston, is the honor due of making the first prac- 
ticable steamboat, the most important, as it was the 
first great step toward independence of the elements 
and of relief from vital powor. Twenty years after 
the steamboat the locomotive appeared in England. 
Stephenson, Brunton, Trcvithick and Blackett had 
made locomotives as early as 1822, which were used 
on colliery railroads, but in 1829, in competing for 
a prize of £300, the famous locomotive Rocket car- 
ried oft' the palm, and since then has been regarded 
as the first of these animate machines in existence. 
The Rocket was to railroads what the Clermont, Pul- 
ton's first boat, was to steamboats, the successful 
application of a ))rincipal in practical use. 

Imitations and improvements soon followed, and 
if America did not have the first railroad and the 
first locomotive, she now has the most extended 
lines, the best locomotives, coaches, palace cars and 
railway system in the world. There are many 
accounts and claims of constructing the first loco- 
motives in America, but this has been conclusively 
settled, as shown in the following article prepared 
by Mr. B. J. Burns for the Mining and Scientific Press 
of July 3, 1880:— 

The question of priority in the use of the locomo- 
tive on railroads in this country is one of perennial 
interest. The literature on the vexed subject com- 
prises volumes. For the seven cities of Greece, 
which claimed the honor of the birthplace of Homer, 
we have had almost as many States claiming the 
honorable distinction of first introducins; the loco- 



motive engine for service on the railroad. The 
idea of applying steam as the motive power on rail- 
roads had occurred to many of our engineers, stim- 
ulated as they were, doubtless, by the successful 
practice of England; and the introduction of the 
locomotive by Pennsylvania and South Carolina was 
almost S3'nchrouou8; yet the former is fairly entitled 
to the distinction of priority. 

Fortunately there is now living in San Francisco 
0!:e of the veteran railroad men of the country, who 
is absolutely lamiliar with the interesting incidents 
of the early history of the railroad and the locomo- 
tive engine in this countiy, " all of which he saw 
and part of which he was." The name of this vet- 
eran is David Matthew, now nearly three-score-and- 
ten. He is a worthy representative of the Amer- 
ican mechanic, at once intelligent, alert and trust- 
worthy. In the course of an entertaining conversation 
with Mr. Matthew recently, we learned that he was 
born in Scotland and arrived in this country at the 
tender age of seven, and that a few years later he 
was sent to the West Point foundry shops in Xew 
York Cil)' to learn the trade of machinist. It was 
at these West Point machine shops that the very 
first American locomotives were built, and where the 
first English locomotive brought to the country was 
received and set up and exhibited. And it was also 
at those famous machine shops that Mr. Matthew 
met the distinguished engineer, John B. Jervis, 
whose name and fame are identified with some of 
the most remarkable engineering projects of the 
country, and who was the inventor of the plan of 
putting a truck under the forward part of the loco- 
motive to direct and control the machine in running 
upon curves — a practice that is now universal and 
indispensable in the United States where the rail- 
roads follow the face of the country. 

Such engineers as Jervis, Allen, Latrobe and Mat- 
thew have furnished to the world the following 
facts: — 

The first locomotive engine placed and tried on 
any railroad in America was called the '• Stourbridge 
Lion," and was imported from England for the Dele- 
ware and Hudson Canal and Railroad Company. 
This engine arrived in New York May 17, 1829, and 
was set up in the yard of the West Point Foundry 
machine shops and publicly exhibited for days to 
thousands of the first citizens of the country. It 
was brought from England by Horatio Allen, who 
made the first experimental trial of it at Honesdale, 
on the banks of Lackawaxen Creek, Pennsylvania, 
August 8, 1829, when he " opened the throttle-valve 
of the locomotive engine that turned the first driv- 
ing-wheel on an American railroad." This highly 
interesting statement was made by Mr. Allen in a 
speech delivered at Dunkirk on the occasion of the 
celebration of the completion of New York and Erie 
Railroad. The " Stourbridge Lion," meeting with an 
accident shortlj^ after its first trial, was never 
repaired. 

2. The first locomotive built in America for a 
purely experimental purpose was the "Tom Thumb," 
which was constructed by the now venerable Peter 
Cooper. This little machine was built for the pur- 
pose of testing the feasibility of a locomotive sustain- 
ing itself while running over curves, which was a 
mooted point among the engineers and scientists of 
that day. The engine weighed less than a ton, the 
cylinder was only three and a half inches in diameter, 
the boiler was about as " large as an ordinary kitchen 
boiler," ard was vertical, with gun barrels for tubes. 



270 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Tbo first trial was made on the Baltimore and Ohio 
Railroad, from the depot at Baltimore to Ellicott's 
Mills, August 28, 1830. 

3. The first locomotive engine built in America for 
actual service on a railroad was called the " Best 
Friend," and was constructed for the Charleston and 
Augusta Railroad Company. This pioneer locomo- 
tive was built at the West Point Foundry machine 
shops in New York City, and the work of fitting it 
up fell to the lot of Mr. Matthew. Immediately 
after the engine was completed it was placed on the 
company's road, and the first experiment with a 
train was made November 2, 1830, N. W. Darrell 
acting as engineer. 

Some few days previous to the above date, or 
about the 20lh of October, in accordance with a 
notice given in the Charleston papers, a public trial 
was made with this locomotive, without any cars 
attached, at which trial Mr. VV. B. Ewer, one of the 
proprietors of this paper, was present. It was on 
this occasion that the first American-built locomo- 
tive turned its wheels for the fir.'^t time on a railroad 
track. At the trial on November 2d the wooden 
wheels of the inachine, which were constructed after 
the English practice, sprung and got off^ the track; 
but they were replaced by cast-iron wheels, and on 
December 14th and 15th the engine was again tried, 
and run at the rate of sixteen to twenty-one miles 
an hour with five cai's carrying about fifty passen- 
gers, and without the cars it attained a speed of 
thirty to thirty-five miles an hour. In the Charles- 
ton Courier, March 12, 1831, there is an account of a 
later trial of the speed of the "Best Friend," on 
which occasion, the writer remarks, " safety was 
assured by the introduction of a barrier car, on which 
cotton was piled up as a rampart between the loco- 
motive and the passenger cars." The second loco- 
motive for service built in this country was called 
the "West Point," and was for the same road. It 
was also constructed at the West Point machine 



4. The first locomotive built in America for a 
northern road was called the " De Witt Clinton," and 
was the third American locomotive. It was for 
actual service on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad. 
This engine, like the others, was built at the West 
Point machine shops, and was also fitted up by Mr. 
Matthew; and when it was completed he took it to 
Albany, June 25, 1831, and made the first excursion 
with a train of cars over the road August 9, 1831. 
According to Mr. Matthew's statement, the " De 
Witt Clinton" weighed three and a half tons, and 
hauled a train of three to five cars at the speed of 
thirty miles an hour. It is especially noteworthy 
that both the cab and the tender of the '' Do Witt 
Clinton " were covered to ])rotect the engineer from 
the weather — a "happy thought" of honest David 
Matthew, for which all American engineers at least 
ought to hold him in kind remembrance. About the 
middle of August the English locomotive, " Robert 
Fulton," built by the j^ounger Stephenson, arrived 
and was placed on the Mohawk and Hudson road 
for service in the middle of the following' September. 

The locomotives had been used and fairly tested 
both on the southern and northern railroads, and the 
necessity for a radical change in their construction 
had become evident. Very soon John B. Jervis 
devised the plan of putting the truck under the 
forward part of the engine to enable it to turn sharp 
curves easilj' and safely. The machine so constructed 
was called the " bogie " engine. The first of these 
engines ever built was for the Mohawk and Hudson 



road, and was called the " Experiment." It was put 
on the road and run by Matthew, who says it was 
" as fleet as a grej-hound." The " Experiment " had 
been built to burn anthracite coal solely; after a 
while it was rebuilt and adapted to the use of any 
kind of coal, and its name was changed to the 
" Brother Jonathan." Shortly after these changes 
had been made the English locomotive " Robert Ful- 
ton," belonging to the same company, was also rebuilt 
and furnished with the truck, and named the "John 
Bull." The "Brother Jonathan" was a remarkable 
machine for those pioneer days. Mr. Matthew says 
of it: " With this engine I have crossed the Mohawk 
and Hudson Railroad from plane to plane, fourteen 
miles in thirteen minutes, stopping once lor water. I 
have tried her speed upon a level, straight line, and have 
run a mile in forty-five seconds by the watch. She 
was the fastest and steadiest engine I have ever run 
or seen, and I worked her with the greatest ease." 
This is certainly wonderful speed, and may be, as 
Matthew earnestly maintains it is, the fastest time, 
at least on the American railroad record. 

In comparison to the splendid and efficient engine 
of to-day, our first locomotives, built after the English 
model mainly, were clumsy and crude machines. Since 
then our improvements have been manilold and extra- 
ordinary, and the American locomotive is now pro- 
nounced the most " perlect raili-oad tool in the world." 
Its exquisite symmetry and flexibility, and its extra- 
ordinary power must till the mind of a veteran like 
Matthew — who has watched its growth from its 
infancy in this country— with feelings of generous 
admiration and pride. The English and the Amer- 
ican railroads and locomotives are strikingly con- 
trasted by a writer in llaipers Mayazlne for March, 
1879. English roads are short, solid, straight and level, 
and laid with the best rails in the world; and their 
massive and powerful, and rigid-framed engines are 
thoroughly adapted to those perfect roads. On the 
contrary, the American road is generally of great 
length, and being necessarily cheap it " goes as you 
please." Over these eccentric roads the American 
locomotive adjusts itself to every change of level 
both across and along the line; it takes curves that 
would be impossible for the rigid English engine; 
and, finally, it runs over a crazy track, up hill and 
down, in perfect safety. It has been well said that 
all that the English engine can do on a perfect road 
the American engine will do; and much more than 
this, it will do work on any road, however rough, 
hilly, curved and cheap. The name of the first Amer- 
ican locomotive seems to have been inspired, for it 
has in the largest sense proved our " Best Friend." 

This locomotive was of different form from the 
Stephenson locomotive, resembling the steam fire 
engine of the pi'esent day, being an upright boiler 
with smoke-stack rising irom the upper end, the 
carriage being an open frame- work, and four wheels 
of equal size, the pistons and connecting rods reach- 
ing to the forward wheels. The Stephenson loco- 
motive was a horizontal boiler with steam chest, 
fire-box and smoke-stack attached, as at present, the 
carriage and driving wheels being the same as in the 
" Best Friend." 

A HISTORICAL RAILROAD EXCURSION. 

There is a painting in the possession of the Con- 
necticut Historical Society representing an excursion 
train on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, from 



RAILROADS. 



271 



Albany to Schenectady, New York, in 1831, often 
claimed to have been the first steam train in America, 
but the correct history regarding priority has 
undoubtedly been given in the preceding extract. 
The train, in comparison with the trains of the 
present day, was a unique affair, consisting of 
the toy-like English locomotive, a car carrying water 
in a closed tank and wood in barrels, and two stage- 
coach bodies set on car wheels. The venerable 
Thui'low Weed was one of the venturesome excur- 
sion party, of whom there were sixteen in all, 
and he has given descriptions of the ride. The cars 
were connected in train by chains from one to the 
other leaving quite a space between each. When 
starting, if the connecting chains were slack, the 
jerking threw the passengers off their seats, and 
when slacking or stopping the engine, the collision 
threatened destruction. "Necessity is the mother of 
invention," so a remedy must be had or the railway 
trial for passengers would be a failure. The train 
was stopped near a convenient fence from which 
rails were taken and fastened between the coaches, 
tender and locomotive, thus making the whole rigid 
and preventing the furious bumping. Thus "bump- 
era" were invented. Stage-coach bodies were the 
first passenger cars, and these, somewhat enlarged, 
but verjf slightly different, continued in use, some 
remaining on American roads as late as 1848, by 
which time the people of the East were becoming 
quite familiar with the iron road and its flying train. 

FIRST CALIFORNIA RAILROADS. 

The isolation of California retarded the adoption 
of any extended railroad system for many years. A 
few mining railroads, which, however, cannot be 
classed as being part of the system, were constructed 
as early as 1853, and of these Placer County claims 
the pioneer. In that year Capt. John Birston 
and a company of miners built a railroad of a mile 
or more in length from Virginia Hill to Auburn 
Ravine, for the purpose of transporting the gold- 
bearing earth from their mine to the water of the 
stream. This was used successfully for several 
months, when the better plan was conceived of con- 
ducting the water to the mine by means of a ditch, 
and the pioneer railroad was abandoned. 

The succe.ss and novelty of this enterprise led to 
the organization of the first railroad company in the 
State. This Virginia and Bear River Railroad was 
intended for carrying " pay dirt" from Auburn Ravine 
to Bear River, where was an abundance of water, 
the essential element to the mine in separating the 
gold from the earth. The company created a sensa- 
tion on "great expectalious," but built no road, the 
ditch superseding the necessity for any railroad. 

The inland trade and travel through Placer County 
was large from the earliest period of the golden era. 
This was carried on b}^ moans of teams and stages, 
which were slow, toilsome and expensive. The 
demand for the building of railroads was incessant 



Sacramento was the depot of the northern mines. 
The principal road from it leading up the American 
River, supplying the counties of Amador, El Dorado, 
Placer and Nevada. The Sacramento Valley Rail- 
road was built to supply this demand. This was 
accomplished in 1855 and '56, being completed in 
February of the latter year. This was the first steam 
traveled railroad in California, and was the first ever 
seen by many of the pioneer immigrants, so rare 
were railroads in the States west of the great lakes 
in 1849. The road extends from Sacramento to 
Folsom, a distance of twenty-two and a half miles, 
on the south side of the American River, termin- 
ating near the junction of the South and North 
Forks of that stream. The projectors of this road 
claimed to have in contemplation its extension 
through the valley of the Sacramento northward, 
and to be a part of the transcontinental railroad 
when that should be made, but running so near the 
river it had, at Folsom, entered a cut de sac from 
which it could only be extended by doubling on itself. 
This short piece of road cost in construction and 
equipment about $1,100,000; rates of labor being 
high, and all the material, but the ties, in the track 
being imported from the Atlantic States and Europe. 
So great was the cost that it deterred capitalists 
from undertaking such enterprises. During that 
period freights to the Pacific Coast were very high, 
there being little return cargo, it being before 
the days of wheat, wool and wine productions, for 
which the ships of all the World now seek our har- 
bors, often coming in ballast, thus reversing the 
order of olden times. 

RAILROAD EXTENSION. 

Immediately upon the completion of the road to 
Folsom, and the rise of that place, which was built 
as the result of the railroad at its terminus, a 
demand for its extension was made by the people of 
Placer. The argument urged is shown in the follow- 
ing editorial in the Flacer Herald of February 23, 
1856:— 

The Sacramento Vallej' Railroad is now completed 
from the city of Sacramento to Folsom, on the 
American River, and in a few days our stages will 
be running regularly from this town to the upper 
depot. With scarcely any advantages over any 
mining town in Placer County we find the village of 
Folsom, upon our border, springing as it were in an 
hour, into a place of commercial importance, by vir- 
tue of the advantages it derives from being the tem- 
porary terminus of the railroad. It is estimated 
that the stock of the road, incomplete as it is, will 
shortly pay two percent, per month upon the capital 
stock invested. Stage routes are being established, 
radiating from the depot to every section of the 
mountain country contiguous to it, and a feverish 
anxiety on the part of the business men and travel- 
ing public generallj- to adopt this road for their uses, 
is daily made more and more manifest. These facts 
are worthy the serious reflection of our citizens, for 
they are the mathematical conclusions of experience. 
This railroad enterprise is no longer a matter of 



272 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



doubt — it is reduced to a practical certainty — a pay- 
ing investment. 

The destination of this road is said to be ulti- 
mately the City of Marysville. In its passage it 
will traverse the County of Placer along the line of 
the foot-hills where the}' break into the plains. This 
will be of incalculable advantage to the ranchmen 
and farmers along the line, and perhaps to the county 
at large. Something is wanted to connect us with 
the great marts of California trade and develop the 
resources of this mountain county. We have exten- 
sive forests of fine timber, numerous streams for the 
use of machinery, limestone and marble quarries, and 
many other resources of which mention could be 
made. Shall we continue to trundle along in cum- 
brous, obsolete stage coaches, through dust and mire, 
as usual ? Drag our stores with painful toil, in heavy 
jolting wagons and ox-teams ? Or would it become 
"us as men to make some move tending, if possible, 
to draw to ourselves the benefits of this railroad? 
We are not ambitious of Auburn; it is a village now, 
and will be nothing more, in all probability, during 
our day aiiJ generation. Grreat cities are built now 
only where necessity requires them, and in this rela- 
tion commerce is a necessity. San Francisco is by 
natui'e the city of California and the Pacific, unless, 
indeed, these earthquakes should knock our calcula- 
tions in the head. Be that as it ma}-, we want a 
branch of this road to pas^ from its present terminus 
through Auburn to Grass Valley and Nevada. This, 
from what we can understand, is physically feasible. 
Auburn is about seventeen miles from Folsora; the 
rise from there to this point is no more than thirty- 
five feet to the mile. [The average is seventy feet 
to the mile. — Ed] From this to Grass Valley there is 
a succession of valleys, which will probably give about 
the same grade. Perhaps Nevada is equally acces- 
sible, but of that we cannot speak from personal 
knowledge. Upon some of the roads in the Atlantic 
States the grade at some points is as much as 110 
feet to the mile. If, then, it is as we represent it, 
the scheme is entirely practicable. As to the means 
to be taken to obtain this desired result, we con- 
fess ourselves at a loss to advise. It would seem 
proper for our citizens to hold a meeting and take 
some action. No doubt our friends in Nevada 
County and Sacramento would lend us their support, 
and assist in the work. They are quite as deeply 
interested as we of Placer. 

We have made these suggestions at this time, and 
though crude as they are, believe we have dischai'ged 
one among our man}' duties in calling public atten- 
tion especially to the matter. In the future we 
shall have more to say about it, and will probably be 
better prepared with reasons in support of the meas- 



This appeal was followed by others, arguing 
vehenently in favor of building an extension to 
Auburn. The people were aroused, and on the 13th 
of March a pi-eliminary meeting was held, at which 
it was resolved to call a general meeting of the citi- 
zens of Auburn and vicinity, to take steps towards 
procuring the building of a railroad to connect 
.\uburn with the Sacramento Valley Railroad at 
l'')lsom. The meeting was held on t1ie20th of March, 
Hr)6, and an executive committee appointed, to 
which was intrusted further movements. 

As nn argument why the railroad should be built, 
1110 Placer Press, in April, published statistics show- 



ing the advantage it would be in saving freight, 
stating that 2,700 tons of freight was brought into 
Placer County monthly from Sacramento, and that 
the average rate paid was §30.00 per ton, making 
the enormous outlay of S81,000 per month for freights. 
By the same estimates it was shown that freight 
could be delivered at Auburn by railroad at 85.00 
per ton, making a saving to the people of the county 
of at least §50,000 per month ; and lumber there cost- 
ing S15.00 per M. freight to Sacramento could be sent 
for S5.00. Such arguments and inducements were 
held out to the public. 

The Legislature of 1856 passed an Act " to enable 
the County of Placer to take and hold stock in any 
company having for its object the extension of the 
Sacramento Valley Railroad to the town of Auburn." 
The proposition to vote §100,000 was submitted to 
the people at the election in November, 1856, and 
was defeated by a vote of 3,432 against it, and only 
319 in its favor. 

In showing the profits arising from such a road, 
the Placer Herald of January 24, 1857, quoted from 
the report of the Directors of the Sacramento Valley 
Railroad the following: " The total earnings of the 
road for 1856 were §177,266; running expenses, 
896.000; balance over running expenses, §81.266. 
The freight increases daily, particularly down freight, 
consisting of granite, cobble-stone, wood and gen- 
eral merchandise. It is estimated that the gross 
earnings for 1857 will be 8216,000; running expenses, 
§81,000; clear balance of earnings, §132,000. The 
compromise effected with the contractors was entirely 
favorable, and fixed the debt due to them on the 1st 
of November at $430,000, for which they receive 
8200,000 in bonds of the company at eighty cents 
on the dollar, leaving a balance with accrued interest 
of 8273,500, which bears interest at the rate of three 
per cent, per month from the 1st of November. 
There are §700,000 due from stockholders in unpaid 
assessments on their subscriptions to stock, which, 
if promptly paid, the road in a few months will be 
free from embarrassments, and thenceforth pay large 
dividends. During the past year 82,000 passengers 
and 17,000 tons of freight passed over the road. 
The distance run by trains was 50,000 miles; wood 
consumed, 1,200 cords; oil consumed, 500 gallons; 
water, 1,000,000; and the whole number of running 
days, 335." The foregoing is given as a sample of 
railroad management and finance in California in 
1S56 — a reason why railroads could not be built with 
ho])es of prosperity. 

C.\LIF0RNI.\ CENTR.\L R.\ILR0.\D. 

In the spring of 1857 a company was formed in 
Marysville. under the title of the " California Central 
flai road Company," to build a railroad from Folsom 
to Marysville. Col. Chas. Lincoln Wilson, who had 
been a contractor on the Sacramento Valley Rail- 
road, was sent Bast to procure funds for baildins 
the ro.id. This object he effected, and the construe- 



RAILROAnS. 



273 



tion commenced forthwith. The road connected 
with the Sacramento Valley at Folsom, on the south 
side of the American River, going on that bank a 
few hundred yards up the stream, and crossing on a 
wooden bridge; then going down the stream about 
one mile, when it gained the level of the bluflf bor- 
dering the river, where it took a northwesterly 
course along the foot-hills to Lincoln, in Placer 
County— having a total length of nineteen miles, of 
which fourteen were in this county. The Sacra- 
mento Valley Railroad builders had shown the poor 
judgment of running into a cul de sac, while the 
builders of this, having the ultimate object of reach- 
ing Sacramento, constructed a mountain road, cross- 
ing the river at Folsom by an expensive bridge, 
making a course from Eoseville to S.icramento of 
thirty-two miles, when the direct and easy line was 
only eighteen miles in length. The road was com- 
pleted to Lincoln, October 31, 1861, and the passen- 
ger travel of Placer, Nevada and Yuba, and much of 
the freight of the two former counties, passed over 
it. The construction of the Central Pacific Railroad 
in 1863 to RoseviUe destroyed the usefulness of that 
portion of the California Central extending to Fol- 
som, and business on it ceased. The section from 
Lincoln to Marysville was not completed until 1869, 
then under the name of the Yuba Railroad Company, 
and the same year it became the property of the 
Central Pacific Company, under the title of California 
and Oregon Railroad Company', but shortly after- 
wards designated as the Oregon Division of the 
Central Pacific. This has twenty-one miles in Placer 
County — from RoseviUe to Bear River — passing 
through the towns of Lincoln and Sheridan. 

AUBURN BRANCH RAILROAD. 

The year 1858 opened brightly for the railroad 
hopes of Auburn. The construction of the California 
Central was commenced, which would pass through 
the western portion of the count}', and offered oppor- 
tunities for easy connection by rail with Auburn; or 
at least the open country, the gentle slopes and 
broad ravines seemed free of all obstacles to railroad 
building. An instrumental survey, however, devel- 
oped most serious difficulties to overcome before the 
iron-horse could stride with ease, and in triumph to 
the town. 

On the 21st of July, 1858, T. D. Judah, Chief 
Engineer of the California Central, commenced at 
Auburn the survey of the " Auburn Branch Railroad," 
which was to join the Central at the most feasible 
point. The report of this survey is dated Folsom, 
August 13, 1858. It says: — 

The line as run commences at Auburn near the 
Placer Herald printing office, running thence down 
and upon the easterly side of Auburn Ravine about 
two miles. Thence crossing over into Dutch Ravine, 
it runs down the same to a point three and two- 
thirds miles below Auburn, where the main road 
branches off to the .Mountaineer House. Here, ero.'^s- 
ing over the divide between Dutch and Buckeye 



Ravines, it runs into Buckeye Ravine, passing a few 
rods in the rear of Newcastle. To this point, which 
is four miles from Auburn, is found a fair line, 
requiring no grade of over eighty feet per mile 
From the point opposite Newcastle, the line con- 
tinues down Buckeye Ravine to its intersection with 
Secret Ravine, near Preston & VVorroll's quartz- 
mill six miles from Auburn, thence down Secret 
Ravine, passing near Bishop's quartz mill, the Oaks 
House, Indian Valley House, Pine Grove House and 
Havves, keeping in Secret Ravine to its intersection 
I with the line of the California Central Railroad at a 
! point sixteen and two-thirds miles from Auburn, eight 
and forty-four onehundredths miles from Folsom, 
and thirty and sixty-two one hundredths miles from 
Sacramento vi'i, Folsom. 

The only serious difficulty on the whole line occurs 
on the mile immediately bel iw Newcastle, the fifth 
mile from Auburn, which falls 240 feet, so that an 
eighty foot grade continued down does not strike 
the surface again until it reaches a point eleven and 
a half miles f^i-om Auburn. 

The great difference of elevation below Newcastle, 
and the long and high trestle-work required in cross- 
ing Dutch and Baltimore Ravines were the fatal 
objections to the route, and the " Auburn Branch " 
was not constructed. 

SACRAMENTO, PLACER AND NEVADA RAILROAD. 

While the obstacles developed by Judah's survey 
were serious, they were not regarded as insurmount- 
able, and the determination was still maintained of 
having a railroad. People of Sacramento, Placer 
and Nevada Counties were earnest in the enterprise, 
and books were opened for subscription to the slock 
of a railroad company, and by July, 1859, stock to 
the amount of •'?50,000 had been taken. On the 2d 
of July, notice was given for subscribers to the 
stock to meet at Auburn on the 23d of that 
month, to form a preliminary organization. On that 
day, July 23, 18.39. the Sacramento, Placer and 
Nevada Railroad Company was organized for the 
j)urpose of constructing a railroad from some point 
on the California Central to Auburn, Grass Vallej', 
and Nevada City. James E. Hale was elected 
President of the company, John 0. Jackson, Treas- 
urer, and F. B. Higgins, Secretary. 

This was to be the long-hoped-for railroad to 
Auburn, for which its enterprising citizens had 
struggled and organized at various times since 1852; 
for which conventions had been held, laws enacted, 
subsidies voted and many columns of newspaper 
matter printed in its advocacy. The most, laudable 
ambition of a public-spirited and energetic people 
was to be gratified. 

Surveys and reconnoissanccs were made by County 
Surveyor S. G. Elliott and by engineer M. M. Stan- 
groom, preceding the complete survey by Sherman 
Day, who commenced operations on the 11th of 
October, 1859, and made bis report March 26, 1860, 
which was published in full in the Placer HeraM, 
March 31, 1860. The line was divided into two 
divisons, the first extending from Auburn to Secret 



274 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Ravino below Newcastle, embracing the acknowl- 
edn'ccl most difficult pai't. In thifs division great 
difficulty was encountered in maintaining a practi- 
cable line in entering Auburn from below, and leaving 
it in tbe extension towards Nevada. The Placer 
UtriihJ printing office was taken as the initial point, 
and it seemed to be regarded as a sine qua non that 
the road should pass centrallj' through the town. 

The line from Auburn to Secret Ravine required 
the crossing of Banvard Ravino by a trestle 1,200 feet 
long and 135 feet above the bed of the stream at the 
highest point. Then a trestle-bridge across Balti- 
more Ravine ;t50 feet long, and 161 feet above the 
bottom of the ravine. Dutch Ravine was crossed 
by a liridge 800 feet long and seventy-eight feet high 
at the center. Other ravines to cross, and deep cuts 
to make made this section the most difficult of the 
line, and as the subsequent history of the road will 
show, was never utilized by any railroad. By a 
scintillation of genius, encouraged by a disregard of 
others wishes, or by independence, a later and greater 
enterprise found a practicable route to and past 
Auburn without running through its main street. 

The route selected by Engineer Day over the 
second division continued along the western slope 
and summit of the lower dividing ridge between the 
sources of Secret and Miners Ravines, afterwards 
crossing the latter half a mile southwest of the 
Franklin House, then followed nearly the stage 
route from Auburn to Fulsom, passed near Rose 
Spring, then near Beals Bar, then entered Big Gulch, 
which it descended by a grade of eighty feet per 
mile to its junction with the American, then to the 
juiiLlioa with the California Central at a point nine- 
teen and thirteen one-hundredths miles from Auburn, 
and immediiitely at the northern end of the i-ailroad 
bridge at Fol^om. 

Of the cost of this the Engineer says: -'As the 
second division of the roail, about thirteen miles 
nearest Folsom, costs so much less in ))roportion 
than the upper, it may be thought good policy to 
enter at once upon the construction of the lower 
division, thus giving an impetus to the work and 
providing for the transportation of the materials for 
the heavy bridging on the upper portion." Adding 
one and a half miles of the first division to bring the 
road to within four and a half miles of Auburn, the 
total cost for road, equipped with rollingstock ready 
for UMC was estimated at #510,133. 

The guage of the road was fixed at five feet, the 
same as that of the Sacramento Valley Raih'oad; 
the rails to weigh sixty pounds to the yard, set in 
ciiairs of wi'ought iron weighing seven pounds each, 
and fastened with spikes weighing half a pound each. 
Iron rails were then delivered from England at .170.00 
pel- ton. the price in England being from £(5 to £(!, 
lOs. per ton, with freight, commission, insurance, 
exchange, duty etc., added. 

The question was asked, '' Will the road i»ay ?" to 
which the engineer answered, " Does U jmi/ to do 



without the road ?" Does it pay the people of Placer 
and Nevada Counties to travel in stage coaches and 
mud wagons, or even in buggies covered with dust 
in summer and mud in winter, starting at unseason- 
able hours and paying $8.00 or ¥9.00 from Nevada, 
and S4.00 from Auburn to Folsom ? Does it pay to 
get goods up over the muddy i-oads at 120.00, S25.00 
and #30.00 per ton in three or four days passage, 
that might be brought up for less than one-quarter 
of the money in one day ? Does it pay the miners 
to compensate the merchants for keeping heavy 
stocks of goods on hand at some seasons because 
they can only be brought when the roads are good, 
when the same merchants could sell at much lower 
rates by renewing their stocks monthly? Does it 
pay to leave the splendid timber of the forest uncut, 
when it might be remunerating the occupant of the 
land if a market were opened for it ? Does it pay to 
wait two or three days for letters by mail, that 
might be received and answered on the same day? 
Does it ])ay to lose an extra day or two in the 
transit of gold-dust, and incur extra risks by reason 
of the unseasonable hours of travel ? Does it paj' 
to leave the granite in the ledges that might be on 
its way to build stores, and public buildings, and 
fortifications at Sacramento and the Bay ?" 

The gross receipts of the road were estimated at 
$943 per day, or #344,195 per year, and the total 
expenses, including estimated repairs at 8168, t)00 per 
annum, leaving a net income of #176,195. This was 
to come from seventy-five passengers each way, at 
#1.90 each; llStons up freight at #2.85; 100,000 feet 
lumber, down, at #3.00; twenty tons fire-wood and 
granite at #1.50, each day. Should the road be com- 
pleted to Nevada City it was estimated that the 
freight to that place would add $263,000 to the 
annual receipts. The survey to Nevada showed a 
distance of thirty-one and three-quarter miles from 
Auburn, and an elevation of 2,498 feet above the sea. 
This would be more than one-third the elevation of 
the summit of the Sierra Nevada at Henness Pass, 
and the construction of this road to that city was 
supposed to fix it as one of the divisions, and the 
route of the future Pacific Railroad, which should 
enter the central and business portion of California. 

On the 7th of April, 1860, Charles A. Tuttle, 
Esq., was elected President of the company, and S. 
\V. Jjovell was chosen a Director in place of Judge 
Hale, who had resigned. 

The Legislature then in session passed an Act 
authorizing the people of Auburn to vote on the 
proposition to subscribe to $50,000 of the stock of 
the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad, to bo 
paid when the road was completed an<l in working 
order to within thirteen miles of the town. This was 
a very popular measure in Auburn, and was strongly 
advocated by the papers. The election occurred on 
the 4th of June. 

An editorial in the lleniltl of June 2d, asked for a 
unanimous vote in favor of the proposition, saj'ing. 



RAILROADS. 



275 



"anyone who is opposed to it is not only indifferent, 
but an enemy to the interests of the place." The 
vote was 160 " yeas," and not one in opposition. 

This vote was soon to be followed by another. 
The same Legislature passed an Act, approved April 
'AO, 1860, authorizing an election to be held by the 
people of Placer County to vote on the propositions: 
"To subscribe for «100,000 of the stock of the Sacra- 
mento, Placer and Nevada Railroad; ^25,000 of the 
stock of the Eastern Extension Railroad; §12,500 
towards the construction of a wagon road from Secret 
Springs, on the Divide, between the Middle and North 
Forks of the American River, in Placer County, to 
Carson Valley; and 812,500 towards the construction 
of a wagon road from Dutch Flat, in Placer (!ounty, 
to Carson Valley." 

The campaign preceding this election was one of 
the most bitterly contested ever held in Placer 
County. Each proposition was to be voted sepa- 
rately: As " Subscription to Sacramento, Placer and 
Nevada Railroad — Yes," or " Subscription to Sacra- 
mento, Placer and Nevada Railroad — No;" and the 
others in the same form. The Eastern Extension 
Railroad was to run from Lincoln up Auburn Ravine 
to Auburn, and received but little favor, but by those 
in the immediate vicinity of its route. The remain- 
ing propositions were favored by those along the 
line of the railroad, and of the Dutch Flat Wagon 
Road, and opposed by the people of the Divide, 
between the Forks of the American River. The 
people of the western part of the county, not affected 
by either of the propositions, also opposed them all. 

The election was held as ordered on the 27th of 
June, 1800, resulting in the defeat of the measure. 
The official returns of the votes were as follows: 
Subscription to the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada 
Railroad — Yes, 1,997; No. 2,183. Subscription to the 
Eastern Extension Railroad — Y^es, 108; No, 4,000. 
Subscription to Dutch Flat Wagon Road — Y'es, 1,833; 
No, 2,218. Subscription to Secret Springs Wagon 
Road— Yes, 1,030; No, 2,986. Total vote cast in 
the county, 4,220, being larger than any vote ever 
before given. 

The vote of Auburn was very large, the majority 
for the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad 
being 450, and at Dutch Flat, 272. The Herald said 
of the unusually large vote at Auburn: "It is true 
the vote was larger than has been polled at any gen- 
eral election in many years; but never was the same 
effort made to get out a vote. Stages, wagons, and 
^buggies were run constantly during the day, and 
several miles in ever^'' direction, and every voter who 
could be persuaded to leave his Imsiness was 
brought in." 

This source of revenue being cut off, the company 
sought their financial help elsewhere. Books were 
opened in Auburn, Sacramento and San Francisco, 
and .?CO,000 were subscribed, which, with the $50,000 
voted by the town of Auburn, would give 8110,000 
to commence operations with. The engineer, Sher- 



man Daj-, in March, 1861, estimated that the gi.il- 
ing of the lower division of thirteen miles could be 
made for $130,000. The Directors had arranged 
with the Sacramento Valley Railroad for the iron 
and for operating the road. On the first of June 
the Directors appointed J. P. Robinson, Chief Engi- 
neer, and M. L. Stangroom, Assistant, to perma- 
nently locate the line. The Directoi-s elected in 
August were J. B. Bayerque, of San Fraiici«oo, J. P. 
Robinson, of Sacramento, James E. Hale, J. R. Cran- 
dall and C. H. Mitchell, of Auburn. J. E. Rale, Pres- 
ident; John Q. Jackson, Treasurer; and C. H. 
Mitchell, Secretary. These contracted with Mr. 
Jackson R. Myers, on favorable terms to the com- 
pany, to grade the division from Folsom to within 
five miles of Auburn, and on the 20th of August, 
1861, the Work was begun in Big Gulch, near 
Folsom. 

The winter of ]K(;i-62 was of unj)rccedented sever- 
ity, and work was greatly impeded thereby. The 
first iron was laid on the road in the latter part 
of April, 1802, and on the 16th of July the road was 
opened for business to Wildwood Station, seven miles 
from Folsom. September 20, 1862, the road was 
completed and put in operation to Auburn Station, 
thirteen miles from F'olsom, and six miles from 
Auburn. At this station Johnson & Co., Egbert, & 
Co., W. 1j. Perkins, and (leorge Wilment established 
forwarding and warehouses, and stage ami team 
lines made it the starting point of their business. A 
busy little village grew up around the station, 
and high hopes were entertained by town proprie- 
toi's and railroad owners when this line should be 
adopted as part of the Pacific Railroad. 

To secure this, and to make sure that the route of 
the future transcontinental road should pass through 
Placer County, had been among the primary objects 
of the builders, and the hopes of the people. As .such, 
and as the pioneer mountain road it deserves, and 
has received, much consideration in this history. 

In June, 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Rtul- 
road Bill, and in October the survey of the route 
was begun. This survey selected the line crossing 
the American River at Norris' Bridge, then direct to 
the nearest point of the foot-hills of the iSierra Nevada, 
crossing the course of the California Central at right 
angles, and adopting a route from three to seven 
miles northwest of tbc Sacramento, Placer and 
Nevada Railroad. This survey and adoption of the 
route was fatal to the last-named road, and its own- 
ers and officers became the bitter opponents of the 
new enterprise. The statute, permitting the people 
of the county to vote on the subject of a loan of 
$100,000 to the Sacramento, Placer and Nevada 
Railroad allowed the election to be ordered at the 
discretion of the Board of Supervisors, and now, with 
the prospect of a road which would destroy its u*e- 
fulness, there was no hopes of the loan'boing granted, 
and no election was called. The road continued 
business until in June, 1864, by which time the Central 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Pacific was completed to Newcastle, this place being 
the depot i'or freight and passengers instead of 
Auburn Station, and soon business ceased entirely. 

The Sacramento Valley Railroad Company had 
supplied the iron for the Sacramento, Placer and 
Nevada Railroad, and held a mortgage on the road 
as security. This mortgage was foreclosed, and 
in the latter part of June the company began 
taking up the rails for the purpose of relajing them 
on the Sacramento Valley and Placerville Railroad, 
which had rival aspirations to the Central Pacific 
to cross the Sierra to the Territory' of Nevada. 
The Central Pacific Companj- procured an injunc- 
tion against the removal of the rails, and the Placer 
County Railroad war was inaugurated. This rail- 
road war created a great sensation at the time, 
resulting in many arrests and trials, the calling out 
of troops for the protection of officers guarding the 
track, the importation of hired " fighters" from 
San Francisco, and heavy bills of costs against the 
county; but at last the rails were removed and the 
Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Railroad ceased 
to be. 

TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD PROJECTED. 

Who first suggested the construction of a railroad 
from the navigable waters of the Mississippi Valley 
to the Pacific has been a matter of some contro- 
versy, but it appears to have been suggested very 
soon after the adoption of the steam railroad system. 
The locomotive was put in practical operation by 
Stephenson, in 1829, in England, from Liverpool to 
Manchester. Also, in 1829, a locomotive was em- 
ployed at Honesdale, in Pennsylvania, in an ex- 
perimental manner, drawing cars of coal, and in 
1831 was drawing its train of passenger cars on 
the road from Albany to Schenectady, in New 
York. This new system of travel created great 
excitement, and its fame spread over the country. 
At that early date in the historj' of railroads one to 
the Pacific was thought of. In proof of this we 
quote from a letter by (.'ol. B. L. E. Bonneville, of the 
United States Army, to the St. Louis Democrat: — 

I observe in your paper of June 4th, fourth page, 
that the paternity of the Pacific Railroad is claimed 
by certain individuals. I desire to say that in 
Juno, or July, 1831, 1 was at Jefferson Barracks, 
near St. Louis, and residing as the guest of Major 
General Gaines, of the United States xirmy, and that 
he told me that he had received a paper from 
General Leavenworth, United States Army, recom- 
mending the building of a railroad to the Pacific, 
and that he had forwarded the same to the War 
Department, Washington City, indorsed as follows: 
'I forward to you the magnificent project of Gen- 
oral Leavenworth.' Of course this paper must be 
in the office of the Adjutant-General of the War 
Department, and may be revived and ]iublished, 
in justice to a meritorious officer, and to compare the 
rude ideas of the early friends of that great and 
grand success. 

The officers of the army, and the few trappers 



and members of the fur companies, were the only 
civilized people then familiar with the great plains 
and the mountainous regions between them and the 
Pacific, and General Leavenworth was the most 
prominent of these officers in the West. His idea 
of a railroad at that time was bold in the extreme, 
and it is a question whether the indorsement of 
General Gaines of " magnificent project " was in 
irony or admiration. 

No doubt hangs over the proposition of the Rev. 
Asa Whitney, who, in 184G, lectured in many places 
in the United States in the advocacy of a plan 
conceived by him for the construction of a Pacific 
Railroad. His plan was for a railroad from the 
Missouri, through the South Pass, to the Pacific at 
Astoria, Oregon, to be built by the National Gov- 
ernment from the proceeds of sales of the public 
lands lying within ten miles on each side of the 
road. Whitney may properly be regarded as the 
originator of the Pacific Ruilroad and father of the 
land grant scheme in its aid. His demands, how- 
ever, were exceedingly modest when compared with 
those who profited by his ideas and made the I'oad. 
Mr. Whitney had been a missionary in Oregon, had 
crossed the plains and mountains more than once, 
and was greatly impressed with the importance of 
the project, and the feasibility of his plan. This was 
in that quiet period of American history which so 
happily prevailed anterior to the acquisition of Cal- 
ifornia and the discovery of gold. The time had not 
ripened until the golden Sierra and the grand bay 
of San Francisco had become a part of our common 
country and under the rule of a people capable of 
their development and protection. His ])lan, as pro- 
mulgated, was approved \>y many prominent officers 
of the Government, and Senator Thomas H. Benton 
introduced a bill to give it effect. 

The discovery of gold and the rapid increase of 
population in California put a dift'erent aspect on 
the railroad question; then it was demanded as a 
vital necessity b}' a numerous and prosperous people. 
Senator Benton introduced a bill on the 7th of Feb- 
ruary, 1849, to provide for the construction of a 
Pacific railroad. Then it became a great political 
question, over which the North and South contended 
until the secession of the latter, which left the North 
free to decide. During the i)eriod of dispute there 
were many projects brought forward, bills introduced 
and surveys ordered, the literature of which, includ- 
ing Congressional discussion of the subjects, would 
make quite a large and interesting library. The 
explorations attending the surveys covered the 
greater part of the country between the Mississippi 
and the Pacific, the reports of which were elaborate 
and elegant volumes, but published in such a manner 
that thej^ appeared but little in popular use. The 
knowledge of the interior was at last made public 
and general through the explorations by miners, 
prospectors and traveler,?, whose accounts and 
descriptions were published in newspapers. There 



RAILROADS. 



277 



were various routes proposed, but the great division 
was between the northern and the southern. The 
politicians of the South insisted upon adopting a 
southern route, which was supposed to favor south- 
ern capitalists and southern institutions, while those 
of the North contended for their special interests. 

The first organized movement for the construction 
of a Pacific railroad made in California was by citi- 
zens of Placer, Nevada and Sacramento Counties. 
There were filed in the office of the Secretary of 
State at Sacramento, August 17, 1852, articles of 
incorporation of the " Sacramento, Auburn and 
Nevada Railroad Company." The articles contained 
the names of twentj^-six subscribers of twenty-eight 
shares each, at a value of 8100 per shure, and the 
names of the following Directors: S. W. Lovell, 
Placer County; T.O. Dunn, John R. Coryell, Charles 
Marsh, Isaac Williamson, and William H. Lyons, of 
Nevada County; John A. Read, J. B. Haggin, and 
Lloyd Tevis, of Sacramento Counlj-. A line was 
survej-ed from Sacramento through Auburn and 
Grass Valley to Nevada City, showing the distance 
to be sixty-eight miles, and the estimated cost of 
this section of the road was 82,000,000. From 
Nevada the survey was continued through the Hen- 
ness Pass. This was undertaken in a spirit of grand 
enterprise, but it was too gigantic a measure to be 
carried out by private individuals with the fortunes 
considered large in those daj's. 

The Sacramento Valley Railroad was built with 
the expectation that it would be a part of the 
transcontinental system. This company was formed 
August 4, 1852, and 85,000 paid in percentage 
on the stock. The company reorganized Novem- 
ber 9, 1854, and made immediate preparations for 
building the road. This was completed, as has been 
stated, but it did not form a link in the Pacific Rail- 
road, although it played an important part in that 
great work. 

EFFORTS OF THEODORE D. JUDAH. 

The engineer, Mr. Theodore D. Judah, during the 
years 1854, '55 and '56, explored the Sierra Nevada 
through a great part of its extent in search of a 
practicable route for a railroad crossing the range, 
and labored assiduously to organize a company to 
engage in the work. The first route selected by him 
was from Benicia, via Knight's Landing, Marj'sville 
and Noble's Pass, thence to the valley of the Hum- 
boldt. In this enterprise he visited Washington in 
1856, and through Gen. James W. Denver, then 
Member of Congress, introduced a bill, in which the 
United States was to give in aid of the construction 
of the proposed road thirty sections of land, or 
19,200 acres, per mile of road. The fund from the 
sale of this, he estimated, would be ample to build 
the road. On the 17th of May he wrote to Mr. 
Chenery, of Marysvillo, of the bright prospects of 
the passage of the bill. The bill, however, did not 
become a law, and Mr. Judah returned to California. 



In 1858, while Chief Engineer of the California 
Central, he surveyed a route for the Auburn Branch 
Railroad, and made barometrical observation of the 
higher Sierra, which convinced him that a practical 
route could be obtained in that direction for a road. 
He now engaged with great energy and perseverance 
upon carrying out his plan for the construction of 
the Pacific Railroad, and at the session of the Legis- 
lature convening in 1858, succeeded in having a con- 
current resolution passed which authorized the hold- 
ing of a Railroad Convention in San Francisco. This 
was held September 20, 1859, and was composed of 
many of the most prominent men of California at 
that time. This Convention delegated Mr. Judah to 
proceed to Washington to endeavor to procure legis- 
lation on the subject. While in Washington at this 
time a bill was dt-awn up by himself and Hon. John 
C. Burch, then a Member of Congress from Cali- 
fornia. This bill contained nearly all the provisions 
of the bill as finally passed in 1862. It was printed 
at private expense, and a copy sent to each Senator 
and Member of Congress. But the time was not 
ripe for the measure. Political complications — the 
slavery question — absorbed the attention of Con- 
gress. Mr. Judah urged the question upon the 
members, exjilained the details in a lucid and intelli- 
gible manner, and so prepared the way for the future. 

In 1860 he returned to California and continued 
his surveys, struggling with stinted and precarious 
aid in the grandest enterprise of the age. Dr. D. 
W. Strong, of Dutch Flat, contributed largely from 
his private means in paying the expenses of the sur- 
vey, and accompanied Mr. Judah in his explorations 
of the route from Auburn to the Truckee River. 
After completing the survey, which was made with 
a barometer, Judah went to San Francisco to lay his 
plan before the capitalists of that city, and induce 
them, if possible, to form a company to take hold of 
the work. His ideas were received very coldly, and 
he failed in getting the financial support he desired. 

Returning to his hotel one evening, convinced of 
the futility of any further trials in San Francisco, 
Mr. Judah remarked: " The capitalists of San Fran- 
cisco have refused to-night to make an investment 
for which, in less than three years, they shall have 
ample cause to blame their want of foresight. I 
shall return to Sacramento to-morrow to interest 
merchants and others of that place in the great 
work, and this shall be my only other cfl'ort on this 
side of the continent." 

CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILRO.\D COMPANY. 

In Sacramento were two hardware merchants 
with whom Mr. Judah had had business relations 
while in charge of the Sacramento Valley Railroad 
— Mr. Collis P. Huntington and Mr. Mark Hopkins — 
and to those gentlemen the final proposition was 
niade. A meeting of the business men of Sacra- 
mento was called, and the preliminary steps were 
taken to organize a company. This organization 



278 



HISTORY OF PLACER COTTNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



was effected, and articles of incorporation were filed 
with the Secretary of State June 28, 18GL The 
company was named the Central Pacific Railroad 
Companj' of California, with the following-named 
Directors: Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, James 
Bailey, Theodore D. Judah, L. A. Booth, C. P. Hunt- 
ington, Mark Hopkins, of Sacramento; D. W. Strong, 
of Dutch Flat, and Charles Marsh, of Nevada. 
Leland Stanford was elected President; C. P. Hunt- 
ington, Vice-President; Mark Hopkins, Treasurer: 
and Theodore D. Judah, Chief Engineer. 

After the organization of the company Mr. Judah 
was instructed to make a thorough instrumental sur- 
vey of the route across the Sierra. This survey- 
developed a line with lighter grades, less distance 
and fewer obstacles than the previous observations 
had shown. The first report of the Chief Engineer 
to the oflicers of the company, gave the following as 
the topographical features of the Sierra Nevada, 
which rendered them so formidable for railroad 
operations: — 

" First, The great elevation to be overcome in 
crossing its summit, and the want of uniformity in 
its western slope." The average length of the west- 
ern slope of the Sierra Nevada is about seventy 
miles, and in this distance the altitude increases 
7,000 feet, making it necessary to maintain an even 
grade on the ascent to avoid creating some sections 
with excessive grades. 

"Second, From the impracticability of the river 
crossings."' These rivers run through gorges in many 
places over 1,000 feet in depth, with the banks of 
varying slopes from perpendicular to forty-five 
degrees. A railroad line, therefore, must avoid the 
crossing of these canons. The line, as established 
by the surveys of 18G1, pursued its course along an 
unbroken ridge from the base to the summit of the 
mountain, and by descending the eastern slope by 
the valley of the Truckoe River avoided the eastern 
summit, which rises east of Lake Tahoe, and of the 
several mountain lakes and valleys that characterize 
the Sierra Nevada. The estimated cost of the road 
from Sacramento to the State line was 888,000 per 
mile. The estimated length of line contemplated by 
the company, extending from Sacramento to the 
eastern boundary of the State, was llli miles, but 
the subseciuent location of the road made it 14-1 
miles. 

The struggle now commenced to raise the money 
necessary to perfect the organization and give it the 
appearance of substantiality. Ever}- paper in the 
State, every political party in its platform, and every 
politician on the stump, had, since the days of the 
discovery of gold, advocated and proclaimed the 
Pacific llailroad as the greatest conceivable blessing 
to the Union, to California, and to mankind, and that 
when completed it would pay the enormous profit of 
150,000,000 per annum! Now that some real effort 
was making, a j)racticablo route found, and a pros- 
pect oi' work being conimcnced, capitalists began to 



express opposition to the work, and the company 
was denounced as a company on paper only. 
The Directors were stigmatized as ordinary trades- 
people in a small interior city, in moderate circum- 
stances, with slight education, and no experience in 
any great enterprise or financial operation. Truly 
the venture was a wild one if carried on timidly, 
but by a liberal expenditure, bold and energetic 
movements, there was a possibility of success, equal- 
ing the representations made by Engineer Judah to 
the San Franciscans. The developments in the silver 
mines of Nevada offered a prospect for immediate 
business, and the secession of the Southern States, 
taking the southern route from the controversy, 
opened the prospect for the passage of the Pacific 
Railroad bill with liberal grants and subsidies. 

On the 9th of October, 1861, the Board of Direc- 
tors of the Central Pacific Railroad Company passed 
the following resolution: — 

Jiesoh-ed, That Mr. T. D. Judah, the Chief Engin- 
eer of this company, proceed to Washington, on the 
steamer of the 11th of October, instant, as the accred- 
ited agent of the Central Pacific Railroad Companj- 
of California, for the purpose of pi-ocuring appropri- 
ations of land and United States bonds from Gov- 
ernment, to aid in the construction of this road. 

RAILROAD BILL PASSED CONGRESS. 

The mission was successfully accomplished, greatly 
through the aid of (ren. James A. McDougal, Sen- 
ator from California, and the bill passed Congress 
and was approved in July, 18G2. This bill granted 
a Iree right of way to the roads, of 400 feet over all 
(iovernment lands on theii- route. The land on 
either side ol' the i-oute was to be withdrawn Irom 
settlement, by pre-emption or otherwise, lor a dis- 
tance of fifteen miles, until the final location of the 
road should be made and the United States surveys 
had determined the location of the section lines. 
This bill also provided for issuing to the company, as 
a loan. United States thirty -year six per cent, bonds, 
as each twenty-mile section of the road was com- 
])lcted, at the rate of %!10,000 per mile for the line 
west of the western base of the Sierra Nevada — 
which was fixed by President Lincoln at seven miles 
from Sacramento — and at the rate of $48,000 per 
mile from the western to the eastern base. To secure 
the Government from loss and to insure the payment 
of the bonds, they were made a fii-st lien on the road. 
This was subsequently modified by an .\ct passed 
July, 1864, allowing the company to issue first mort- 
gage bonds to the same amount as the Government 
bonds, the United States taking the position of sec- 
ond mortgagee. The land grant in the first bill was 
every alternate section for ten miles on each side of 
the track, but this was afterwards doubled, making it 
twenty sections per mile. 

The company was now fully organized, grants 
made, and it given the possession of the route. .Mr. 
Huntington visited New York, with the power of 
attorney of the company, in the endeavor to nego- 



RAILROADS. 



270 



tiate money on tbc company's bonds, but without 
success, as the abilitj' to prove them valuable by the 
construction of any part of the road was not yet 
shown. Subscriptions to the stock wci-e sought in 
California, and a few gentlemen subscribed, among 
whom were Mr. Samuel Brannan, of San Francisco, 
Mv. Charles Holbrook, of Sacramento, and Mr. 
Charles Marsh, of Nevada. Private subscriptions 
furnished the means for the beginning of work. In 
1862, the city of Sacramento granted the right of 
way along the city front, and also gave the company 
the tract of ground covered by Sutter Lake. In 
.November, 18(52, the first body of surveyoi's, under 
Douglas Judah, brother of the Chief Engineer, went 
out to locate the permanent line. 

THE WORK COJI.MENCED. 

The ceremonies attending the throwing of the 
first earth, or beginning the work of construction of 
the Pacific Itaih'oad, took place at Sacramento on 
the 8th of January, 1863. The locality of the work 
was on the bank of the Sacramento River, at the 
foot of K Street, in Sacramento City. The Sacra- 
mento Union of January 9, 1863, says: "The skies 
smiled yesterday upon a ceremony of vast signifi- 
cance to Sacramento, California and the Union." 
The day was the anniversary of the Battle of New 
Orleans, which it had been customary to celebrate as 
n national holiday. The Legislatui'e was in session, 
and in a body took part in the ceremony. Leland 
Stanford was Governor of the State and President 
of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. The 
Governor and State officers, the Members of the 
Legislature, members of the railroad company, and 
many citizens with music and banners, joined in pro- 
cession and marched through the city to the levee 
where the ceremonies were performed. Charles 
Crocker called the attention of the assemblage, and 
introduced Governor Stanford, who made a brief 
address. Rev. J. A. Benton asked the Divine bless- 
ing upon the enterprise, the L^nion, the company, and 
the people. After this Charles Crocker announced 
that the Governor of the State would now shovel the 
fir,*t earth for the great Pacific Railroad. Several 
addresses followed. vSenator A. M. Crane, of Ala- 
meda Counl3^ delivered an eloquent oration, and 
speeches were made by lion. J. H. Warwick, Mem- 
ber of Assembly from Sacramento; Rev. J. T. Peck; 
Hon. VV. H. Sears, Momberof Assembly from Nevada; 
Ilon. Newton Booth, Senator from Sacramento; Dr. 
J. F. Morse, and Charles Crocker. The day was 
pleasant and everything auspicious of success in the 
beginning of the work for the construction of the 
great road which was to stretch across the continent. 

The I'oad was regarded as a public work, to be con- 
structed by the people and for the people, in which it 
was the duty of all to assist, knowing that theincor- 
))orators, as individuals, were comparatively without 
means. They were, too, prominent Republicans; 
the great war of the Rebellion was raging; the polit- 
ical feeling was intense; the raih'oad was thought a 



military necessity as a protection to the Pacific 
Coast, and a grateful feeling was engendered toward 
the men who had taken themanageraent of construc- 
tion. They were looked upon as patriots who had 
assumed a great bui'den for the public good, and 
whose acts it would be deemed mean to question as 
selfish, or to limit by legislation in any grants made 
to them. There was no thought but this confidence 
was reciprocal, and that the gratitude of the people 
would inspire gratitude in return. Those were days 
of innocence. The great fortunes so common now 
were then unknown to the Republic, and the rigor- 
ous power of money and of corporations had not been 
felt in California. The cunning " Credit Mobilier " 
had not been invented, nor the " Contract and Finance 
Companj^ " conceived. All were ready to grant the 
railroad company unlimited power, and to vote the 
public funds without stint in aid of the work. Laws 
of an extraordinary character were enacted by the 
State Legislature of 1863 for this object. By these 
Acts the State donated $10,000 per mile for the first 
fifty milcsof road completed, equalling §500,000; also 
authorized Placer County to elect to subscribe for 
.¥250,000 of the stock; Nevada County, §150,000; 
Sacramento, $300,000; and San Francisco, $600,000. 
Fjlections were held and the subscriptions ordered, 
but the money was not speedily realized. San Fran- 
cisco subsequently compromised by donating iir-iOO,- 
000, and taking no stock. The Legislature of 186-1 
passed an Act guaranteeing seven per cent, per annum 
interest on $1,500,000 of bonds of the Central Pacific 
Railroad Company. The Attoi-ney-General enjoined 
the payment of the interest, as a violation of the 
clause in the Constitution prohibiting the creation of 
a State debt exceeding $300,000, excepting for the 
purpose of defense in time of war. The Supreme 
Court decided that the country was at war, that 
the railroad was for defensive purposes, and the debt 
constitutional. 

PLACER COL'NTY A STOCKHOLDER. 

The Act approved by Governor Stanford April 2, 
1863, ordered an election to be held in Placer County 
on the second Tuesday in May following, on the pro- 
position ordering the Board of Supervisors to take 
and subscribe $250,000 of the capital stock of the 
Central Pacific Railroad Company of California. 
All was ordered by statute, and nothing left to the 
discretion of the Board of Supervisors. The cam- 
paign was lively and the opposition strong and bitter. 
The Ffacer Herald opposed the appropriation with 
great ability, and with singular prescience denounced 
the growing power of a grasping monopoly, already 
supercilious in its manner, positive in its demands, 
and insolent in its throats. Several able correspond- 
ents contributed to its columns in opposition to the 
subscription. The Adoorate also opposed it. The 
Placer Courier, of Forest Hill, and the Dutch Flat 
Enquirer strongly advocated, and wore supported by 
the Sacramento Union, which had a large circulation 
in the county, and by many stump-speakers, who, in 



280 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



the interest of the railroad company, made a thor- 
ough and active canvass. The Herald charged that 
money was used extravagantly by the railroad com- 
pany. James P. Bull, editor of the Auburn Aduocafe, 
published his affidavit that he had been offered 81,000 
to advocate the subscription, and that ho refused to 
do so. As the "Union Pacific Company, which was 
expected to build the road from the Missouri River 
to the eastern boundary- of California, had not j-et 
completed its organization, and there were doubts if 
it ever would, therefore the Central Pacific was 
denounced as a local affair, and could not claim to be 
a national work. 

ADDEESS TO THE PEOPLE. 

The railroad company published an address to the 
voters of Placer Countj-, saying: — 

This wuik, when comjileted, will be the greatest 
of any age or country — the great highway of the 
richest commerce and most extensive travel of the 
world; and, citizens of Placer, nearly 100 miles of it 
will be within your county and will ]jass dii-ectly 
through your county seat. In the construction of 
the road there will be expended in your county not 
much, if any, less than nine millions of dollars, and 
about two millions of it within the trading and traffic 
distance of your county scat. The whole of this 
vast sum, when expended, will immediately enter 
into all the transactions of business condiicte I within 
the county, and into the )iermanent and substantial 
wealth of the country, and will then be subject and 
liable to taxation in the same manner as other accu- 
mulated wealth; and, in addition to that, the raili-oad 
itself as it is constructed, from year to 3'oar, is sub- 
ject to the same taxation as other property. 

You are asked to assist us to the extent of 8250,- 
000 — let us make up an account of the cost of such 
assistance. You give S250.000 in bonds at eight per 
cent interest for twent3- years. You will then have 
to provide $20,000 yearly to meet interest and to 
meet principal at the end of that time. Your rate 
of taxation for county purjioses this year is unusually 
small, thirty cents on the §100. Suppose the rail- 
road alone, without adding any iticreased value of 
other propertj-, or adding any property accumulated 
from the expenditures of building the road were 
taxed at that rate, ($9,000,000 at thirty-five cents 
l)er §100) this will yield an income of 831,500, or 
811,500 per j'car more than the interest you will 
have to pay — this annual surplus at the end of 
twenty 3'ears being nearly sufficient to pay the 
original bonds. Your whole taxable ])roperty for 
the last currentj'ear was only the sum of 83,000,000; 
with the road completed it will be i?12,000,000. * * 

Citizens of Placer, 30U, as citizens of ihe great 
State of the Pacific Coast, have labored twelve long 
years in connection with other citizens of the State 
for the great work. You have assisted to make it an 
important plank in all your part}' platforms: you 
have spoken ior it at the hustings and voted for it 
at the polls, and from j-ear to year you have asked 
.lid of the General Government for its construction. 
With unparalleled munificence the General Govern- 
ment, in lime of direst trouble, granted your request. 
Now, will j-ou not, out of your abundance, add your 
mite and render your assistance to consummate this 
i 111 portanl work ? We believe you will. 



THE ELECTION CONTEST. 

It would have been very unbusiness-like to have 
refused to invest in such profitable property. The 
incorporators were known to be unable to build the 
road, and thirty miles of new road must be con- 
structed before the subsidy which the General 
Government, "with unparalleled munificence," had 
granted, could be drawn, and without county and 
State aid that thirty miles might never be made and 
the Pacific Raih'oad go to other hands, other times 
and another route. With the comparatively small 
sum of 8250,000 in bonds, the addition of 89,000,000 
would be added to the assessable property of the 
county, returning 831,500 annuallj- in taxes. This 
was impliedly assured and the payment of taxes 
promised as a consideration for the bonds. Under 
such circumstances opposition seemed scarcely 
reasonable, nevertheless, it was strong and bitter. 
This would appear to have come almost entirely from 
the Democratic element, as the road was advocated 
as a war meariure, but the opposition to granting aid 
was equally strong by the professed Union papers 
of San Francisco, which, at that date endeavored 
not only to suppress the railroad, but manufactures 
and the National currency as well, because of its 
interfering with sea-going commerce. 

The Herald of May 9, 1863, saj's:— 

Governor Stanford has been here this week to 
electioneer the county into 6250,000 for his railroad. 
Charles Crocker, W. N. Leet, Senators Higgins and 
Harriman, Assemblymen Yule and Blaiichard, S. T. 
Leet, W. C. Stratton and many other lesser lights 
ai"e working like beavers in all parts of the county 
to carrj- the measui-e. Opponents must be active to 
defeat their machinations. 

The election was held on the 12lh of May as 
ordered, and resulted in a majority of 409 in a total 
vote of 3,810 for the subscription, and Placer County 
became a stockholder in the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company. But not yet. Mr. C. H. Mitchell obtained 
from Judge Myers an order enjoining the Board of 
Supervisors from issuing the bonds, and similar steps 
were taken in Sacramento at the instance of J. P. 
Robinson, of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, and in 
San Francisco the subscription was refused, but the 
year following a compromise with the latter count}' 
was made by the payment of $400,000 as a gift. 
All injunctions were soon dissolved. By the end of 
the year §200,000 of the Placer County bonds had 
l)cen issued, and in January, 1864, the remaining 
850,000. 

PROGRESS OF THE ROAD. 

June 1, 1864, the road was completed to Newcastle, 
thirty-one miles from Sacramento, sixteen of which 
were in Placer. Newcastle then became an impor- 
lar,t and busy depot for stages and teams. 

The railroad company was still struggling for 
funds, but in June obtained 8400,000 from San Fran- 
cisco, and the work was pushed on. By the subsid}- 



RAILROADS. 



281 



granted by Congress the company was entitled to 
about one and a quarter millions, and the same 
amount on first mortgage bonds, and from the 
mortgage bonds the company acknowledged the 
receiptor $1,250,000 and 6414,000.14 from individual 
subscription. 

THE FIRST SURPRISE. 

The property was assessed in July and the value, 
as returned by tho President of the company, was 
but §6,000 per mile, and $43,000 as the value of the 
rolling stock and other property. This was a great 
surprise to the people of the county, who, when 
voting to take the stock had been told of the mill- 
ions it would add to the taxable property. The 
valuation set by the Assessor was $20,000 per mile, 
and other property at $78,815, making a 'total of 
$398,815. This was afterwards fixed by the Board 
of Equalization at $252,011. 

In August an effort was made by the Board of 
Supervisors to investigate the affairs of the railroad 
company, and James E. Hale and F.B. Higgins were 
appointed as experts to make the examination. 
This proceeding was rescinded at the instigation of 
the railway company, and on the 15th of August the 
Board appointed its own members, James R. Rogers, 
A. B. Scott and D. "W. Madden as a committee to 
make the examination. Messrs. Scott and Madden 
reported that they had made a careful and full 
examination, and everything had been properly and 
honestly done. Mr. Rogers made a minority report 
upon afiidavit dated September 19, 1864, saying 
every obstacle had been put in his way, and that he 
had been treated verj^ insolently. He was told that 
fifty -one of the Placer County bonds had been sold, 
twelve at 66f cents on the dollar, and thirty-nine at 
ninetj'-five cents in greenbacks, equal to about fifty 
cents in coin; also that Governor Stanford had 
borrowed money on them, paying ten per cent 
interest on the loan. 

Mr. Rogers, as President of the Board of Super- 
visors had been deputized to cast the vote of Placer 
County as stockholder in the railroad company, but 
after his report was made, the authority to do so 
was taken from him and reposed in the Board, 
Messrs. Scott and Madden constituting the majority, 
cast the vote. 

Thus early commenced the contest between the 
authorities of the county and the Central Pacific 
Railroad Company, which has continued until the 
present day. 

January 2, 1865, the famous decision by the 
Supreme Court of California was made, that the Act 
guaranteeing the interest on .SI, 500, 000 at seven per 
cent per annum was constitutional, and the comjjany 
drew from the Treasury the sum of ■'551,555 in gold 
as the first payment of the semi-annual interest on 
1,473 $1,000 bonds, twenty-seven bonds having been 
sold to other ])urtics. 



(iREAT E.VKRGY IN THE WORK. 

The road was now pushed forward with more 
energy. The work from Newcastle to Auburn was 
very heavy, involving deep cutting, known as the 
Bloomer Cut and other expensive work. On the 
22d of May, 1865, cars commenced running to the 
present station on the outskirts of Auburn, and this 
remained the depot until Clipper Gap was reached 
in June. The town of Colfax was laid out early in 
July on land belonging to the railroad company, and 
lots sold at auction. Early in September the road 
was completed to that point, and it became an 
important business place. The railroad was now 
running fifty-four miles from Sacramento, to a point 
so far toward tho rich mining region of Nevada as 
to command the transmountain travel and freight, 
and its business assumed proportions of an impor- 
tant and profitable character. 

TRIUMPH OF ENGINEERING AND FINANCE. 

May 7, 1866. the passenger depot was made a 
Secret Town, nine miles from Colfax; July 15th, at 
Alta, and at Cisco November 29th of the same year, 
ninety-two miles from Sacramento. From this date 
the road was rapidly extended, reaching VVadsworth, 
Nevada, in July, 1868, 189 miles from Sacramento at 
the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, and on the 
13lh of May, 1869, made connection with the Union 
Pacific at Promontory, Utah, 691 miles from Sacra- 
mento. There and then the golden spike was driven 
by Governor Stanford, who, on the 8th of Januarj-, 
1863, had shoveled the first earth in the construction 
of the road on the levee ai Sacramento. By subse- 
quent arrangement with the Union Pacific Company, 
the Central Pacific was permitted to use that road 
from Promontorj' to Ogden, a distance of fifty-four 
miles. The Western Pacific from Sacramento via 
Stockton connected with San Francisco by a route 
of 135 miles, and this with tho Union Pacific, 1,032 
miles in length, made the Pacific Railroad comj)lete, 
with a total length of 2,012 miles, to the Missouri 
River. 

NEVADA CnrNTT NARROW-GAUGE RAILWAY'. 

Upon the completion of the Central Pacific to 
Colfax it became the depot for the travel and freight 
business to Grass Valley, Nevada City, .North San 
Juan, and other points in Nevada and Sierra Coun- 
ties. This business was very large, and in 1874 a 
company was formed to construct a narrow-gauge 
railroad from Colfax to Nevada Citj-. A route was 
surveyed showing a length of road required to Grass 
Valley of seventeen miles, and to Nevada twenty- 
two and a half miles. The work of construction 
began in 1875, and the road was completed, and the 
last spike driven at Nevada on the 20th of May, 
1876. But two and a half miles of this road is in 
Placer County. 



282 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



JOHN R. WHITCOMB. 

Was boi'n at Ellensburg, Clinton County, New 
York, Fobruary 22, 1833. In his infancy he removed 
with his family to Peru, in the fame county, where 
he lived until twelve years of age. His next move 
wan to Franklin County, where he reached his 
majority. In 1855 he emigrated to Minnesota, and 
settled at Farmington, but after one year's trial in 
the West, returned to his native State. In 1857 he 
again went to Minnesota and remained until 1859. 
During the latter year he crossed the plains to Cali- 
fornia, and located at a point on the Sacramento 
River known as "Grizzly Bend," where he remained 
about one year. He then made a trip to Los 
Angeles, and returning settled in Marysville, Yuba 
County, and spent the winter of 1861-62. He was 
at the last-named place during the great floods. In 
1862 he crossed the Sierra to the State of Nevada, 
and located in Humboldt County, where he followed 
mining and dealing in mines, until 1865. During 
that year he removed to Virginia City, Storey 
County, where he remained until 1880. During his 
residence there he general!}' followed his profession, 
that of an engineer, and was in that caiiacity nine 
years, at the Gould and Curry mine. In 1880 he 
came to his present residence, near Colfax, having 
previously purchased the place where his family liad 
resided for some years. 

Mr. Whitcomb was married March 15, 1874, to 
Mrs. Charlotte Trousdale, a native of Canada. They 
have one child aged six years. 



C H A 1' T K li .\ X X VII. 

"WAGON RO.^DS OF PLACER COUNTY. 

Roads in 1849 — First Wagon iii Yankee .Tim's — Emigrant Roads 
— Emigrant Koad of 185:2 — Surveys in 1855 — Placer County 
Emigrant Road — Biographical Sketch of Captain Thomas 
A. Young — Road Convention at Yankee Jim's — List of 
Delegates — Speeches Delivered — Resolutions Offered — Last 
of the Emigrant Road Scheme — Placer County and Washoe 
Turnpike — Toll-roads, Ferries, and Bridges — Bear River 
Bridge — Auburn Ravine Turnpike — Mineral Bar Bridge and 
Road— Other Toll-fioads Before 18150— Auburn and Yankee 
.lim's Turnpike — Lyon's Bridge and Road — Lake Poss 
(Dutch Flat) WaL'on Road— Dutch Flat and Donner Lake 
Wagon Road— Pacific Turnpike— Colfa.x and Forest Hill 
ToU-road — Auburn and Forest HiU Turnpike — Tohn 
Carlson. 

TiiE boldness of the engineering that has con- 
structed the wagon roadsof the mountainous regions 
of Galifornia must win the admiration of all who 
behold the works. The county of Placer is most 
particularly distinguished in this respect. Extend- 
ing, as her territory does, from the plains of the Sac- 
ramento Valley to the eastern slope of the Sierra 
Nevada, a direct distance of about seventy miles, 
embracing a section of the great mountains through 
their entire breadth. Included in this mountain area 
are the canons of the Middle and North Forks of the 
American and Bear Rivers, the valley of the Truckee 



and the slopes of Lake Tahoe, and the many deep 
canons, gulches and ravines intersecting the county 
in every direction. Few can conceive the depth and 
precipitousness of these awful chasms in the earth 
unless they have had the experience of their passage 
without the aid of the fine graded roads and the 
easy riding coach that enterprise, money and labor 
have prepared for them. 

These caiions are from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in depth 
below the bordering ridges which inclose the stream 
at the bottom with the declivity and rigidity of a V 
flume. In the short distance across the county from 
Bear River to the Middle Fork, are the canons of 
the Bear, North and Middle Forks, making an aggre- 
gate rise and fall of about 6,000 feet in eight miles 
of direct line. 

Higher up in the Sierra the canons are deeper and 
succeed each other with appalling frequency if the 
traveler is passing transverse to their course. The 
difficulty is not so serious when following the direc- 
tion of the dividing ridges, but even then many deep 
depressions obstruct the way. The great Sierra 
Nevada stands like a mighty dorsal column, with 
summit passes and peaks from 8,000 to 10,000 feet 
above the sea, and throws out to the westward its 
ridges, like ribs to the body, which extend, when 
unbroken by rivers, with eomparativeevenness to the 
valley. By these lateral ridges the first immigrants 
made their difficult way, on unimproved roads, across 
the mountains, and by one which reaches the valley 
between the American and Bear Rivers, in Placer 
County, the Central Pacific Railroad found a feasible 
route to the summit. 

ROADS IN 1849. 

Wagon roads reached to Auburn, to Bear River, 
and to Illinoistown without serious difficulty in the 
fall of 1849. In the spring of 1850 occurred the 
excitement and rush to Bird's Store and El Dorado 
Canon, on the divide between the North and Middle 
Forks. Wagons were taken as far as Kelley's Bar, 
on the North Fork, being let down the canon by 
ropes, or by attaching limbs of trees as a drag to 
retard the descent. Zigzag trails were cut to facili- 
tate the passage of pack animals. Similar trails 
were made from Oregon and Spanish Bars on the 
road from Coloma, through Todd's Valley, to the 
same points of destination. Such were the first roads 
in Placer County. 

But the immigrants of 1849, having toiled with 
their wagons over unknown plains, mountains, and 
deserts, learning by experience many devices for 
passing successfully the most serious obstacles, would 
not long be delayed nor turned aside by the canons 
of the American. Early in the summer of 1850 
wagons found their way up the divide as far as the 
F'orest House and vicinity. These wagons brought 
merchandise from Sacramento, delivering it on the 
ridge, from whence it was taken, on men's backs, or 
on p.ack-mules, to the mining camps in the canons 
and on the river bars. 



WAGON ROADS. 



28S 



FIRST WAGON IN YANKEE JIM S. 

Early in the fall of 1850 Messrs. B. F., Gr. W., and 
N. F. Gilbert and Thomas Farthing arrived at Yan- 
kee Jim's with an ox-team and wagon, emigrants 
from Missouri, bringing with them their winter's 
supply of provisions, mining tools, clothing, etc., and 
this was the first wheeled vehicle that ever came to 
the place. 

EAIIGRANT ROADS. 

The subject of constructing roads extending to the 
eastern slope attracted the attention of enterprising 
business men at a very eai'ly day. Theii' object usu- 
ally had the business point in view of inducing prof- 
itable travel through their section, but the patriotic 
and generous purpose of inviting immigration to the 
State and facilitating the passage of the mountains 
was loudly proclaimed. All coming to the State 
overland in the early days were called " emigrants." 
The first of these found their way as best they 
could, climbing the mountains from the east where 
some stream or visible depression led to the summit, 
then following down the western ridges, avoiding 
the large streams and gaining the plains below after 
much toil and trouble. The Walker River led the 
first explorers and Colonel Bartleson's party to the 
summit; the Carson opened a favorite pass, which 
led the traveler most direct to Sutter's Fort; the 
Truckee and Donner Lake made a comparatively 
easy road to the divide between the Boar and the 
Yuba, and Peter Lassen, Noble, Fredonyer and 
Beckwourth guided them to passes in the north. 

No emigrant road led through Placer County; Bl 
Dorado receiving the greater portion, giving her 
the largest population of any county in the State, 
excepting San Francisco. The travel was enormous 
and most valuable to localities through which it 
passed. To turn this through Placer County feasible 
passes must be found and roads constructed. At this 
day, since the Central Pacific Railroad, bearing all the 
travel and freight, traverses almost the entire length 
of the county, it seems that its route would have sug- 
gested itself to the emigrant and the people who 
desired them. The old emigrant road crossed near 
where now crosses the raih'oad, and entered Bear 
Valley on the border of Placer, but the easier route 
out led to the north of Bear River, while the narrow 
divide between that stream and the North Fork of 
the American offered no road without such improve- 
ments as the emigrant was not able to make. 

Roads had been made leading from Auburn across 
the North Pork of the American to Iowa Hill and 
Yankee Jim's, and from these points explorations 
developed a practicable route leading to the Truckee 
River, Mountain Lake (subsequently named Bigler, 
now Tahoe), and Washoe Valley, east of the Sierra 
Nevada. 

EMIGRANT ROAD OP 1852. 

In 1852 an emigrant road was constructed from 
Yankee Jim's to Washoe Valley at a cost of over 



$13,000. This was a bold and generous enterprise 
on the part of the people of Placer County, but the 
expenditure was too small to make a very inviting 
road, however favorable the route. The road was 
traveled by a limited number, and gradually lapsed 
into disuse and decay. Had it been supported in 
after years with the energy equaling the energy of 
words in its praise and advocacy, it would have 
redounded greatly to the prosperity of the section, 
now 80 isolated, through which it passed. The his- 
tory of its construction is as follows: — 

On the 8th of June, 1852, a mass meeting of the 
citizens of Placer County was held at Smith's Ranch 
on the divide to take steps toward the construction 
of an "Emigrant Road' through the county to con- 
nect with the old traveled roads east of the mount- 
ains. At that meeting an executive committee was 
appointed, consisting of Messrs. Jonathan Roberts, 
L. B. Ferris, W. D. Smith, and J. A. Avery, who were 
instructed to take measures for the construction of a 
road to Carson Valley by the way known as '-Scott's 
Route." In obedience to these instructions the com- 
mittee built the road at a cost of $13,200. >)f this 
amount there was left an indebetedness of 87,000. 

Upon this the Placer i/erre^f^ of September 13, 1852, 
says: — 

"A meeting of the executive committee for the con- 
struction of the Emigrant Road to Carson Valley 
was held in Auburn to-day. The object of the com- 
mittee was to petition the Court to accept the road 
as a county road, and to assume the payment of the 
debts outstanding, amounting to about S7,000." 

As a free road it was not maintained in good order 
and soon became impassable to hcavilj' laden 
wagons. 

SURVEYS IN' 18.55. 

The Legislature of California in 1855 made an 
appropriation to aid in the construction of a wagon 
road crossing the Sierra, and a Board of Commis- 
sioners was appointed to select the route upon which 
the money was to bo expended. In September, 1855, 
this Board reported in favor of the route along the 
South Fork of the American River, passing Slippery 
Ford, Johnson's Pass, Lake Bigler, Luther's Pass, 
Hope Valley, and Car.son Canon to Carson Valley. 
This pleased the people of El Dorado County who 
expected to — and did — reap great benefits iVom it, 
and aroused the people of Placer. 

Surveyor-Genei'al S. H. Marlette, who led the 
Commissioners, was soundly berated for ignoring 
the route through Placer, and the people declared 
that if the State would not construct the road that 
they, the Placer County people, would without State 
aid. Nothing was done, however, more than to agi- 
tate the subject, which was continued through the 
press during the two following years with many 
strong articles and correspondence descriptive of the 
route, its feasibility, distances from place to place, 
comparisons with others and cost of construction. 



28-1 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, (CALIFORNIA. 



PLACER COUNTY EMIURANT EOAD. 

Congress in 1857 appropriated money for the con- 
struction of two rouds crossing the Territories to 
California. This avvaliened the people of the State 
to extraordinary exertions to open transmountain 
roads to connect with the National roads, and the 
entire mountain press, from Mariposa to Siskiyou 
called upon their people to meet in conventions and 
organize for the construction of roads through their 
favorite passes. Several conventions were held. The 
people of Placer were not to be outdone by rival 
counties, and entered upon the subject with a deter- 
mination that promised the highest success. 

In the preceding fall Mr. Thomas A. Young, then 
County Surveyor, published in the Placer Herald, 
also in his report to the Surveyor-General, a graphic 
description of the route, and of the upper country, 
which is here appended; — 

Tlie following is a report of an examination and 
partial survey of the Placer County Emigrant Road, 
made in the month of August, 1856, in company 
with the following-named gentlemen: James Her- 
rick and David Orr, fi'om the town of Yankee Jim's; 
George Haycock, A. G. McCook, Capt. W. C. Gray 
and James Gist, of Iowa Hill. 

The Forks House we made our starting-point. It 
is situated at the junction of the Michigan Bluft', 
Yankee Jim's and Iowa Hill roads. From the Forks 
Hou.se to the Secret Spring House (a distance of 
eight miles) all that is required to make a good 
wagon road is to remove the loose stones. From 
Secret Spring House to Robinson's Flat (seven miles), 
the road leaves Canada Hill one-half mile to the 
south. After leaving Secret Spring House, the road 
ascend-; a hill known as Secret Hill, but with too 
much grade; and can be improved and made an 
excellent wagon road. The remainder of the road 
to Robinson's Flat requires but little improvement. 

From Robinson's Flat to the west summit of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains the distance is seventeen 
miles (ridge road), passing over one caiion, and is 
generally good, with the exception of three places, 
where tlie road is constructed Oj the highest part of 
the ridge, it should be graded around. For the 
entire last six miles before arriving at the summit 
there is good grass and water. One mile west of 
the summit the road passes through a small valley, 
known as American Valley, having a fine stream of 
water flowing through it and covered with grass. 
This stream is the head-waters of the North Fork of 
the Middle Fork of the American River. The ascent 
to the summit is gradual, the surface smooth, and 
will require but little side-hill cutting. A good road 
can be made at an angle of two degrees. From the 
west summit there is a fine view of Lake Bigler 
(distance, air-line, seven miles). From the summit 
the road descends into the upper or northwest end 
of Squaw Valley — distance three miles. This poi'- 
tion of the road can be much improved, and make a 
good one by extending it so far as to strike the lower 
end of Si[uaw Valley. Squaw Valley is the most 
beautiful valley- the eye of man ever beheld. It is 
covered with luxuriant grass, and the soil is of the 
most productive nature. 

The valley is completely surrounded by mountains 
with the exception of the east end, at which point a 
most magnificent stream of water, that flows through 



the entire length of the valley, empties into Truckee 
River. There is contained in the valley about 500 
acres of tillable land. From the upper end of Squaw 
Valley there is nearly level road of two miles to the 
crossing of the Truckee River. The ford is good. 
At the time of our crossing, the river was two feet 
deep and thirty wide, the current rapid, and the bed 
of the stream solid. At this point the river runs in 
a northerly direction. From the crossing at Truckee 
the road extends along the east bank of the river 
five miles, to the head- waters of the river (Lake 
Bigler). This five miles of road requires but a small 
amount of labor to make it a good road, with only 
sixty feet grade to the mile. 

Truckee River at its head, is four feet deep and 
ninety wide, and running in a northerly direction. 
Bigler Lake is a noble sheet of water, forty-five 
miles in length, and at this point fifteen miles wide. 
[Later surveys show it to be twenty-two miles long, 
and ten to twelve broad. — Ed.] All along the west- 
ern shore of this lake, the water does not exceed five 
feet in depth to the distance of about twenty rods 
from the shore. It then evidently becomes very deep, 
as there is a well-defined line of deep blue extending 
parallel with the shore. The bottom of the lake, so 
far as I explored it, is composed of soft granite rock, 
covered over with fine particles of granite or sand and 
round washed gravel resembling the gravel of the 
hill diggings in many places in Placer County. The 
view of the lake and surrounding mountains is most 
magnificent. The lake is entirely closed in with 
mountains, and it is impossible to detect the outlet by 
which Truckee River flows from it, unless you are in 
the immediate vicinity of the river. At this point 
we parted company with a party of ladies and gen- 
tlemen from Forest Hill, in this county, with whom 
we fell in at the Porks House, and who when we 
parted with them appeared to be enjoying themselves 
very much. 

From the shore of the lake at the head of Truckee 
River, the road extends nearly parallel with the 
west shore of the north end of the lake (a distance 
of twenty miles), and beng a good road, with the 
exception of two miles which requires some side-hill 
cutting, the road passes by several pieces of good 
meadow land. From the north end of the lake the 
road commences ascending the east summit of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains. The ascent is easy, the 
surface smooth, and will require but a small amount 
of side-hill cutting to make it a good road; the dis- 
tance is three miles, and there is an abundance of 
good grass the entire distance. From the summit to 
Washoe Valley the distance is five miles, the road for 
the most part has been worked, and a large amount 
of side-hill cutting done. Two miles below the sum- 
mit a slide of loose granite rock and sand has taken 
place since the road was made, and has covered it 
for twenty rods. Five men in a week's time would 
place the road in its original condition. From the 
summit to Washoe Valley the road can bo made a 
good one. 

The entire distance from the Forks House to 
Washoe Valley is sixty-two miles; from the Forks 
House to Yankee Jim's, fifteen miles; from the 
Forks House to Iowa Hill, twelve miles. From 
Yankee Jim's to the Forks House the road is very 
good, and is traveled by heavily laden teams. 

Washoe Valley is entirely occupied by the Mor-' 
mons. Orson Hyde, who is Judge of Probate, is 
building a large flouring-mill, and the Mormons, in 
the immediate vicinity of the mill, have laid out a 
city, and commenced building operations. The Mor- 



WAGON ROADS. 



285 



mons are favorably disposed towards the Placer 
County road, and expressed their wiiiinc;ness to 
improve that portion of the road lying within their 
territorj'. 1 had a long conversation with Judge 
Hyde upon the subject, and he expressed himself 
emphatically in favor of improving the road. Labor 
to the amount of $8,000 properly expended will 
cause it to be traveled in preference to any other 
route crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

The road for the most partis a ridge road, requires 
but little side-hill cutting, and crosses but one stream 
that exceeds five feet in width — the Truckee River — 
and that but once. Sixty feet above the present 
crossing a bridge of sixty feet span will reach from 
bank to bank above high-water mark. My impres- 
sion is that the Placer County Emigrant J?oad can 
be improved and made a good road with less expense 
than any other route, will be shorter, and is the 
most central road extending from Carson Valley into 
the State. 

A table of distances were given from Sacramento 
to Carson Valley, through Placer County, as 
follows: — 

MILES. 

From Sacramento to Auburn 36 

" Auburn to Forks House . 35 

" Forks House to Secret Spring. _ 8 

" Secret Springs House to Robinson's Flat. . 7 
" Robinson's Flat to west summit of Sierra 

Nevada .._ 17 

" West summit to lower end of Squaw Val- 
ley, near Lake Bigler and at the cross- 
ing of Truckee River . 5 

" Truckee crossing along east bank of river 

to its head at the lake 5 

" Thence north to head of Lake Bigler 12 

" North end of Lake Bigler to east summit 

of Sierra Nevada _... 3 

" East summit to Washoe Valley 5 

" Washoe Valley to Carson Valley 8 

Total - 141 

From Sacramento to Auburn the roads are as good 
as any in the State; from Auburn to the Forks 
House (on the divide between the North and Middle 
Forks of the American River), there are two roads, 
one crossing the North Fork three miles from 
Auburn, and passing thi-ough Yankee Jim's, and 
near Michigan City — the other bj^ way of Illinois- 
town, crossing North Fork, eighteen miles above 
Auburn, and passing through Iowa Hill. Over both 
of these roads stages and heavily laden teams pass 
daily (stages leaving Iowa Hill and Yankee Jim's 
at daylight reach Sacramento at noon). The com- 
panies owning the bridges and turnpikes at these 
two crossings have expended many thousands of dol- 
lars in making them the best of mountain roads — 
they are excelled by none in California. From the 
Forks House to Secret Springs House the road is 
generally good — it only being necessary to remove 
some loose stones to make it easy traveling for 
wagons. 

A few miles this side of the west summit the head 
waters of the American Porks (mere rivulets) are 
met, and the emigrant to the Sacramento Vallej', if 
he desires, can follow down the ridge north of North 
Fork of American to Bear Valley, just in the edge 
of Nevada County, from which flow the head-waters 
of Bear River and the South Yuba (the divide 
between these two streams is not over two hundred 



feet in width). From Bear Valley there are favor- 
able routes down the ridges between the North Fork 
of American and Bear River, in Placer County, or 
on the divide between Bear River and South Yuba 
into Nevada County. This last is the Truckee route 
into Nevada, and is the only good route into that 
county. 

CAPTAIN THOMAS A. YOUNG. 

The energetic County Surveyor, whose reports 
upon the topography and resources of Placer County 
furnished the first and most authentic information of 
the region, joined the California Volunteers in 1862. 
In the following year his company went to Arizona, 
where they performed efficient service against both 
Rebels and Apaches. Escaping the dangers of the 
field, the worthy officer and gentleman met death by 
disease, dying at Fort Mason, Arizona, December 2, 
1864, of dropsy on the brain. 

ROAD CONVENTION AT YANKEE JIM's. 

Surveyor Young's very favorable and interesting 
report helped to keep the matter before the people, 
and when Congress made an appropriation to build 
roads, and other counties were holding conventions, 
he again entered the field and in April, 1857, called a 
convention to meet at Yankee Jim's on the 6th of the 
following May, to take action in relation to the con- 
struction of the much-desired emigrant road. In 
pursuance of this call the convention met at Yankee 
Jim's, the proceedings of which were published in 
the Placer Herald, and Iowa Hill News of May 9, 
1857, as follows:— 

Convention met at the M. B. Church on Wednes- 
day at two o'clock, p. M. A. P. K. Safford called the 
convention to order, and nominated Capt. Thos. P. 
Slade, of Iowa Hill, for temporary Chairman, who 
was elected by acclamation. 

In taking the chair Captain Slade stated the ob- 
ject of the convention, and of the importance of the 
subject to Placer and the central counties of the 
State, and the stability to every branch of industry 
within the influence of such an improvement. 

LISTS OF DELEGATES. 

Yankee Jim's — R. G. Allen, Wm. McClure, A. P. K. 
Safford, Wm. Wright, John S.Scott, Wm. Myrick, Dr. 
P. B. Fagan, Thos. Sherman, Perry Howell, A. Wil- 
kinson, Chas. Lasalle, James Carter, I. F. Welsh, H. 
C. Subtle, R. A. Harmon. 

AuBORN. — Chas. H. Mitchell, L. B. Thurman. H. 
R. Hawkins, A. S. Grant, E. M. Hall, Chas. H. Watt, 
James Anderson. 

Ford's Bar. — Geo. L. Hamlin, Geo. Holcomb. 

Gold Hill. — W. L. Carpenter, John R. Hampton. 

Beals' Bar. — S. G. Elliott. 

Wisconsin Hill. — M. M. Robinson, Mark Kim- 
ball. 

Iowa Hill.— Thos. P. Slade, H. C. Ladd, Thos. A. 
Young, T. B. Hotchkiss, E. Warner, J. W. Johnson, 
Justic^e Baker, J. H. Willitts, W. R. Bennett, H. F. 
Bowlcv, M. McCall, J. H. Creamer, J. P. Olmstead, 
P. H." Sibley, W. C. Rich, John Neland, Chris 
Mowray, P. Van Riper. 

Todd's Valley. — Herman Krause. N. S.Noleman. 

Yorkville. — Fuller. 



286 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Forest Hill. — W. H. Hardy, Alvord DeLand, 
Phillip Deidesheimer. 

Springer's JIill. — M. B. Tubbs, L. C. Goodspeed. 

Roach's Hill. — Wm. Lowe, E. Patton. 

The permanent officers chosen were: President — 
Thos. P. Slade; Yice-Presidents — Col. Wm. iMcClure, 
John S. Scott, A. DeLand, S. G. Elliott, H. C. Ladd, 
Geo. S. Hamlin; Secretaries — Chas. H. Mitchell. J. 
P. Olmstead. 

SPEECHES delivered. 

James Anderson being called upon made some 
brief remarks upon the general objects of the meet- 
ing, urging the Convention to action. He represented 
the public improvements of a nation as the best evi- 
dences of their social refinement and advanced state 
of civilization — said the monuments that evidenci'd 
the true gi'eatness of the rulei's of Europe were the 
roads, canals and other peaceful accomplishments 
left behind them rather than the story of bloody 
battles and ravaged, conquered provinces; spoke of 
the great advantages to result to Placer Count3r 
when travel from the East should be secured to it, 
tiie industry of the emigrant and the steady men 
from the West who settle among us and develop our 
resources; but said in conclusion that he thought not 
such positive information as would justifj' the Con- 
vention in going forth to ask assistance in the actual 
construction of the road; thought the distances, 
grade, latitude and longitude, should be scientifieally 
decided, and a full and accurate report published; and 
then if the facets should prove as we believe them, we 
may safely determine upon our course — if it was the 
most direct and cheapest communication between 
the main trunk of the military road, and the valleys 
below, it would be but a question of time when the 
road shall be established — people were practical and 
would adopt the course which interest marked out: 
— wished to hear some one better informed on the 
facts of the case — came to listen not to speak. 

The remarks of Mr. Anderson were enthusiastic- 
ally received. 

Thos. A. Young, County Surveyor, followed, giv- 
ing a minute and interesting description of the 
country over which the Placer County Emigrant 
Road passes, its distances, favorable grades, the advan- 
tages possessed over other routes, and approximate 
cost. 

Mr. Safford responded to the call of the Con- 
vention, and in remarks pertinent to the occasion 
showed the necessity and importance of the work 
which the Convention proposed to push forward 
to completion; the centrality of its position, and 
directness to the rich and populous counties of the 
State; the benefits that would accrue to thecountj'; 
the incentive to immigration bj' means of favorable 
and improved routes from the Mississippi River; 
the invitations thus held out to citizens of older 
States to seek a permanent home among us, and 
the assurance we would have of peopling, in a 
few years, our mountains and valleys with an intel- 
ligent, industrious and permanent population. At 
the conclusion of his speech the Convention mani- 
fested their approbation bj' hearty applause. 

Mr. Safford moved the appointment of a com- 
mitte of five to present a plan in furtherance of 
the object for which the Convention was called. 
On the adoption of the motion, the Chair appointed 
Messrs. Safford, MoClure, Young, Anderson and 
Elliott. 

The committee appointed to present a plan of 
action in regard to the improvement of the road 
presented the following report:— 



Whereas, The Congi-ess of the United States, 
having provided for the construction of a military 
road from the valley of the Mississippi River to a 
point at or near Honey Lake, near the eastern 
line of the State of California; and whereas, the 
members of this Coivvention believing that a road 
can be constructed through Placer County con- 
necting in the most direct and practical manner 
the said military road with the valley of the Sac- 
ramento and its tributaries, and being desirous, as 
citizens, to expedite that great work for the wel- 
fare of the State, as well as to secure to said 
county the benefits of the travel and increase of 
population; and whereas, believing that when the 
facts in regard to the practicability of the Placer 
County route shall be demonstrated our fellow- 
citizens of the valley counties will acknowledge our 
right to call upon them for aid in the construction 
of said road; and whereas, we have every confi- 
dence that they will render such material aid as we 
may require for said purpose, it is therefore 

Resolced, That a committee of seven be appointed 
by this Convention as a • Committee of Manage- 
ment," who shall have complete control and direc- 
tions in raising funds and making contracts for the 
purpose of making a survey of the " Placer County 
Route," establishing the grade, distances, cost of 
bridging and of building said road, to make appoint- 
ments and fill vacancies for the purpose of main- 
taining their own existence and facilitating the 
objects of the Convention, and to do such other and 
further acts as may be essential in the premises. 

Resolved, That a majority of the Committee of 
Management constitute a quorum for the purpose of 
business; that said committee keep a record of all 
contracts entered into, moneys received and from 
what sources, moneys expended, and that they make 
a report through some of the county newspapers as 
often as the public good may require. 

Resolved, That this Convention appoint as said 
'' Committee of Management " the foUowiny; persons: 
Col. Wm. McClure, "^J. H. Baker. W. R. Longley, 
Chas. Rice, Theodore B. Hotchkiss, Dr. J. R. Crandall, 
and Wm. Leet. 

Resolved, That the Committee of Management be 
empowered to call a convention of the people when- 
ever the exegencies of the business in hand requires 
it, and that the people of Placer County be re(iuested 
and earnestly solicited to contribute liberallj- to the 
enterprise when called upon. 

A. P. K. Safford, Chairman. 

Mr. Safford explained that in the appointment of 
a Committee of Management, whose duty it should 
be to have a full and accurate survey of the road 
made — one iu every respect reliable, and brought 
out under the auspices of gentlemen, well and favor- 
ably known to the citizens of the county — to ascer- 
tain the precise cost, grades, etc., and to what point 
the road should be constructed, and the report 
proving favorable, as our knowledge of the route 
would warrant in believing, that then the citizens of 
not only Placer, but adjoining counties could be 
api)ealed to successfully for means to connect this 
work with the national road to terminate near 
Honey Lake. 

James Anderson and J. F. Welch being called 
upon, favored the Convention with interesting 
remarks upon the subject matter before them, and 
urged the necessity of prompt, energetic, untiring 
action on the part of the citizens of the county, in 
the prosecution of an enterprise so fraught with 



WAGON ROADS. 



287 



importance to their future j)i"osperity, and to the 
stability of the leading interests of the State. 

LAST OF THE EMIGRANT ROAD SCHEME. 

With the series of meetings, conventions, explora- 
tions and reports, expensive, favorable and appar- 
ently enthusiastic, the construction of the " Placer 
County Emigrant Eoad " seemed an assured fact, 
with the great stream of immigration pouring over 
it; with the vast numbers of travel-worn, foot-sore 
and tired stock, and sun-di'ied wagons, with irons 
rattling as they rolled, to trade or sell at one-fourth 
their value; with hotels and ranches lining the road; 
with the " beautiful Squaw Valley " transformed 
into " Ladies' Paradise," and afterwards the ceaseless 
rumble of the Washoe teams and stages going over 
it during the silver excitement; but alas! nothing of 
the kind happened. The sequel is shown in the 
following, the fourth and last report of the wagon 
road committee. 

Yankee Jim's, July 8, 1857. 

The committee met at this place on Tuesday, the 
2d instant, at 3 o'clock p m. Present in person, J. 
H. Baker and William Eufus Longley, and by proxy, 
William McClure and Theodore Hotchkiss; J. H. 
Baker, Chairman, and William Eufus Longley, 
Secretary. 

The committee, after a full and careful review of 
the business connected with their appointment, as 
well as the position occupied by its members towards 
the committee, of which thej' are a part, report: — 

1st. That since their last meeting no addition has 
been made to the funds in the hands of the Treasurer, 
and that consequently they find themselves placed 
in the same delimma as at that time. 

2d. That the3' do not find any favorable basis 
on which to found a hope that, if the survey agree- 
able to their original plans, by a competent surveyor 
whose woi'k would be satisfactory to the community 
be performed, a sufficiency of money could be raised 
with which to construct the road. 

For reason. That so little interest has been 
manifested by the people of the county generally, 
that the verj^ first plan recommended bj' the com- 
mittee cannot be carried out. 

They therefore think Jeephj, and conclude wisely, 
that the money advanced by the friends to this 
undertaking, cannot find so appropi'iate an applica- 
tion as to be placed again in the pockets of the 
original — not the present — subscribers; and hence 
adopt unanimously the following: — 

Resolved 1st, That the Treasurer be ordered to 
return the money received into the Treasury of the 
W^agon Road Committee to the several persons from 
whom he received it, instructing them to use due 
diligence in delivering the same to those who handed 
to them th-j sums affixed to their names on the sub- 
scription list. 

Hfsdiced 2d, That the committee believing their 
])arti(ular duties as such at an end, hereby relinquish 
ail authoritj' into the hands of those friends who 
honored them with it, at the same time hoping for 
their approval in what they have done, and the 
happy announcement, " satisfactory." 

Wm. Rufus Longley, Secretary. 

placer COINTY AND WASHOE TURNPIKE. 

The failure of the public to improve the Placer 



County Emigrant Road left the •opportunity open 
to private enterprise. The discovery of silver in the 
Comstock vein in 1859, and the rising excitement 
infused great enterprise among road-builders, and 
every route possible crossing the Sierra Nevada was 
sought for the purpose of constructing toll-roads to 
the land of silver, or " Washoe," as it was then uni- 
versally called. The route through Placer County 
via Yankee Jim's and Squaw Valley was known to 
be practicable, and on the 11th of February, 18fi0, a 
company was organized at Forest Hill with a capital 
stated at $50,000, under the name of the " Placer 
County and Washoe Turnpike Company," to con- 
struct and maintain a road over this route. William 
N. Leet, an enterprising citizen of Michigan Bluff, 
was President of the company. The project, how- 
ever, was never carried to a successful conclusion. 

TOLL- ROADS, FERRIES AND BRIDGES. 

The date of the first ferries established, it would 
be difficult to ascertain, as they were among the 
earliest enterprises engaged in to accommodate the 
wandering miners and profit by the opportunity 
offered. On the lower rivers where accessible to 
wagons, ships' boats were brought up from Sacra- 
mento and ferries established early in 18-19, and 
soon scows of sufficient capacity to carry a wagon 
were constructed. There were such ferries in that 
year at Condemned Bar, Beal's Bar, and Rattlesnake. 
At other places the pioneer ferry was made of the 
wagon-bed of some emigrant, and others constructed 
rafts. At Murderer's Bar and Oregon Bar on the 
Middle Fork, and atKelley's Bar on the North Fork, 
were ferries doing a very profitable business in the 
spring of 1850. To make these successful, roads 
were necessary, and these were constructed by the 
ferry owners at great expense, leading from the 
river up and along the sides of the caiions to the 
bordering ridges on either side. 

BEAR RIVER BRIDGE. 

On the road from Auburn to Grass Valley was 
one of the earliest constructed of the toll-bridges of 
Placer County, demanded by the great amount of 
travel, this being one of the stage routes from Sacra- 
mento to Nevada. From Auburn to the Bear River 
bridge — known as English's Bridge — the distance by 
the road traveled up to 1860 was ten miles. When 
the Central Pacific Railroad was completed past 
Auburn in 1805, a joint stock company was formed, 
consisting of James L. English, Charles Crocker, 
Mark Hopkins, VV. F. Knox, H. B. Morrill, A. B. Van 
Arsdale, A. A. Bennett, U. H. Hartley and E. H. 
Miller, Jr., to construct a toll-road from the railroad 
at Rock Creek three and a half miles above Auburn, 
to English's Bridge on Bear River, a distance of six 
miles. Tolls on the bridge, as fixed by the Board of 
Supervisors, May 4. 1865, were as follows: — 

For loaded wagon . _ . 61.00 

For empty wagon .50 

For each animal attached thereto 25 



288 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



For horse and ricier .50 

For each animal packed. _ .50 

For each animal loose 25 

For each footman ._...._ 25 

For sheep and hog.s each 25c, if over 20, each. .12* 

AUBURN RAVINE TURNPIKE. 

A fair natural road was easily found leading from 
the Sacramento Y alley to Auburn, which was trav- 
eled without much difficulty, after slight improve- 
ments, for a number of years; but the increase of 
business and the desire to economize by the use of 
heavy wagons carrying large freights, made improved 
roads very desirable. To construct roads at public 
expense was not popular, if it was not altogether 
impracticable, and as a consequence franchises for 
toll-roads, bridges, and ferries were freely granted 
with liberal terras. 

In 1857 the Auburn Ravine Turnpike was con- 
structed. This road was about twelve miles in length ; 
leaving the old Sacramento and Auburn road at the 
Oaks House, running via Gold Hill, in Auburn 
Ravine, through Auburn and to the Junction House, 
on the Illinoistown road, two and a half miles above 
Auburn, where it connected with Yankee Jim's road. 
This was used by many of the heavy teams and 
stages from the terminus of the Sacramento Valley 
Railroad at Folsom, and opened a more direct and 
easy road to the people of the valley in their com- 
munication with the county seat. The assessed val- 
uation of this property in 1860 was SIO.OOO. The 
construction of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1863 
and '64 deprived it of its principal business, and in 
May, 1875, it was opened to the public as a free road. 

M[NERAL BAR BRIDGE AND ROAD. 

For some years Illinoistown was regarded as the 
" head of wagon navigation " on the Divide between 
Bear River and the North Fork of the American, 
pack-mules bearing thence the merchandise brought 
from Sacramento to the mining camps beyond and 
in the canons on either side. One of these trails led 
via Rice's Ferry, at Mineral Bar, on the North Fork, 
to Iowa Hill. At a later date one of the most import- 
tant turnpike roads in the county was constructed, 
connecting these points with a substantial covered 
bridge crossing the river. This road is known as 
the " Mineral Bar Bridge and Road." The length is 
seven miles, entering and leaving the canon, which 
is about 1,500 feet in depth, by a gentle grade cut 
with great labor and expense through the solid rock 
which forms the mountain sides. This road and 
bridge was constructed by Charles Rice & Co.. at a 
cost of about 875,000, and for several j'ears, while 
the Iowa Hill Divide was in the hey-day of its pros- 
perity, was a very valuable property, and still con- 
tinues to do a good business. Stages and teams tra- 
verse it from the railroad at Colfax to Iowa Hill and 
other points on the Divide. The scenery viewed 
from the road is interesting and grand. The steep 
mountain sides seem ever threatening to precipitate 



the traveler into the abyss which yawns below, and 
far beneath is the rapid torrent of the American, 
whose once clear and sparkling water is now yellow 
as the gold it has washed, conveying its load of 
gravel and soil from the mines above. From the 
bridge, looking northeasterly, is seen the rocky acliv- 
ity of Cape Horn, around which, on a scarcely per- 
ceptible shelf, rush the trains of the Central Pacific 
Railroad, 1,500 feet above the river. Dangerous as 
it may appear, no accidents have happened on the 
narrow grade. 

OTHER TOLL-ROADS BEFORE 1860. 

The Harmon Hill, or Big Hill, Turnpike, and sev- 
eral other short toll-roads, led toward and into 
Auburn, and for some years were extensively trav- 
eled. The amount of freight passing through Auburn 
during the years 1859 and 1860 was estimated at 
about 200 tons daily. 

The Yankee Jim's and Wisconsin Hill Turnpike 
in 1867 opened communication between the two 
places over one of the most precipitous routes in the 
county, crossing Shirt-tail and Brushy Canons, hav- 
ing a total length of eight miles. This short road 
cost about §25,000, was well graded, and the bridges 
were well constructed. 

Indian Canon Turnpike was a short road connect- 
ing the towns of Iowa Hill and Wisconsin Hill, 
which are on opposite sides of Indian Canon. 

Volcano Canon Turnpike led across the canon of 
that name from Baker's Ranch to the town of Mich- 
igan Bluff, and was constructed by J. A. Matteson in 
1856. Another road was built by the same person in 
1858 from Bath to Michigan Bluff, five and a half 
miles in length; cost, §12,000. 

Mile Hill Turnpike, on the road leading from 
Auburn to Yankee Jim's, co.?t §5,000. This was 
partly macadamized. 

Mountain Spring Turnpike was a short road of 
two miles in length from Mountain Springs to within 
five miles of Illinoistown; cost, S6,000. 

AUBURN AND YANKEE JIJl'S TURNPIKE. 

This road crosses the North Fork above and near 
the junction of the North and Middle Forks of the 
American River by a substantial wooden bridge. A 
road by this route was made at an early day, but in 
1855 the grade of the "North Fork Hill" was 
improved at an expense of $12,000. The distance 
from Aubiirn to Yankee Jim's by this road is twenty 
miles, descending and rising from the deep cafion of 
the North Fork by easy grades, cut by great labor 
in the rocky and precipitous sides of the canons. 
The cost of this road and bridge exceeded 850,000. 

In October, 1867, the new North Fork Bridge was 
finished for travel, the old one being deemed unsafe. 
The contract for building it had been let to H. R. 
Leonard, C. E., and construction began in July. It 
is an elegant structure, built upon an improved plan 
— a modification of the Howe & Long's truss. The 
length of the bridge is 182 feet, single span, substan- 



WACiON ROADS, 



IHD 



tial, very strongly braced, and well covered. The 
single track across it was laid with blocks, something 
on the plan of the Nicholson pavement, for the pur 
pose of preserving the floor from wear. In the con- 
struction of the bridge Mr. Leonard's assistant 
was Ben. Moi'se, of Auburn. The structure and 
approaches cost about SlOjOOO. This is the traveled 
route from Auburn to Todd's Valley, Yankee Jim's, 
Forest Hill, Bath, Michigan Bluff, Sunny South, and 
other points on the Forest Hill Divide south of Devil's 
and Shirt-tail Canons. 

LVON's imiDllE AND ROAD. 

The construction of this bridge and road was 
accomplished in the summer and fall of 1865. The 
proprietor, Mr. W. C. Lyon, is one of the pioneer 
bridge builders of the county, and constructed a wire 
suspension bridge across the North Fork at Con- 
demned Bar in 185(5. hi 1865 this was taken down, 
and such of it as was practicable was removed to the 
present site, immediately below the junction of the 
North and Middle Forks. The bridge was completed 
and made passable for horsemen, July 7, 1866, but 
the grades leading out of the canon were not com- 
pleted for the passage of wagons until September 
following. From that date the road and crossing 
has been an important thoroughfare from the rail- 
road depot at Auburn to Cave Valley, Greenwosd 
Valley, Georgetown. Pilot Hill, Coloma, Placervillo, 
and other points in El Dorado County. At Cave 
Valley is an extotnive limestone formation, where 
lime is burned in large (juantities and transported 
over this route to the railrorid and to market, making 
an important business for the bridge. 

LAKE PASS (DUTCH FLAT) WAOON ROAD. 

The "Dutch Flat Wagon lioad" has figured ex- 
tensively in newspaper and political controversy in 
connection with the construction and progress of the 
Central Pacific Railroad. 

The discovery of the silver mines of Washoe in 

1859 gave a great impulse to travel over the mount- 
ains, and every county in which there was a practi- 
cable pass was anxious to have a road running 
through it. In answer to this desire the Legislature 
in 1860 passed a bill giving the State's portion of 
Foreign Miner's License and Poll Tax for the years 

1860 and 1861 to the counties of Tuolumne, Cala- 
veras, Amador, El Dorado, Placer, Sierra and Plumas 
for the purpose of enabling them to build roads over 
the Sierra Nevada. The State's portion of these 
moneys in the year ending June 30, 1850, in the 
county of Placer amounted to $17,210.76, and should 
the same i-ate continue during the two years the 
aggregate would be $34,-121.52 for this county alone. 
The people of the counties mentioned were elated by 
the passage of this bill, which would build in each a 
good stage road over the Sierra; but their hopes 
were blasted by the veto of Governor Downey, who 
declared the bill preposterous, and that the with- 



drawal of su(!h large amounts from the annual reve- 
nue would bankru])t the State. 

This scheme so condemned by the Governor was 
not such a wrongful robbery of the State Treasury 
as it would seem. The amount appropriated, or to 
be diverted, was derived chiefly from the Foriign 
Miners' License Tax — a license of ^4.00 a month for 
working in the gold mines — collected almost entirely 
in the counties included in the bill, and from the 
Chinese miners only. The agricultural or " cow 
counties," were subject to no such tax, but persisted 
in the " mining counties " paying it into the State 
Treasury. The law authorizing the collection of the 
tax was shortly afterwards declared inconsistent 
with the "Civil Rights Bill " and with United States 
treaties, and the deprivation of the fund did not 
bankrupt the State. 

The vetoing of this bill forbade the construction 
of free roads over the Sierra, and several toll roads 
were the result, yielding large revenues to iheir 
owners. The Lake Pass Turnpike Company was 
organized at Dutch Flat, March 21, 1861, for the 
purpose of constructing a turnpike from that place 
to Steamboat Springs, in the Territory of Nevada. 
The treasurer of the company reported having 
received the sum of $7,500 in cash, being ten per 
cent, of the capital stock. A contract was let to S. 
G. Elliott for the construction of the road, for the 
sum of $60,000, that being the lowest satisfactory^ 
bid. The riacer Herald congratulated the people of 
Dutch Flat upon such a bright promise for their 
place, saying, " Dutch Flat is now second to no 
town in the county in population and business, is 
only thirty-three miles from the summit, and a por- 
tion of the distance is a good natural road. From 
Sacramento to Dutch Flat an ordinary eight-mule 
team will easily haul 8,000 pounds of freight. Ry 
way of Dutch Flat will not only be the great wagon 
route, but the railroad that must be built not many 
years hence must follow the same. All success, then, 
and speed to the Dutch Flat Wagon Boad. " 

But the summer of 1861 ]iassed, and the road was 
not constructed. The Dutch Flat En<imi-er of 
October 10th, says; " We learn that responsible par- 
ties will commence work soon on the wagon road 
across the Sierra. Parties who have passed over the 
route in light wagons and on horseback represent 
it as perfectly practicable. Freight teams will be 
able, when this road is made, to make the trip from 
Washoe to Auburn in four days." 

Qn the lOth of October of that year Leland Stan- 
ford, Governor elect, C. P. Huntington and Charles 
Crocker, of Sacramento, and Dr. D. W. Strong, of 
Dutch Flat, left the latter place on a tour of inspec- 
tion of the route proposed by Judah for the railroad 
and wagon road. ShortI}' after the return of the.■^e 
parties the 

DUTCH PLAT AND DONNER L.VKE WAGON ROAD CO.MPANY 

Was formed, with a capital of $100,000. This com- 



290 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



pany was composed of the same partips who were at 
that time attempting to make headway in the organ- 
ization of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. 
Their progress in that enterprise is told in the chap- 
ter on railroads. ♦Work was begun on the wagon 
road in the fall of 1862, and a few miles constructed. 
In June, 1863, a large force was at work, numbei-ing 
nearly 500 men, but even with this force the road 
was not completed when the snow in xvovember 
drove the laborers from the work. The Dutch Flat 
Enquirer saj's, " Sufficient men could not be obtained, 
notwithstanding the highest wages have been 
offered." 

The road was open for travel earh' in June, 1864, 
and it was then said to be the best mountain road in 
the State. The California Stage Company com- 
menced running over the road on the 16th of July, 
from the railroad at Clipper Gap to Virginia Citj', 
making the trip from Sacramento through in sixteen 
hours. As the railroad progressed and made stations 
at various points the stages and forwarding houses 
also moved on and made connection at the terminus. 
The railroad company thus forced the stages and 
freight wagons over their own road, which aroused 
the suspicion that the railroad was only a feeder to 
the wagon road. Thus it received the ci)ithet of 
'• Dutch Flat Swindle " from the enemies of the 
company, which it bore until the railroad had so far 
progressed as to prove that it really meant to build a 
great trans-continental road instead of the compari- 
tively small affair for local business. When the 
railroad had reached Colfax, in 1865, it commanded 
the greater part of the freight and passenger busi- 
ness between California and Nevada, which was 
very large, and the revenue t(i the comjiany was in 
proportion. 

The following is an extract from the proceedings 
of the Board of Supervisors of Placer County, INIay 
4, 1865. 

The Dutch Flat and Donner Jjake Wagon Road 
Company are allowed lo erect a toll-gate on their 
road in the vicinity of Dutch Flat, one at Polly's 
Station, and one at Donner Lake. The rates of toll 
are established as follows, payable in gold and silver; 

One animal and vehicle ? 5 OU 

Two animals " 9 00 

Four " " 11 00 

Six " " 13 00 

Eight " " 15 00 

Ten ■ " - 17 00 

For each additional animal in team 1 00 

" horseman 75 

" pack animal . 50 

" each head loose stock, horses, mules 

or cattle 50 

" head hogs and sheep 25 

In addition to those exactions of the toll-gates the 
traveler and teamster were accasionally subjected to 
the demands of the " road agents," who enforced 
their claims at the muzzle of the pistol or shot-gun. 

In the history of Nevada it is related that some 



of the toll-roads leading down the eastern slope 
annually paid the owners double their cost, with 
rates of from §2.00 to $6.00 per team of from two to 
ten animals. Teamsters reported a detention, often 
of four days in the passage from Virginia City to 
Placerville, caused by the difficulty in passing the 
loaded wagons, which constituted a continuous train 
on the narrow roads. From this an idea of the bus 
iness may be obtained, but the income of the Dutch 
Flat and Donnor Lake Wagon Road is unknown. 
In 1867 the depot was made at Cisco, near the sum- 
mit, and early in 1868 the iron rail deprived the 
wagon road of its usefulness and business. 

PACIFIC TURNPIKE. 

■' All roads lead to Rome" was said of one historic 
])criod, but in the early years of the seventh decade 
of our century all roads led to Washoe, and among 
the number was the Pacific Turnpike, or Culbert- 
son's road. The construction of this was under- 
taken in May, 1863. In June there were 125 men 
at work and an advertisement in the paper for 300 
more. The road led from Dutch Flat, via Bear Val- 
ley, Bowman's Ranch, Henness Pass, Webber's Lake, 
Sardine Valley, and Dog Valley, to the Truckee 
River near Verdi, a great deal of the route being in 
Nevada County. The distances were given from 
Dutch Flat to Bear Valley, fifteen miles; thence to 
the Henness Road at Bowman's Ranch, ten miles, 
and from Bowman's to the summit, twelve miles; 
thence to Virginia City, fifty-five miles. Total, 
ninety-two miles. This was six miles shorter than 
the Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Road, and the 
grade and road bed was claimed as making it one 
of the best of the many excellent turnpikes crossing 
the Sierra. At Bear Valley it was joined by a 
branch road belonging to the same company, com- 
ing from Nevada City up the ridge between Bear 
River and the South Yuba. 

These were completed and opened for travel in 
May, 1864, and for several years a large amount of 
the transmountain business passed over them. 

COI-FAX AND FOREST HILL TOLL-ROAD. 

August 28, 1875, articles of incorporation were 
filed of the " Colfax, Yankee Jim's, and Forest Hill 
Wagon and Toll-road Company," with a capital 
stock of S40,000, divided in shares of S200 each. 
The Directors were W. B. Hayford, J. A. Culver, 
Jacob Keck, C. Trafton, and A. H. Cowden, having 
their princi])al place of business at Colfax. 

AUBURN AND FOREST HILL TURNPIKE. 

A company under the above title filed a certificate 
of incorporation in the office of the Secretary of 
State, at Sacramento, on the 7th of July, 1873, with 
a stated capital of $20,000, divided in shares of the 
value of SlOO each, the proposition being to con- 
struct a wagon road in Placer County. 



Journalism. 



291 



JOHN CARLSON 

Is the eldest son of Chai'les and Catherine Carlson, 
natives of Sweden. John was born at Linkoping, 
in Sweden, on the 24th of June, 182C. His life was 
passed in bis native country until he reached the age 
of twenty-four years. He then emigrated to the 
United States and settled in Iowa, where he remained 
about six months. In 1850 he joined the throng 
that was pressing westward bound for the land of 
promise — California. His route was across the plains, 
and he underwent the trials and privations incident 
to the trip in those early times. Upon his arrival 
in this State he located at Todd's Valley, in Placer 
Count}', where he engaged in the usual occupation 
of early days, that of mining. This business he fol- 
lowed until 18G(j, at which time he settled upon his 
present ranch, located on the Forest Hill and Auburn 
road, about fifteen miles northeast of Auburn. His 
ranch contains IGO acres, under a good stale of cul- 
tivation, an abundant supply of water, and it is, in 
fact, one of the finest ranches in the county. 

He was married on the 29th of January, 18(j2, to 
Miss Margaret Muir, a native of Pennsylvania. Their 
union has been blessed with five children, named 
and aged respectively: Susan E., aged eighteen years; 
Agnes L., aged fifteen years; Charles J., aged eleven 
years; Janette, aged nine years, and Charlotte E., 
aged five years. 

A view of the residence of Mr. Carlson will be 
found in this work. He is also proprietor of eight 
miles of toll-road between Axiburn and Forest Hill. 



CHAPTER XXX VII I. 

JOURNALISM. 

Reading for the Pioneers — Eastern Newspapers for California — 
The Placer Herald— 'Tahh Mitcliell, J. A. Filcher— Placer 
Democrat — Death of John Shannon — The Auburn Whig — 
The Placer Press — Hiram 11. Hawkins — The Iowa Hill .Ve«'.s- 
— Mountain Couriei — Placer Courier — Philip Lynch — Iowa 
Hill Patriot — Dutch Flat Unquirer — Democratic Signal — A 
Deplorable Tragedy — The Union. Advocate — The Stars ana 
Stripex — Placer Weekly A rgus — James B. McQuillan — T. Glaii- 
cey — Dutch Flat Forum — Placer Times — Colfax Enterprise 
— Mountain Echo — Roseville Farmer — The Advance — Tlie 
Caucasian — Tahoe Tattler — Placer Times. 

One of the pleasant features of pioneer life on the 
Pacific Coast was the presence of the newspaper. 
With the rush of people to the mining regions books 
were left behind. The emigration was mainly com- 
posed of young, intelligent, enterprising and ener- 
getic men, those of the American element, which 
comprised the great majority, being fondly attached 
to their distant homes, anxious at all times to read 
the news of the world, and ambitious to take part 
in the National and State politics. 

Many of those who had taken the overland journey 
had endeavored to carry with them considerable 
libraries, but the many miles of toil, the exhaustion 
of overladen teams, and the necessity of sacrificing 



all that was dispensable to save that which was most 
important for the preservation of life, and to expedite 
progress, caused the way to be strewn with many 
treasured volumes, leaving the young immigrant to 
pass his first year bereft of the great comfort and 
consolation of his accustomed books. 

Those who came by sea, around the Horn, had 
gi-eat advantages of transportation, and brought 
large numbers of books to the poi-t of their destina- 
tion. Some of the vessels ascended to Sacramento, 
to Stockton, and to other points along the river, 
whence the passengers sought their way to the 
golden placers. But so great was their haste and so 
inadequate the means of transportation, that books 
were left among the rubbish of the ships, or stored 
where the floods and fires soon or ultimately swept 
them from existence. 

How many of the old pioneers, even to the present 
da}-, let their thoughts recur back with a pang in 
the remembrance of some lost treasure, and the 
dreaiy time passed in some lonely gorge; on some 
secluded river bar, or by some silent ravine, where, 
perhaps in sickness, or by the side of a sick friend, 
or waiting for the rains to come or the river to fall, 
he wished and sighed for the unattainable books. 
These wei'e far away, scattered along the inhospita- 
ble desert, turning to rubbish in the holds of ships, 
and going to destruction in the insecure warehouses 
of distant cities. In the wild mountain region where 
one deep canon after another intersected the country 
in quick succession, the passage of wagons was 
impossible without previous great labor in construct- 
ing roads, and the miner and the pack-mule sought 
their way with difticulty. Buildings were rude, the 
life was strange and all were expecting frequent 
removals. Under these circumstances the comforts 
and pleasures of refined life wei-e not expected, in 
fact were utterly ignored and banished from the 
thought. Cards came as the ready substitute for 
reading matter, and the public saloon — as every 
drinking-room is called — for the comfortable home. 

EASTERN NEWSPAPERS FOR CALIFORNI.A.. 

The expressman soon followed the miner, bringing 
the newspapers of the East, and of San Francisco, 
thus relieving the monotony and establishing a line 
of connection, which led, like an invisible thread, 
from the dark canons of the Sierra to the centers of 
civilization throughout the world. The papers of 
the Eastern cities published large editions expressly 
prepared for circulation in California, the most 
prominent being the Joarnal and Traveller of Bos- 
ton, the Herald and Tribanc of New York, and the 
Delta and Picayune of New Orleans. The St. Louis 
Republican, the Cincinnati Enrjuirer, and several 
New England papers also circulated largely. The 
"Steamer Edition" of all were filled with items 
from the surrounding country, collated and arranged 
with great care, and most eagerly were these col- 
umns sought by the wandering and homesick emi- 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



grant, for the name of his native county or town, 
and dearly was ever}' word treasured found under 
the head. They were like friendly letters from 
home, and every person mentioned seemed a dear 
utid familiar acquaintance. The political and social 
news were no less cl/Sely scanned. Great was the 
excitement when the yell or the horn of the express- 
man was heard as he was entering some mining 
camp crying, " Here's your Herald &r\Ayoxxv Tribune, 
the Delta and the Vimyitne ! " these being the great 
papers of that da}'. He also brought the Boston 
]):ipors for the " Yanks," and the Afissouri RejiaJilirtin 
for the " Pikes.' as the Missourians were usually 
called. 

The sale of these papers was very remunerative 
to the publishers, making California, particularly for 
the Nevv Orleans Delta, the most profitable State in 
their circulation outside of their own. This large 
bu.siness continued through a number of years in 
the mining region, until the telegraph, and the Rebell- 
ion, and the great dailies of Sacramento and San 
Francisco changed the course. The isolation, the 
scarcity of books, the longing for news from home, 
the active and inquiring mind of the pioneers, made 
Californians a news]Kiper-reading people, and to this 
day they are distinguished patrons of this class of 
literature. 

These papers, coming at long intervals at first, 
then monthly, and semi- monthly, sold readily atone 
and two dollars a copy, and years passed before the 
price declined to fifty cents, and afterwards to twen- 
ty-five cents each. Welcome, too, was the express- 
man. The postal system of the United States was 
then far inferior to what it is at present, and post- 
offices and mail routes lagged far behind the enter- 
prise and needs of the times. The express, in part, 
filled the void, profiting by the high ))rice of letter 
carriage and the sale of newspapers. 

The mixing of people from all sections of the 
I'nion was complete, and the papers of every State 
were read by all, thus moulding a cosmopolitan poji- 
ulalion with new ideas and opinions. These feat- 
ures of early newspaper experience and their influ- 
ence were general throughout California where the 
new and enterprising emigration most congregated. 
The eflects of general reading of such matter was 
marked and lasting, most civilizing to the people, and 
strengthening their attachment to the Union. 

The establishing of papers was much more tim- 
idly undertaken in the early period of California 
history than at a later date, and it was not until 
Auburn had grown to be a thriving town of three 
years' growth, and two years a county seat, first of 
Sutter County and then of Placer, before it contained 
a newspaper. Local papers were more desired at 
that time to aid the political aspirations of some 
party or individuals than to jiroelaim the resources 
of the section, advocate its interests, instruct the 
jieople, i)iiblish legal advertisements, or give the 
news. -Mining lor gold was the only resource 



worthy of notice, and supplying the miner the only 
business. Advertising of mortgages, and foreclos- 
ures, and Sherift"s sales, and divorce suits, and " left 
my bed and board." and assessments, and delinquent 
sales, and " applications for patents," and many 
sources of newspaper revenue of the present day, 
did not then demand a paper in every county seat. 
The news current in the great woi'ld was brought 
by the Eastern papers, and all that transpired in 
the neighborhood was furnished in familiar gossip 
by the freely intermixing miners, or learned when 
all gathered on Sunday, as was the custom, at the 
|irincipal stores, saloons, and camps. 

THE PLACER HERALD. 

The opportunity for establishing a newspaper at 
Auburn was excellent, as a general business venture, 
but still none was started until aid was given. On the 
11th of September, 1852, the first number of the 
Weekly Flaeer Herald was issued b}' T. Mitchell & Co. 
The publishers were Tabb Mitchell, Richard Rust, 
and John McBlroy. The paper contained twenty 
columns, was 14x20 inches in size, and issued ever}' 
Saturday morning. Terms, SO. 00 per annum; single 
copies, twenty-five cents. In the salutatory the 
editor introduces his paper to the citizens of Placer 
County as follows: — 

Through the partiality of friends, we have been 
selected to the responsible position of publishing the 
first journal in Placer County. Although some- 
what dilfidenlof our abilities, the strong promptings 
of our inclinations urge us to the task. 

In becoming a candidate for popular favor, a 
declaration of principles is due to the public. This 
time-honored usage we have no desire to disregard, 
but will state briefly the principles which will guide 
us in the conduct of the Placer Herald. 

In all matters of religious or political concernment, 
the Herald will be FREE and independe.'^t. The 
peculiar advocate of no sect or party, we shall strive 
earnestly to do " equal and exact justice to all." * * 
Without '' friends to reward or enemies to punish," 
we come amon^r you, and trust our coming may be 
alike pleasurable and profitable to all. * * * 
Placer County being particularly a mining county, 
we shall labor especially for the development of this 
great branch of industry and source of wealth. 

Thus the Herald was launched upon its career. 
The promises made were modest, dignified and fair. 
In looking back over its history, the proclamation of 
independence in politics seems a little deceptive. 
A very few issues showed the strong Democratic 
partisanship of the paper; with its second volume it 
declared openly for Democracy, and so it has con- 
tinued — a power in the party, and respectable 
through all the vicissitudes of its fortune. The paper 
was ])rosperous from the beginning. The editor's 
salutatory intimated that assistance had been ren- 
dered or encouragement given to start the cnterjtrise. 
The first number was well filled with advertisements, 
and the patronage was liberal through many years. 

Among the advertisements of the first number are 
the cards of B. F. Myers, Philip W. Thomas, James 



JOURNALISM. 



293 



E. Hale, R. D. Hopkins, H. O. Ryerson, and J. W. 
Scobey, as attorneys at law; the Empire Hotel, H. 
M. House, proprietor, and Niles Hotel, Auburn; Her- 
rick'a and Gardnei-s's hotels at Yankee Jim's; Union 
Hotel, kept by Ogden & Chadwick, Ophir; " Daguer- 
rean Rooms," next to Miners' Drug Store, Auburn; 
numerous San Francisco advertisements, and a speech 
on the Pacific Railroad, by Gen. James A. McDougal, 
delivered in San Francisco August 24, 1832. Quite 
interesting histories and biographies could be written 
from the advertisements and notices of prominent 
men in the files of the old newspaper. The robust 
and hilarious pioneer can be traced in many from 
their early manhood through an eventful life, after 
rising to distinction, serving their country in office 
or in the field; some still on the stage, prosperous, 
honored and loved; others who have responded to 
the last call, and rest near the scenes of their early 
toils and triumphs. The history of Placer County 
and its people is in the columns of the Herald; the 
struggles of parties, the contests for office, the 
I'eports of finances, the announcement of rich min- 
eral discoveries, the records of the Courts, the con- 
troversy of the Pacific Raih-oad, the progress of 
agriculture, the births, niarriages and deaths of its 
citizens, and all kindred topics, are contained therein. 
As a partisan journal, the Herald was fierce and act- 
ive. The Democracy, through the first decade, ruled 
the State — slightly broken bj- the episode of Know- 
Nothingism — and Placer County was one of the 
strongholds of the party. The county, too, then 
ranked as one of the first class in population and 
political power, San Francisco leading but slightly, 
followed by El Dorado, Tuolumne, Nevada and 
Placer in their order, and, of course, the county 
paper was strongly partisan in proportion. As such 
it flourished and prospered, and became widely 
known throughout the State. 

For some years it had clear sailing, but dissensions 
in the Democratic ranks brought it opposition, and 
successive papers contested for the business. First 
the Bi'oderick wing of the partj' created a disturb- 
ance, sufficient only, however, to give zest to the 
political controversy. The Herald consistently 
adhered to the main, or "Chivalry," wing of the 
party, fighting with trenchant blows the " Broder- 
ickites," or " Mud Sills," the " Know-Nothings," the 
" Douglas Democrats," and the " Black Republicans," 
as they arose in their turn. The latter party at last 
triumphed, and for a period the power and pre-emin- 
ence of the Herald waned, but it never weakened or 
despaired; believing in itself, its oft-repeated refrain 
was, "Truth crushed to earth will rise again." 

In the course oi' its long life, the Herald has 
had many changes of proprietorship and editor- 
ship. In the sixth issue the following notice is 
])ublished: — 

The partnershi]) heretofore existing between the 
undersigned in the publication of the I'larer Ifcnild 



is dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Mitchell having 
purchased the entire interest of his partners. 
Auburn, October 14, 1852. T. Mitchell. 

R. Rust. 

J. McEluoy. 

Tabb Mitchell, now sole proprietor, had probably 
been editor from the first, as at that lime Col. Rich- 
ar 1 Rust was editor of the California Express, of 
Marj^sville, and J. McElroy & Co., being John 
McRlroy and Andrew Brady, were the publishers of 
the same, having purchased the paper of Giles k Co., 
in July of that year. 

December 4, 1852, the Herald announces that the 
firm name of the publishers from this date will be 
T. & C. H. Mitchell. Thus it continued until Sep- 
tember 17, 1853, when C. H. Mitchell retired, and 
Tabb Mitchell became sole owner and editor. With 
the fourth volume the Herald was enlarged to six 
columns of twenty inches in length to each page. 
The next change appears January 12, 185G, when a 
notice is given that " James Anderson has purchased 
a one-third interest in the Placer Herald, and the 
firm name is Mitchell & Anderson," and the latter 
becomes the editor. This partnership continues 
until April 11, 1857, when it is announced that James 
Anderson has retired from the Herald, and is suc- 
ceeded by C. H. Mitchell. The heading says the 
paper is published by C. H. Mitchell. The title of 
the firm is again changed September 10, 1859, to T. 
k C. H. Mitchell. 

At this period begins the serious partisan struggle 
of the country. The Republican party is beginning 
to make headway, and the Herald pours upon it the 
vials of its wrath, denouncing the members as 
"Abolitionists," "Black Republicans," "Radicals," 
and like epithets, all of which fail to repress its 
growth or mar its respectabilitj'. The editorials of 
this ])eriod exhibit the bitterness of feeling prevail- 
ing at that time, which culminated in the success of 
the Republicans in 1860, the secession of the South- 
ern States, and the War of the Rebellion. As the 
war progressed, policy dictated a milder tone, and 
the Herald of April 22, 1865, turned its co'umn rules 
in mourning for the death of President Abraham 
Lincoln, whom it had formerlj' denounced as clown, 
monkey, traitor and Abolitionist — the usual style of 
reference to him by the Democratic press prior to his 
assassination. 

The next change of note in the paper is that on 
September 1, 186(), the subscription price of the 
paper was reduced to !f?5.00 per annum. The sudden 
death of its editor, James Anderson, took place Octo- 
ber 12, 1866. [See page 118 for biographical sketch 
of James Anderson.] October 19, 1867, the Herald 
was leased to Wm. H. Smith & Co, who were to con- 
tinue it in thesamelineof politics as usual; Governor 
Walkup being the editor. Januaiy 11, 1868, Gov. 
Joseph Walkup became interested in the paper, and 
his name announced as editor, the firm name being 
Jos. Walkup A: Co., the other members being Wm. H. 



204 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



Smith and Robert Hartley. April 17, 1869, Gov- 
ernor Wulkup becomes the sole jjroprtetor, publisher 
and editor, with Samuel H. Fisher as foreman. 

August 19, 1872, J. A. Filcher becomes associated 
in the publication, the firm name being Waikup tt 
Filcher, rather an ominous name when divided into 
monosyllables. But Governor Waikup was distin- 
guished for his upright and honest character, and no 
filching was over permitted where he had any con- 
trol or association. He took editorial charge of the 
Herald January II, 18G8, and continued until his 
death, dying suddenly in the Herald oflSce October 
15, 1873. His biography is published elsewhere in 
this volume. Mfs. E. A. Waikup succeeded to the 
interest of her husband, it being announced on April 
10, 1875, that from this date the Herald will be 
published by Mrs. E. A. Waikup and J. A. Filcher 
under the firm name of J. A. Filcher & Co. 

January 1, 187G, A. C Kinkadeand J. H. Gregoiy 
purchased the interest of Mrs. Waikup, and the 
paper was continued under the same firm name as 
before. At the same tinae the Herald was doubled in 
size. On the 5th of the following August, an item 
in the paper says: '• A. C. Kinkade has sold his 
interest in the Placer Herald, and is going East to 
study the profession of the law. Julj- 29, 1878, R. F. 
Gwynn purchased the interest of J. H. Gregory in 
the Herald and the firm became Filcher & Gwynn. 
Under this firm the paper was published one year, 
until August 9, 1879, with the beginning of volume 
twenty-eight, when the firm name of Filcher & Kin- 
kade is again at the head, continuing there until 
No. 1, volume 29, when J. A. Filcher becomes sole 
proprietor. LTnder this gentleman's rule the Herald 
has greatly improved in its literary matter, giving 
great attention to subjects of county interest and 
development, and maintaining its position as a Demo- 
cratic and anti-monopoly advocate. In the vicissi- 
tudes of party life, when the success of Democracy 
appeared hopeless, the Herald has swerved into 
" Dolly Vardenism," '• Independence," " New Con- 
stitution," and such oi'ganizationa, always claiming 
adherence to its principles of the past, but in its 
general course through its long career, no paper of 
California can claim greater consistency or higher 
res|>ect. 

The Henddhaa the distincticm of being jirinted on 
the first press ever brought to California, having 
been brought here by Samuel Brannan on the ship 
Brooklyn, which arrived "^t San Francisco in July, 
184G, three weeks after the hoisting of the American 
flag at Monterey. Upon this press was printed, in 
Brooklyn, New York, the Frophet, a Mormon paper, 
edited by Samuel Brannan, and after its arrival in 
California, the Star in San Francisco. Doubly, there- 
fore, is the Herald and its office entitled to the 
honor of being the pi<mcer paper of California. Many 
others have come and gone, but the Herald still 
maintains its ))roud position, and under the charge 
of Mr. Filcher, is more than over j)romising and 
prosjJerous. 



TABB MITCHELL. 

This gentleman, the founder of the Placer Herald, 
was born at Shepherdstown, Jeft'erson County, Vir- 
ginia, October 24, 1823: removed with his parents 
to Ohio when a boy, and learned the printing trade 
in his father's office, the Western Palladium, at New 
Lisbon, Ohio. There are few schools better for a 
studious and inquiring mind than the printing office 
of a country newspaper, and there, with the tuition 
of an able and careful father, did young Mitchell 
acquire the principal part of his education. While 
yet under the age of manhood he "went west," to 
the then Territory of Iowa, settling on the banks of 
the Des Moines River, at the village of Keosauqua, 
and there established the Times — a youthful printer 
and ambitious editor. Here he was when the news 
of the gold discovery in California aroused all such 
characters to the bright and attractive venture of 
exploration and gold mining in the newly-acquired 
region. In 1849 he joined the throng moving west- 
ward, crossing the plains bj^ the northern route, anil. 
as many others, was induced to take the round-about 
way called Lassen's Cut-off, via the northern passes 
and Pit River into the Sacramento Valley. This 
brought him into the gold region on Feather River, 
and at Ophir (now Oroville), Long's and Bidwell's 
Bars he first engaged in gold mining. The labors 
and incidents of his mining career formed many pleas- 
ant I'eminisconces, which he delighted to relate in 
after years. His mining success did not meet with 
his expectations, and in 1852 he became inter- 
ested in the California Express, at Marysville, then 
the new and promising metropolis of the north. 
Soon thereafter overtures were made to the pro- 
prietors of the Express to establish a paper at 
Auburn, and on the 11th of September, 1852, the 
first number of the Placer i/e-raW was issued under 
the proprietorship of Tabb Mitchell, Richard Rust 
and John McElro}'. Mr. Mitchell's newspaper life is 
told in the history of the paper which he had the 
honor of founding, and which is his enduring monu- 
ment. 

While a resident of Iowa, he was elected Clerk of 
Van Buren County, and in 1856 was elected Clerk 
and Recorder of Placer County, which position he 
filled with honor to himself and satisfiiction to the 
public. 

After leaving the Herald office in 1868, he took a 
position as clerk in the office of the State Control- 
ler, where he remained four years, He subsequently 
removed to San Francisco, where he died February 
11, 1879, aged 55 yeai's and two months, his remains 
being returned to Auburn for burial. A brother, 
Charles H. ^Mitchell, for many j^ears assuciated in 
the publication of the Herald, is now publishing the 
Grass Valley Union, and another brother, William 
K. Jlitchell, died at Tombstone, Arizona, in April. 
1881. 

On the :!lst of December, 1856, Tabb Mitchell was 
married at Auburn to Miss Carrie S. Smith, then 



JOURNALISM. 



29; 



recently from New York, and sister of E. G. Smith, 
Esq., of Sacramento. Three children were the fruits 
of the marriage — one son. Mayo, born February 10, 
ISeO, dying in infancy, and two, Katie and Eddie, 
surviving their parents. Mrs. Mitchell died Decem- 
ber 23, 1879, at Auburn, respected and loved by all, 
and now rests beside her honored husband in the old 
burying ground near where they had dwelt so long. 

.J. A. FII.CHER. 

The present proprietor and editor of the Ihrald is 
Joseph Adams Filcher, who was born at Burlington, 
Iowa, August 3, 1845, residing there until his four- 
teenth year, when his parents moved to California. 
Mr. Filcher's ancestors were English, his paternal 
grandfather, Joseph Filcher, being a brickraaker and 
Superintendent of that branch of manufacture for 
Eai-1 Granville, in connection with his extensive iron 
and coal mines, and his maternal grandfather was 
Ivalph Adams, a veterinary surgeon. Both lived 
to a good old age and were highly i-espected in the 
communities in which they lived. His parents' names 
were Thomas J. Filcher and Eliza (Adams) Filcher, 
natives of Hanlej^ England, the first born March 
18, 1812, the latter April 5, 1815, and were married 
June 11, 1836. In 18-11 they moved to America, 
settling in Burlington, Iowa, and in 1859 crossed 
the plains with ox-teams to California, when they 
settled in Yuba County and engaged in mining. 

From early age Mr. Filcher has made his own way 
in the world, assuming the responsibilitj' of his own 
support and education, making him in his mature 
years the self-reliant, independent man that he is. 
Work on a farm in Yuba County prevented him 
attending school except to a limited extent, two 
years aggregating the total of school attendance 
previous to attaining the age of twenty-one. From 
that time his earnings were devoted to paying his 
expenses at school, determined on having an educa- 
tion commensurate with his ambition for a higher 
position and usefulness iii life. He entered the 
State Normal School in 1867, and for the five suc- 
ceeding years attended oi' taught school continually, 
teaching, principally, in that period, in Yuba and 
Sutter Counties. In 1870 he removed to Auburn and 
became the Principal of the public school in that 
place, which position ho held until 1872, He then 
purchased a half interest in the Flacer Ilerahl, in 
company with Ex-Lieutenant-Governor Joseph 
VValkup, and participated in the. editorial manage- 
ment until that gentleman's death, from which date 
he lias had sole charge, and in 188(1 became sole 
lirojinetor. 

From the dale of his first residence in Placer 
County he has pursued an active and prominent 
public career, advancing to the front rank of Placer's 
public men. In 1873 he was nominated on the Dem- 
ocratic ticket for the position of Superintendent of 
Public Schools, but it was not a good year for Dem- 
ocrats, and although Mr, Filchor received the high- 



est vote of the party, he was defeated. A similar 
experience attended him in 1877, when nominated 
for the Legislature, the majority against the Demo- 
cratic party in the county averaged about 350, but 
against Mr, Filcher only five majority. In 1878 the 
Democrats and Republicans united, as Non-Partisans, 
to nominate two candidates to the Constitutional 
Convention, and J, A. Filcher and S. B. Burt were 
the nominees. Both were elected and served through 
the long session of 157 days, framing the present 
Constitution of California. In this Convention Mr. 
Filcher served on the Committees on Water and 
Water Rights, on Legislation, and on Printing. No 
member was more attentive to his duties or took a 
greater interest in preparing that important instru- 
ment, and the speeches of Mr. Filcher were among 
the best and most carefully prepared of that body. 

After the. session he returned to his paper and 
labored with good effect in procuring the adoption 
of the Constitution by the people. As a writer and 
speaker he is vigorous and lucid, his well-filled and 
interesting paper being evidence ot his industry, 
ability and patriotism. 

His social relations are of the highest order, and, 
although not a member, attends the church of his 
wife, the Congregational, being a member of the 
Building Committee, and is a member of the 
Improved Order of Red Men, of which he was 
elected to the highest office in the Order, that of 
Great Sachem, at the Annual Great Council in July, 
1881, He is alio a member of the Order of Knights 
of Pythias, Of his public enterprises, he was very 
active in organizing the Aldcn Fruit Company, 
whoso works are at Newcastle, and is Secretary of 
the company, 

Mr, Filcher was married by Rev. Charles Luce to 
Miss Clara E. Tinkham, at Sheridan, January 19, 
1873, the daughter of Hon, Samuel Tinkham, of 
Somerset County, Maine, and of one of the oldest 
families of that State, The mother of Mr, Filcher 
died at Auburn April .'•, 1878, 

TLACER DEMOCRAT. 

The next paper started in Placer County, and pub- 
lished at Aubui-n, bore the name of Placer JJemocmf, 
the first number bearing date April 19, 185-1. This 
was started by the Broderick wing of the Demo- 
cratic party, and struggled through the political 
campaign of that year, ceasing publication a few 
weeks after the September election. The first editor 
and proprietor was Philip Lynch, who was suc- 
ceeded, July let, by L, P. Hall, who was followed by 
John Shannon, all those names being well known 
among California journalists. Lynch afterwards 
published the Placer Courier, of Yankee Jim's, and 
established the News at Gold Hill, Nevada, Hall 
was connected with many papers throughout the 
State, being usually known as '• Long Primer" Hall, 
and Shannon established the Delta at Visalia, 

The object of the Broderickitos was to elect their 



29(1 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIP^ORNIA. 



champion. David C. Broderick, to the United States 
Senate. The previous session Broderick had made 
a great effort to bring on the election, and could he 
have succeeded in bringing on a vote would ])rob i- 
bly have been elected. The contest was Ihi^ entcrini;' 
wedge to split the Democratic party. The cum 
paign of 1854 was very bitter. The Senatorial can- 
didates were Wrn. M. Gwin and D. C. Broderick. 
Southern men usually took the side of Gwin, and 
Northern men that of Broderick, but in Placer 
County, by a singular anomaly, this condition was 
reversed, Broderick having many Southern men, 
besides those of Irish descent, as his adherents. 

The campaign in this county resulted in defeating 
the Democracy, that party having two tickets, and 
electing the Whig candidates by a small pluralitj-. 
With this campaign the mission of the Democrat was 
ended, anl it wis succeeded by the Auburn, WJi'kj. 
In the tirst number of this paper the following notice 
of its predecessor was published; — 

The I'I<(i-f:r Democrat, a paper representing the 
so-called Broderick Wing of the Democracy of this 
county, has been discontinued. Its publication com- 
menced April 19, of the present year, and ended 
about two weeks since. It has had the effect of 
causing rather stormy times in the Democratic Party 
during the late political canvass; but whether or not 
the object which it had in view has been entirely 
accomplished we do not know. That portion of the 
|)arty whose organ it was, was badly beaten here bj' 
the Anti-Electionists, as well as throughout the State. 
The resignation of their County Central Committee, 
and the withdrawal of Milton S. Latham, one of their 
nominees for Congress, were undoubtedly serious 
drawbacks to their success, though, without these 
obstacles, the result might have been the same. The 
reason given for the discontinuance of the Democrat 
is. that '-it will not pay," which, unquestionably is 
quite a satisfactory one to all interested. We wish 
Mr. Shannon better success in his private enterprise 
than has, in this instance, favored his political ones. 

DE.VTII OF .lOIIN SH.\NNON. 

As previously announced John Shannon, one of 
the ])ublishers of the Placer Democrat established 
the Delta, of Visalia, Tulare County, a locality distin- 
guished for the intensity of feeling of its Democratic 
majority, and Shannon was fierce in his onslaughts 
on his opponents. Wm. Governour Morris and Hugh 
A. (rorley, since distinguished as Captain of Volun- 
teers in the war, established a Republican paper in 
the same place, and the two papers maintained a 
most bitter controversy. On the 14th of November, 
18()0, Shannon entered the office of his rival, and, 
with a large pistol, struck Morris on the head, 
knocking him senseless to the floor, cutting open his 
scalp over the brow. Morris soon recovered con- 
sciousness and drew his pistol, when Shannon 
retreated toward his own office, Morris followini;-. 
and, with one hand wiping the streaming blood fr )iii 
Ills eyes, fired at his assailant as he was entering the 
door of his office, the ball penetrating the ititestincs, 
causiniz: death in half an hour. Morris surrendered 



to the authorities, and was discharged after an exam 
ination by a Justice of the Peace. Mr. Shannon had 
resided for a number of years in Placer County, 
where he had many friends. At one time he was 
publisher of the Calaveras Chronicle, and had been 
connected with other papers. His wife, who died 
while a resident of Auburn, was quite distinguished 
as a po'etical and prose writer under the nom de 
plii.iiie " Eulalie." 

THE .MBURN WHiCi. 

The " office " for a paper being ready, it was not. 
at this time, a very costly enterprise to start a paper 
and run it as long as the publishers could hold their 
breath, or fast, or obtain credit. The countj^ now 
having Whig officers, the prospect for supporting a 
Whig paper appeared very bright, and, on the 2l8t 
of October, IS54, Charles Winkley and A. L. Stinson 
issued the first number of the Auburn Whi<j, under 
the editorial control of M. E. Mills, recently elected 
District Attorney. The paper was ably conducted 
during its entire career of thirty-one issues. 

Mr. Mills was its editor for the first three months, 
when he was succeeded by Mr. Hiram R. Hawkins, 
who remained the editor until it ceased j)ublication 
on the 19th of May, 1X55. 

The party bearing the name had won the county 
election through the division of its opponents, and. 
being greatlj- in the minorit}' was quietly but surely 
going out of existence. The total vote of the 
coanty had been, for Senator 5,389, of which the 
Whig candidate received 2,;)47. There was, however, 
great dissatisfaction with the party throughout the 
Nation, difterent sections giving different reasons. 
Its leaders had voted for the repeal of the '■ Mis- 
souri Compromise," thereby admitting slavery into 
the Territories north of ?t&° 30' of latitude, thus 
offending the North, and the incoming of great num- 
bers of foreigners who usually went upon the public 
lands, thus excluding slave labor, offended the South, 
and with these feelings at the bottom, the American 
Part}' was formed of its dissatisfied and beaten 
fragments. The members were commonly called 
Know-Nothings, because of their secret organization 
and their reticence. The ri.se of this party, in 1855, 
shelved the Whigs, and the conductors of the paper 
bearing the name, bowing to the influence of the 
new excitement, ceased their publication without 
notice or obituary. 

TEIE PLACER PRESS. 

On the -!d of June, 1S55, the Placer Press first 
ap)ieared under the proprietorship of Hiram Iv. 
Hawkins, A. L. Stinson, and ("harles Winkley, with 
Mr. Hawkins as editor, being the same organization 
as that of the defunct Whig. The Press was ably 
edited, and was the organ of the American, or Know- 
Nothing party. After the election in September, 
resulting in the American triumph, Mr. Hawkins 
look a journey to his native home, leaving Mr. II. 




/. A. File her 



JOURNALISM. 



297 



E. Force as editor of the Press during the time of 
Ills absence. 

These were generally lively times in Auburn; the 
mines of the surrounding countrj'^ vvere yielding 
well, the Foreign Miners' License Tax, collected 
almost exclusively from the Chinese, ])roduced a 
large revenue for the county, and raone}- was plen- 
tiful; but extravagance was the fashion, wages were 
high, population unstable, and vvith ever-so-good 
prospects it was difficult to maintain a newspaper. 
During the campaign of 1856 the Press was the able 
advocate of its party, and its editor was compli- 
mented bj' nomination to the State Senate, receiving 
1913 votes, the Republican candidate, Mr. C. J. Hil- 
yer, receiving 1016, but with this division of the 
anti-Democratic sentiment, the Democratic nominee, 
Mr. Joseph VValkup was elected, receiving 2,738 votes. 

This was thj first appearance of the Republicans 
in California politics. But, however much inclined 
the publishers and editor of the Press were to the 
principles of the party, the time had not come to 
make an open avowal or assume the name. The 
opprobrious appellation of " Abolitionist " was too 
commoni}' hurled at the members of the new party, 
and this the Democratic sj^mpathizers with the 
South had made the most offensive word in the 
language. To surmount the unpopularity of this, 
or its congener, " Black Republican," was deemed 
impossible, and it was only by taking the new 
party in by small doses that it ever gained strength 
and respectability. Anti-Lecompton was the first 
dose, and the Press was the able advocate of that 
party. 

The question of the admission of Kansas into the 
Union with or without slavery, the Lecompton Con- 
stitution representing the former, agitated the 
nation, and gave the foundation for the party, 
which staggered along in scattered ranks under the 
names of Free Soil, Anti-Lecompton, Squatter Sover- 
eignty, Douglas Democrats, Republicans, Aboli- 
tionists, and Unionists. These scattered elements, 
although reallj' tending to the same purpose, as 
charged by the Democracy, often denied each other, 
and gave poor support to 'the paper. The strong, 
noisy, bullying, popularizing crovvd were Democrats, 
and the new party was hardly tolerated on the 
stump, and its papers were kept in the background. 

On the 30th of May, 1857, upon the commence- 
ment of the third volume of the Press, it is announced 
that the publishers are H. R. Hawkins and James 
P. Bull. October 3l8t Mr. Hawkins sold his inter- 
est to A. S. Smith, who assumed editorial control, 
Mr. Bull continuing in the paper until May, 1858. 
On the 22d of May the name of A. S. Smith appears 
as editor and proprietor, and on the 19th of June 
following Mr. Bull advertises to sell his "half" of 
the paper, and with the issue of July 24th his 
connection ceases entirely, the firm name being then 
Smith & Co. 

A Directory of Placer County, ijublished in 1861 



by R. J. Steele, James P. Bull and F. I. Houston, 
says:— 

The Press from this time uulil its demise was the 
organ of tlic Anti-Lecompton party, and was 
accused of being strongl}- tinctured with Abolition- 
ism. The Press continued to make a regular weekly 
squeeze for a short time, under the direction of ,1. 
S. Smith; but eventually falling into the hands of J. 
W. Scobey, who continued the editorship, was con- 
ducted bj' him until December 4. 1858, when betook 
" Another Glance at the Field," and inconti- 
iienth' retired, the Press becoming a defunct insti- 
tution. 

In this notice there crops out a feeling of spite 
against the editors of the Press, and the prevalent 
feeling of abhorrence of the term " Abolitionism." 
As Mr. Smith has long and successfully published 
the Marysville Appeal, and seen the triumph ot Abo- 
litionism, he may smile at the feeling expressed in 
1861. 

HIRAM R. HAWKINS. 

The principal editor of the Press had been Hiram 
R. Hawkins. This gentleman was born at Lansing- 
burg, New York, in 1826, and emigrated to Califor- 
nia in 1819, arriving in San Francisco on the 11th 
of July of that j'car. He came " around the Horn " 
on the ship Tamaroo, in which were many who have 
since become noted for their wealth, high position 
and public influence. Ho was one of the early set- 
tlers of Placer County, first mining at Deadman's 
Bar, on the North Fork of the American River. 
Upon the organization of the county, in 1851, he 
was a candidate for County Clerk, there being four 
candidates for the position, James S. Stewart receiv- 
ing 1,118 votes; Hiram R. Hawkins, 961; Wm. M. 
Jordan, 395, and John JIcNally, 219, electing Mr. 
Stewart, and Hawkins was made De|)uty Clerk. 
Mr. Hawkins was afterwards Justice of the Peace of 
Auburn; in 1856 was a candidate for the State Senate 
on the American ticket, as has been related, and in 
1858 was candidate for County Judge. In 1861 he 
was ed'tor of the Union Advocate. In 1863 he 
removed to Gold Hill, Nevada, and became editor of 
the Gold Hill News, a strong Republican pa))er. The 
publisher was Philip Lynch, who had been associated 
with Mr. Hawkins in Auburn, and had published a 
paperat Yankee Jim's andat Forestliill. As editor of 
the J'^etfs he did stalwart service for the party, and in 
1865 received the appointment of Consul at Tumbez, 
Peru. Mr. Hawkins had not been successful as a 
business man, and a Federal appointmont was sought 
in the hope of bettering his fortune. The kind ('?) 
offer of the Consulship at Tumbez seems, now, more 
of a mockerjr than an honest reward to a deserving 
man for services rendered, and it proved an ignis 
fatnus to the recipient. The locality was unheullhy 
and business stagnant. Here Mr. Hawkins died on 
the 20th of November, 1866. 

While a resident of Auburn he was married to 
Miss Echols, and three children had blessed their 



2 08 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



union. Mr.-*. Hawkins and two of the children died, 
and their remains rest in the graveyard at Auburn, 
and the eldest son, John, was taken to the home of 
his grandfather, Ezekiel Hawkins, at Lansingburg, 
New York. 

THE IOWA HILL NEWS. 

On the 15th of September, 1855, Messrs. J. P. 

Olmstead and Miller established a paper at Iowa 

Hill, which they named the News, professing neu- 
trality in politics. That town was then in high 
prosperity, and the " Divide," as the section between 
the North and Middle Forks is called, contained 
numerous busy and prosperous towns, as Todd's 
Valley, Forest Hill, Michigan City, Yankee Jim's, 
and oihers, of which Iowa Hill was the chief To 
publish a paper in such a place with such surround- 
ings seemed a legitimate and safe enterprise, although 
not a county seat. But a county scat would be of 
great benefit to the paper, and if it could not get 
into the county seat, the News undertook to make a 
county seat of its own. 

In the issue of the paper of December 22d, 1855, 
a notice was published calling a meeting of the citi- 
zens of the •' Divide" to be held at Herrick's Hotel, 
in Yankee Jim's, on the 29Lh of the same month, to 
take into consideration the subject of a division of 
Placer County. The project was to have the Legis- 
lature of that session create the County of Wash- 
ington out oi' the eastern portion of Placer. This 
question became the distinguishing feature of the 
News, which, for a year or more, advocated the pro- 
ject with much energy, but failed in its accomplish- 
ment. 

In November, 1857, the office was removed to 
North San Juan, in Nevada County, J. P. Olmstead 
and Thomas Waters then being the proprietors, and 
there commenced the publication of the San Juan 
Star, which was subsequently sold to Benjamin P. 
Avery, who changed the name to Hydraulic Press, 
Avery afterwards selling to Wm. Bausraan, who 
changed the name to S<ih Jaan Press, the material 
at last resting in Nevada City, where the Gazette 
and other papers have been published with it. 

MOUNTAIN COURIER. 

In the winter of 1857, Messrs. Parker & Graves 
commenced at Yankee Jim's the publication of the 
Afounlain Courier, which they continued for three 
months. The enterprise appears to have been an 
unprofitable one, or badly managed, as the office was 
attached for debt, and the publication of the paper 
stopped. 

PLACER COURIER. 

A good printer and vigorous writer entered the 
journalistic field of this county at this time, remain- 
ing through many years, continuing an honorable, if 
not exceedingly prosperous, career. This gentleman 
was Mr. E. B. Boust, who on the 4th of July, 1857, 
issued the first number of the Placer Courier, at 
Yankee .Tim's, on the material formerly used in the 



Mountain Courier. The place proved not so bad 
for newspaper enterprise as the failure of the pre- 
ceding publication had indicated, as Mr. Boust made 
quite a success with his paper, continuing it until 
November, 1858, when he sold it to R. J. Steele, for- 
merly of the Columbia Gazette, who continued it at 
Yankee Jim's until the following April, when he 
removed the establishment to Forest Hill, where he 
published the paper until December 29, 1860. when 
he sold out to 

PHILIP LYNCH. 

Mr. Lynch continued the publication of the Cour- 
ier for a number of years, and, in 1863, removed to 
Gold Hill, Nevada, and there, October 12, 1863, 
established the Gold Hill News. This gentleman had 
been a prominent citizen of western Placer from 
early days, as a pioneer farmer and horticulturist; 
as an active public man and politician, representing 
the county in the Legislature of 1859. He had 
been connected with the Placer Democrat in Auburn, 
and other papers, was an excellent printer, and able 
writer. While publishing the Gold Hill News, the 
paper had the reputation of being the best printed 
of any on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Lynch died at 
Gold Hill, Nevada, February 13, 1873, leaving a 
widow, who subsequently married Mr. Dam, of Oak- 
land, California. 

IOWA HILL PATRIOT. 

January 22, 1859, E. B. Boust, recently- of the 
Placer Courier, established the Patriot at Iowa Hill. 
This field had been tried by Messrs. Olmstead & 
Miller, who had " moved on " to North San Juan, in 
Nevada Count}'. 

Iowa Hill appears not to have been the best place 
in the world for a newspaper, judging from an arti- 
cle in the Patriot, in May, 1859. In the language of 
the farmer, sometimes used in a printing office, " the 
grass was getting short," and Mr. Boust gave vent 
to his feelings as follows: — 

How, in the name of common sense, people can 
expect us to get out a newspaper, write editorials, 
do all the work, and cook for ourselves, and have a 
man at our elbow dunning for SI 0.00 when we 
haven't got a cent in the world, with another sitting 
opposite to us in an awful hurry to give the particu- 
lars, benefits, etc., of a new patent medicine, that he 
has expended twenty-five cents on as a speculation, 
and is boring us for a pufi' — we say how can people 
expect us to issue a paper under such circumstances 
(not mentioning the washing of our own clothes), 
we can't tell. Yet there are communities that have 
no more ijtimption than to expect this; besides bring- 
ing us all the subscription papers for charitable objects, 
prefacing their presentation with the desire that we 
donate liberally and give a notice of the cause. 
Those who happen to owe us take particular pains to 
"never mention it," and those we owe won't let us 
sleep. We would take the benefit of the " Act 
entitled an Act to-get-out-of-debt," but we haven't 
got enough to take us through. To sum up the 
whole matter, we arc getting desperate, and. as 
there is a chance for another Mormon war. we'll ffo 



.I01TRNALT8M 



299 



to it, distinguish ourself, and be rewarded with a good 
fat oflSee — probably be appointed Governor over 
Brigham Young and all his wives. 

Notwithstanding his much-complained-of hard- 
ships, Mr. Eoust remained at Iowa Hill and contin- 
ued the publication of the /^aYz-i'o^ until May 1, 1860, 
when he, too, moved on, taking his material to the 
rising town of Dutch Flat, where the Fat riot was 
changed into the 

DUTCH FLAT ENQUIRER. 

At Dutch Fiat Mr. Boust prospered for a number 
of years, publishing a large and handsome weekly. 
The editor was a Democrat, and of course his paper 
could be nothing else, but polities did not appear the 
object of the publication, and the columns of the 
Enquirer were characterized for their liberality, con- 
servatism, and independence. An effort was made 
to publish it semi-weekly, and for a period it 
appeared as such, but business did not sustain the 
enterprise after the building of the Central Pacific 
Railroad past the town, and, in 1868, the publication 
ceased. 

DEMOCRATIC SIUNAI.. 

The Presidential campaign of 1860 will be ever 
memorable. The regular Democratic nominations 
were John C. Breckenridge and General Josej^h 
Lane; the Anti-Lecompton Democrats nominated 
Stephen A. Douglas and Reverdy Johnson; and the 
Republican nominees wei'e Abraham Lincoln and 
Hannibal Hamlin; and the Union party nominated 
John C. Bell and Edward Everett. The Brecken- 
ridge Democrats had the Herald as their organ, and 
the Douglas Democrats as a counterpoise established 
the Signal, the first number appearing August 4, 
1860, under the proprietorship of S. T. Newell & Co., 
and edited by R. C. Poland, who was succeeded by 
Joseph W. Seobey. 

The contest was severe and bitter, bu: the great 
leaders of the Nation, who appeared to regard them- 
selves as the supreme power in the Government, 
had, this time, reckoned without their host, and the 
derided Republicans won. There was no emploj-- 
ment for a Douglas Democratic paper after the 
election, and, on the 10th of December of the same 
year, the Signal went into the possession of R. J. 
Steele of the Placer Courier. Mr. Steele continued 
the publication of the Signal until the summei- of 
1861. 

A DEPLORABLE TRAGEDY. 

A most deplorable tragedy ended the life of Mr. 
Samuel T. Newell, the publisher of the Spinal. After 
the disposal of his paper to Mr. Steele he removed 
to San Francisco, in Auburn re.sided Horace Smith, 
a prominent lawyer and Democratic politician, who 
formerly had been Mayor of Sacramento. Newell 
was charged with having slandered Mrs. Smith, and 
the offended husband followed Newell to San Fran- 
cisco, and, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Judge 



J ames H. Hardy, on the 1st of January, 1861, wet 
the object of his search, and plunged a Bowie-knife 
through his heart, causing death in a few minutes. 

The fate of Smith was equally dramatic and 
tragic. He was an-ested and imprisoned, and, in 
due time, was indicted for murder by the Grand 
Jury of San Francisco. He applied for a change of 
venue to Placer County, which was denied by Judge 
Campbell of the Twelfth District Court. His friends 
then introduced a bill in the Legislature then in ses- 
sion, as a special Act, to change the place of trial 
of Horace Smith from San Fi-ancisco to Placer 
County. The bill was passed, but was vetoed by 
Governor Downey on ihe ground of its unconstitu- 
tionality, but it was passed over the veto, by a 
vote of twenty-two yeas to nine noes in the Senate, 
and forty-five yeas to twenty-two noes in the Assem- 
bly. Notwithstanding this J udge Campbell refused 
to order the change, denying the right of legislation 
to interfere in such a manner, and an appeal was 
made to the Supreme Court, which body, on the 13th 
of April, decided in favor of the constitutionality of 
the Act, and the case was transferred. A most ear- 
nest discussion had been maintained in the news- 
papers during the controversy, the Union papers 
opposing the change as an unfair measure in the 
homicide's favor, while the Democratic papers upheld 
the Act. 

The trial was set for May 6th, and at that date 
was postponed until July 8th following. June 10th 
the prisoner was admitted to bail in the sum of 
$■10,000. The trial commenced, as ordered, July 8, 
1861, before B. F. Myers, District Judge, and occu- 
pied three days, resulting in a verdict of not guilty. 
Great interest had been taken in the trial, and the 
citizens of Auburn applauded the verdict. 

Smith subsequently removed to the Territory of 
Nevada, and entered into the practice of the law in 
Virginia City. On the 28th of October, 1863, he 
was engaged in a dispute about the receipt of some 
money with Capt. F. W. H. Johnson, agent of Wells, 
Fargo & Co.'s Express, and knocked Johnson down 
with his cane, who, while in his fallen position, shot 
Smith in the abdomen, from which wound he died 
on the 4th of December following, and the body 
was taken to San Francisco for burial. Johnson was 
tried for the offense and acquitted. 

THE states' RIGHTS JOURNAL. 

The titles of papers will, of themselves, indicate 
the character of political sentiment. Publishers 
desire to catch the public favor, and in starting a 
paper give it that name they think will express the 
popular opinion. The period was one of changing 
politics, and Mr. Steele in changing from the Signal 
to the States' Rights Journal thought to express a 
gi'eat principle. The times however were not auspi- 
cious for such an advocate. The paper could have 
no hopes as a Democratic organ, and this title was 
an undefined expression of opposition to '-Republi- 



f?no 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



canism," with its ideas of consolidation of the nation 
and centralization of power, and thus was without a 
party. The first paper was issued August 10, 1861, 
lasting a few weeks, when it was succeeded by 

THE UNION ADVOCATE. 

This, also, was of that mixed class of politics 
which prevailed during that period, opposing seces- 
sion but hesitating about declaring directly for the 
Republican Party. This party name was usually 
styled, in 1861, '-Black Republican," and all papers 
charged that it was '-tinctured with Abolitionism." 
James P. Bull, a Democrat, vvas the manager of the 
Union Advocate, and Hiram R. Hawkins was editor. 
Mr. Hawkins, afterwards so strong a Republican, 
still wavered among the factions outside its ranks. 
In this manner the Union Advocate continued for 
two \-oars and suspended. 

JAMES P. BULL. 

This gentleman, so long a resident of Placer Count}' 
and connected with its press, removed in 1863 to 
Arizona, and there died at Hard^'ville in September, 
1878. Oi his death the Prescott Enterprise says: 
'•There rests one of Mohave County's best citizens, 
who was always willing to lend a helping hand in 
time of need, and perfectly upright and honest in 
his convictions. In the death of James Perry Bull 
Mohave County has lost a good friend. Peace to 
his ashes. 

THE STARS AND STRIPES. 

The first Republican paper of Placer County made 
its appearance Julj- 29, 1863, under the proprietor- 
ship of John C. Boggs, with W. A. Selkirk as editor. 
The paper was 14x20 inches in size of page and con- 
tained twenty-four columns, three pages of its first edi- 
tion being devoted to ad^enisements. 'Y\i& Stars and 
Stripes was published at Auburn every Wednesday, 
at S5.00 per annum. The Republican Party had 
then become strong and popular, and people began to 
take pride in the name, though Democratic editors 
and speakers still attempted to crush it by the pre- 
fix, "Black," for which they subsequently substi- 
tuted the epithet "Radical." The declaration of 
priuciples was summarized in the following editorial 
in the first number: " Our political principles can be 
summed up in a few words — WE love loyalty and 

HATE TREASON." 

The record of publishers and editors is as follows: 
February, 17. 1864, W. A. Selkirk retires from the 
editorial control. August 2, 1865, his name is again 
at the bead of the columns as editor. November 22, 
1865, Mr. Selkirk again retires, and is succeeded b}- 
Wm. J. Beggs. October 17, 1866, Mr. Beggs pub 
lishes his valedictory, and on the 7th of November 
following Edward A. Littlefield becomes the editor. 
January 23, 1867, John C. Boggs sells the ])aper to 
W. A. Selkirk, who relieves Mr. Littlefield from edi- 
torial control. December 12,1867, Mr. Selkirksells 
to Hart Fellows, who assumes the editorship. Jan- 
uary 21, 1869, the Stars and Stripes is reduced in 



size, one column in width, and two inches in length. 
June 17, 1869, E. A. Littlefield again becomes editor, 
which position he holds until October 14th following, 
when the proprietor, Mr. Fellows, takes the editorial 
chair. December 16th, the same year, Mr. W. H. H. 
Fellows takes charge as publisher and proprietor. 
June 30, 1870, W. A. Selkirk becomes proprietor 
and editor, and reduces the subscription price to 
$4.00 per year. In the Presidential Campaign of 1872 
the Stars and Stripes espoused the cause of Horace 
Greeley, who had been nominated by the Democrats 
under the name of the Liberal Republican Party, and 
losing the election and the support of the Republi- 
cans, ceased to exist after November 28lh of that 
year. Until its change of base as above stated, the 
]iaper had done good and faithful service for the 
party, and seemed on the high road to prosperity 
and permanency. 

Of the editors of the Stars and Stripes, Mr. Sel- 
kirk is now the proprietor of the Mountain Demo- 
crat at Placerville, El Dorado County. 

Mr. Littlefield has distinguished himself as the 
starter of manj' papers, having been one of the 
stockholders of the San Francisco Daily Fast; then 
of the Nevada Slate Journal, o? the Elko Post, a.nd 
the Tuscarora Times; then the Daily Mining Review, 
of Salt Lake, and is now connected with the Ogden 
Daily Pilot. 

placer weekly argcs. 

The Republicans of Placer County were indignant 
at the defection of the Stars and Stripes, and an asso- 
ciation was organized to establish a paper in its stead. 
This association commenced the publication of the 
Placer Weekly Ai-gus September 13, 1872, a twenty- 
eight column paper, with subscription rates at S4.00 
per year. This association was organized with 
Moses Andrews, President; W. B. Lyon, Secretary 
and Business Manager; Hubbard & Andrews, 
Treasurers; and James B. McQuillan, Editor. A paid 
up capital of 33,000 was subscribed, and the paper 
started out under the most favorable auspices. The 
gentlemen comprising the association were men of 
wealth, of high social position, and political influ- 
ence. Under such conditions, with its party in the 
ascendant, and a prosperous country surrounding it, 
there could be no doubt of the success of the enter- 
prise. The Presidential election followed in Novem- 
ber, at which the Republican electors received 1,417 
votes and the Greeley electors received 839 votes in 
Placer County. This result was a triumph for the 
Argus, vshWa it was a crushing blow for the Stars and 
Stripes, which succumbed under the defeat. Novem- 
ber 15th Mr. McQuillan resigned the editorial charge, 
which was assumed by W. B. Lyon, who held the 
position until the 1st of March, 1874, when he was 
succeeded by Daniel McNeill. This position was 
held by Mr. McNeill until June 1st following, when 
Theodore Glance'y, formerly of the Los Angeles Daily 
Herald, took charge. In August of the same } car 



SOCIETIES. 



301 



Mr. Lyon resigned the Secretaryship and Mr. Glancey 
wa8 elected his successor. On the 10th of April, 
1875, Mr. Glancey resigned and W. N. Slocum 
became editor of the paper and Secretary of the 
association. On the 1st of July, 1877, the paper was 
sold to Henry W. Fenton, who assumed control from 
that date. The paper is a handsome folio of seven 
column.s to each page, and is furnished subscribers at 
the rate of §3.00 per annum, or ten cents a single 
number. In politics it is strongly Eepublican, and 
is an able advocate of the resources and interests of 
Placer County. 

James B. McQuillan, the first editor of the Anjus, 
was well known among the journalists of the State, 
having filled the editorial chair of several papers, and 
was a popular gentleman and able writer. He died 
at Jacinto, in Colusa County, September 15. 1874. 
and was buried at Chico, in Butte County. 

Theodore Glancey, while editor of the Santa Bar- 
bara Press, was brutally murdered by Clarence Gray, 
a candidate for District Attorney of Santa Barbara, 
County, upon whose past criminal career Mr. Glancey 
severely animadverted. 

Daniel McNeill was subsequently one of the pub- 
lishers of the Amador Sentinel, and has been con- 
nected with various papers of the State. 

DUTCH FLAT FORDM. 

This paper issued its initial number October 9, 
1875, with Benjamin F. Prank as proprietor and 
editor. It was a neat and spicy eight-page weekly, 
well filled with advertising and promising a success- 
ful career, representing the interests, progress and 
society of Dutch Flat. The Forum professed inde- 
pendence in politics, but in its first number strongly 
advocated the election of T. B. Eeardan, of Nevada, 
a Democrat, for District Judge over James E. Hale, 
of Placer, a Republican. June 8, 1878, J. R. Winders 
appears as proprietor, also as candidate on the VVork- 
ingmen's Ticket for Delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention. In this he is defeated by J. A. Filcher. 
May 3, 1879, W. G. Ransom is the proprietor, who, 
June 19, 1880, sold to W. A. Wheeler, who at the 
close of 1881, changes the name to 

THE PLACER TIMES, 

A well-printed paper, issued ever}- Saturday at 
Dutch Flat, having four pages of five columns each. 

COLFAX ENTERPRISE. 

The Dutch Flat field appears not to have been as 
promising to Mr. Frank as it appeared when estab- 
lishing the Forum, for we find him in the fall of 1876 
at Colfax, publishing the Enterprise. Here he re- 
m;rined about eleven months, and removed to Read- 
ing, in Shasta County, and there published the 
Readiru/ Independent, the first number of which was 
dated October 11, 1877. 

THE MOtJNTAIN ECHO. 

Again wo follow Mr. Frank to Placer County, 



and find him, February 28, 1880, publishing the 
Mountain Echo, at Rocklin. This was a neat six- 
column paper, and battled with the world for the 
period of about four months. 



THE ROSEVILLE FARMER. 

Edited by S. J. Pullen, appeared May 22, 1880, at 
Roseville, being the successor of the Mountain Echo, 
from the neighboring town of Rocklin. 

THE ADVANCE. 

Volume 1, Number 1, of The Advance, is dated 
Auburn, May 2, 1879, H. W. Hulbert, publisher and 
proprietor. This was a well-printed and ably edited 
paper of four pages, of six columns to the page, and 
was a vigorous advocate of the Greenback-Labor 
Party. The great "reform" questions of that 
party were fully discussed and many theories and 
facts presented in their favor. Mr. Hulbert had 
often contributed articles toother papers, presenting 
the agricultural and horticultural resources and pro- 
gress in Placer County, and was well qualified to 
make an interesting and valuable paper, but the 
publisher's efforts could not maintain 27ie Advance, 
and its career was brief. 

TAHOE TATTLER. 

This is not a very pretentious sheet, being a folio 
of two columns to each page of five and a half inches 
in length, but gives the local news and gossip of 
Tahoe City during the season when the lovely lake 
is visited by summer tourists. Mr. and Mrs. R. E. 
Wood are the publishers. 

THE CAUCASIAN 

Was a monthly publication in 1878, by J. A. Filcher 
& Co., at Auburn, as the organ of the Order of Cau- 
casians. Its life was of short duration. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

SOCIETIES. 

The Order of Freemasoury — Speculative Freemasonry — Masonry 
on Pacific Coast— Remarkable Masonic Display— Grand Lodge 
of California — Masonry in Placer County — Eureka Lodae, 
No. 16— Gold Hill Lodge, No. 3-_>— Michigan City Lodge, No. 
47 — Illiuoistovvn Lodge, No. 51 — Rising Star Lodge, No. 83 
— Wisconsin Hill Lodge, No. 74 — Clay Lodge, No. 101 — 
Ionic Lodge, No. 121 — Granite Lodge, No. 2'2'2 — Tyre Lodge, 
No. 23S— Penryu Lodge, No. 258— O. \V. Holleubeck— Royal 
Arch Masons — Libanus Chapter, No. 17 — Olive Chapter, No. 
23— Delta Chapter, No. 27— Siloara Chapter, No. 37— C.ipt. 
Melvin S. Gardner — Order of the Eastern Star — Odd Fellow- 
ship in Califurnia — Odd Fellowship in Placer County — 
Auburn Lodge, No. 7 — Mountain Lodg''. No. 14 — Placer 
Lodge, No. 38 — Washington Loilge, No. 40 — Minerva Lodge, 
No. 55— Covenant Lodge, No. 73— Olive Lod,'e, No. 81— 
Valley Lodge, No. 107— Colfax Lodge, No. 132— Gold Run 
Lodge, No. 139 — Roseville Lodge, No. 203 — Order of Knights 
of Pythias — Washingtou Lodge, No. 1 — Sons of Temperance 
— Independent Order of Good Templars — Improved Order of 
Red Men — Patrons of Husbandrj- — Ancient Order of United 
Workmen — War Veterans. 

Societies and civilization are coeval, and as man 
advances in enlightenment the greater is the tend- 
ency to organize social orders. Government itself is 



.'^02 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



a social order, and therefore organizations appeared 
on the earth while the human race were advancing 
from barbarism to civilization; so it would be impos- 
sible to tell when the first society appeared. With 
the establishing of governments came the tyranny of 
rulers, and very probably secret societies were 
formed soon thereafter in self-protection. 

THE ORDER OP FREEMASONRY. 

The oldest secret organization now known is that 
of Freemasonry, the origin of which is wrapped in 
obscur.ty, though attributed to the workmen engaged 
in the building of King Solomon's Temple, and this 
theory is now accepted as the fact. At that time 
the members were 0|)erative architects, and through a 
long period of years their skill was displayed in every 
important structure. Operative masons were known 
to Britain as early as the year 287 of the Christian 
era. During the invasion of Britain by the Danes, 
between the year.s 835 and 870, nearly all the con- 
vents, churches and monasteries were destroyed, and 
with them the records and ancient documents of the 
Order, of which they were the re.spositories. Fifty 
years afterwards, King Athelstan desired his adopted 
son Edwin, who had been taught the science of 
architecture, to assemble in the year 926, in the city 
of York, all the lodges of Freemasons scattered 
throughout the kingdom, that they might be recon- 
structed according to their ancient laws. This done, 
he confirmed to them all the privileges which they 
desired, and at the same time presented to the assem- 
bled Masons the immortal document known as the 
Charter of York. Thereafter Freemasonry flour- 
ished to an extraordinary degree in all civilized lands. 

About the year 1649 the different lodges in Eng- 
land and vScotland, having admitted many honorary 
members into the society, generally for the influence 
wielded rather than for any qualification pertaining 
to the original design of the order they may have 
possessed. Masonry in its speculative character 
became a matter of earnest discussion. With the 
completion of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the city of 
London, the occupation of operative masons seems 
to have been brought to a close; for we find that in 
the year 1703, the Lodge of St. Paul, so named 
because the operative Masons engaged in the erection 
of the cathedral held their lodge in a building situ- 
ated in the church-yard on its grounds, passed an 
important resolution, the object of which was evi- 
dently to augment its numbers, and thereby enlarge 
the area for the bestowal of its benefits. That reso- 
lution was as follows: — 

Risoloed, That the privileges of Masonry shall no 
longer be confined to operative Masons, but be free 
to men of all professions, provided that they are 
regularly approved and initiated into the fraternity. 

This im])ortaiit decision entirely changed the scope 
and features of the society, and transformed it into 
what we find it today — speculative, as contradis- 
tinguished from operative. Masonry — a praiseworthy 



institution, existino; as the conservatorof art, religion 
and tradition, and perpetuating by the beautiful 
allegories of its legends and symbols, its eminentlj' 
kind and humanitarian doctrines. 

SPECULATIVE FREEMASONRY. 

In the short space of twenty-five years, specula- 
tive Freemasonry spread itself in a manner but little 
less than miraculous into nearly every portion of the 
civilized world. Passing from England to France as 
early as 1725, thence to Belgium, to Holland, to 
Germany, to America; subsequently to Portugal, 
Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and to Poland. 
Lodges were to be found as early as 1740 in Den- 
mark, in Bohemia, in Russia, in the Antilles, in Africa, 
and in the British possessions in Hindostan. The 
missing link in Masonry was welded in Japan, in 
187-1, by the establishment of a lodge in that coun- 
try — the only land in the world at that time where 
the order had not obtained a foot-hold — and the 
chain around the world was complete. Taking pat- 
tern from it, all other secret associations of modern 
times have sprung into being. 

If Freemasonry has ceased to erect temples; if it 
has ceased to engage in material architecture; if it 
no longer exhibits itself in the elevation of spires 
and turrets, or points from which eyes may be 
directed and hopes ascend towards a better and hap- 
• pier world — it has not less continued its work of intel- 
lectual and moral culture, and its success in this respect 
has been far more satisfactory than those who 
planned its design as a speculative institution ever 
hoped to achieve. Its spirit is immortal; its won- 
derful craft is voiced in the towering pyramids and 
monumental obelisks of Egypt. It will live and 
thrive as long as mankind exists. 

MASONRY ON THE P.^CIFIC COAST. 

With the Argonauts who came in search of the 
golden treasures of California in 1849, were parties 
who previous to leaving their homes in the East had 
formed themselves into companies for either mining 
or commercial purposes, or both, as well as for mutual 
protection. Several of these organizations were 
comprised mainly of Masons, and had, previous to 
setting out upon their journey to the far West, 
applied to the lodges where they wore made for per- 
mits or dispensations to open lodges, and " work " 
when opportunity offered. These dispensations 
eventually became the nuclei around which some of 
the first Masonic Lodges of California formed. The 
following incident will show that, although no 
lodges vvere organized until the spring of 1850, the 
brethren of the m3^stic tie of the Pacific Coast never- 
theless forgot not their charitable duties, even among 
the allurements attendant upon those flush, golden 
times of the earlier days. 

REMARKABLE MASONIC DISPLAY. 

The first Masonic funeral that ever took place in 
California occurred in the year 1849, and was per- 



SOCIETIES. 



SOS 



formed over the body of a brother found drowned in 
the bay of San Francisco. 

Upon the body of the deceased was found a silver 
mark of a Mark Master, upon which were the initials 
of his name. A little further investigation revealed 
to the beholders the most singular exhibition of 
Masonic emblems that were ever drawn by the inge- 
nuity of man upon the human sUin. There is noth- 
ing in the history or tradition of Masonry equal to 
it. Beautifully dotted on his left arm, in red and 
blue, which time could not efface, appeared all the 
emblems of Entered Apprentice. There were the 
Holy Bible, the square and the comoass, the twenty- 
four-inch gauge, and the common gavel. There 
were also the Mosaic pavement, representing the 
ground floor of King Solomon's Temple, the identi- 
cal tassel which surrounds it, and the blazing star in 
the center. 

On his right arm, artistically executed as the 
others, were emblems pertaining to the Fellow Craft, 
the plumb, the square and the level. There were 
also the five columns, repre>enting the five Orders of 
Architecture — the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, 
and Composite. 

In removing the garments from his body, the 
trowel presented itself with all the tools of operative 
Masonry, besides all the emblems pertaining to the 
degree of a Master Mason. Conspicuously on his 
left breast were the Lights of Masonry. Over his 
heart was the Pot of Incense. On other parts of 
his body, were the bee-hive, the book of constitu- 
tions, guarded by the Tyler's sword; the sword 
pointing to a naked heart; the all-seeing eye; the 
anchor and ark; the hour glass; the forty-seventh 
problem of Euclid; the sun, moon, stars, and comet; 
the three steps, emblematical of youth, manhood and 
old age. Admirably executed was the weeping 
virgin reclining on a broken column upon which lay 
the book of the constitutions. In her left hand she held 
the Pot of Incense — emblem of a pure heart — and in 
her uplifted hand a sprig of acacia — the emblem of 
the immortality of the soul. Immediately beneath 
her stood winged Time with his scythe by his side 
— which cuts the brittle thread of life — and the hour 
glass at his feet — which is ever reminding us that 
our lives arc withering away. The withered and 
attenuated fingei's of the destroyer were delicatel3' 
placed amid the long and gracefully flowing ringlets 
of the disconsolate woman. Thus were the striking 
emblems of mortality and immortality beautifully 
blended in one pictorial representation. 

It was a spectacle such as Masons never saw before 
and in all probability such as the fraternity will 
?icver witness again. A large concourse attended 
the burial. The impressive service of the craft was 
read; the sprig of acacia was dropped into the grave 
by the hands of men from all quarters of the globe; 
the grand honors were given, and the stranger was 
entombed in the last resting-place alloted to man- 
kind. His name was never known. 



In October, 1849, as told in the " Annals of San 
Francisco," a convention assembled in San Francisco 
and organized a lodge under a charter, dated Novem- 
ber 9, 1848, which had been granted by the " Grand 
Lodge of the District of Columbia " to Messrs. Levi 
Stowell, \Vm. Van Voorhies, and B. F. McDonald, 
that the}' might accomplish this object when they 
should arrive in California. This was entitled " Cali- 
fornia Lodge, No. 13," subsequently California Lodge, 
No. 1, and consisted of about twenty members, whose 
first officers were: — 

Levi Stowell, Esq., of Washington City, Worship- 
ful Master; A. Bartol, Esq., of Columbus, Ohio, Senior 
Warden; Col. John W. Geary, of Westmoreland 
County, Pennsylvania, Junior Warden; Dr. John H. 
Gihon, of Philadelphia, Secretary, and A. A. Selo- 
ver, of New York, Treasurer. 

GRAND LODGE OF CALIFORNIA. 

Other lodges acting under similar charters were 
in several parts of the State, and the expediency of 
organizing a Grand Lodge was eai'netly considered 
early in 1850 by prominent members of the Order. 
As a consequence the following call was published 
in the Placer Times of Sacramento, April 6, 1850: — 

Sacramento, April 5, 1850. 

At a meeting of the Worshipful Masters of the 
following lodges of A. Y. Masons, held at the 
Masonic Hall, in Sacramento City, on the 5th day of 
April, 1850, A. L. 5850, viz:— 

Brother John A. Tutt, Connecticut Lodge, No. 75; 

Brother Sarshall Woods, Western Star Lodge, 
No. 98; 

Brother Wm. M. Doughty, New Jersey Lodge, 
U. D.; 

Brother B. D. Hyam, Benicia Lodge, U. D.; 

On motion it was 

Resolved, That it is deemed expedient to form a 
Grand Lodge in this State, and that a Convention be 
held for that purpose on the 17th of April, 1850, at 
the citj' of Sacramento. Also, that all regular 
lodges of A. Y. Masons of the State of California, 
and all Present and Past Grand officei's be invited to 
attend said Convention. 

Resolved, That the above proceedings be published 
forthwith in the ditferent newspapers of San Fran- 
cisco and Sacramento City. 

It was further 

Resolved, That Brother Wm. M. Doughty be 
empowered to forward a copy of the above resolu- 
tions to every and all legally constituted lodges 
throughout the State who are not here represented, 
to meet with us in said convention. 

Sarshall Woods, Chairman. 

In obedience to this call and invitation representa- 
tives from the four lodges above mentioned, also 
California Lodge, No. 13, of San Francisco, assem- 
bled in convention at Sacramento April 17, 1S50, 
and remained in session until the 19th. The organ- 
ization was completed on the 18th, and the first 
regular meeting of the Grand Lodge was held on the 
19th. The Ibllowiiig were the first officers: Col. 
Jonathan D. Steven.son, M. W. Grand Master; John 
A. Tutt, \i. W. Deputy Grand Master; Caleb Fennor, 



304 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Senior Grand Warden; Sarshall Woods, Junior Grand 
Warden; John H. Gihon, M. D., Grand Secretary; 
Levi Stowoll, Grand Treasurer; B. D. Hyam, W. 
Senior Deacon; E. J. Willis, Grand Junior Deacon; 
Simon Groenwalt, Grand Steward ; Aaron GreenwaU, 
Grand Steward; G. P. Gordon, Grand Marshal; Wm. 
Davenport, Grand Standard Rearer; B. B. Gore, 
Grand Sword Bearer; W. G. Deale, Grand Champion; 
Frederick A. Clark, Grand Tyler. 

In the summer of 1850 " San Francisco Royal 
Arch Chapter" was established under a charter 
from the " General Grand Chapter of the United 
States," of which Col. John W. Geary was first High 
Priest, and Dr. John H. Gihon was first Secretary. 

The '' Knights Templars" opened an Encampment 
in San Francisco on the 20th of December, 1853. 

California Lodge, of San Francisco, bears the title 
of No. 1 in the Masonic Order in this State, but there 
are charters of earlier date. The Western Star 
Lodge was granted a charter by the Grand Lodge 
of Missouri, which bore date May 10, 18'18, but was 
not organized until October 30, 18-10, then at a place 
bearing the name of Benton City, or Reading Springs, 
now Shasta. The charter number of this Lodge was 
98, but at the oi-ganization of the Grand Lodge of 
California it kindly relinquished the honor of pre- 
cedence to the more influential organization of the 
metropolis, and accepted the designation of No. 2. 

Connecticut Lodge, No. 75, now Tehama Lodge, 
No. 3, of Sacramento, bore a charter from the Grand 
Lodge of Connecticut, bearing date of January 31, 
1849, A. L. 5849, granting full power to Caleb Fen- 
ner, W. M. James, W. Goodrich, S. W., and Blizur 
Hubbell, J. W., to open and continue a Lodge in the 
Territory of California. This was opened in Sacra- 
mento on the 8lh of January, 1850, b}' Caleb Fenner, 
and continued in successful operation under that 
aiilhoritj' and name until the establishment of the 
Grand Lodge of California.* 

MASONRY IN PLACER COUNTY. 

Masonry is presumed to have had its representa- 
tives in Placer County with the first inflow of gold- 
hunters, as the brethren were numerous among the 
pioneers. With the aid of the mystic signs they 
made themselves known to each other, and could 
thus commune in mutual joy, sympathy, and frater- 
nity. When the stability of the people became suffi- 
ciontly marked and associations had ripened into 
friendships, knowledge of each other, and into 
society, the time had arrived for the organization of 
lodges of the Order. 

EUREKA LODGE, NO. 16. 

In and about Auburn were many of the Masonic 
Order from the days of 18-19, but not until 1851 did 
they organize a lodge. The first in the county was 
Eureka Lodge, No. 16, instituted at Auburn on the 
7th day of November, 1851, under charter from the 

Tljompson & West's History of Saci-aincnto, jiagf 15'J. 



Grand Lodge of California, with the following charter 
members: Lisbon Applegate, John Nye, W. G. 
Monroe, A. P. Joslin, James Bowen, J. R. Crandall, 
Colonel McDonald, B. F. Myres, Wm. M. Jordan, 
N. O. Hinman, and J. D. Fry. 

The Masonic Hall at Auburn was dedicated by the 
Eureka Lodge on the anniversary of St. .John the 
Baptist, June 24, 1853. Rev. O. C. Wheeler delivered 
an address in Mechanics' Hall, immediately after the 
dedicatory exercises. In the evening a grand ball 
was given at the Empire Hotel, under the manage- 
ment of H. R. Hawkins, .James Bowen, H. T. Holmes, 
Tabb Mitchell, M. P. H. Love, Philip W. Thomas, 
.James E. Stewart, and H. O. Ryerson. 

Of former officers, there were elected December 
17, 1855, the following: Moses Hyneman, W. M.; 
M. P. H. Love, S. W.; P. W. Thomas, J. W.; H. R. 
Hawkins, Secretary; H. T. Holmes, Treasurer, and 
D. Davidson, Tyler. 

December 20, 1858, the following were elected: 
J. R. Crandall, W. M.; James Rodgers, S. W.; S. E. 
Roussin, J. W.; S. E. Barrett, Secretary, and John 

C. Boggs, Treasurer. 

December 29, 1859, E. H. Vandecar, W. M.; S. E. 
Barrett, S. W.; E S. Roussin, J. W.; Jacob Feldberg, 
Treasurer; F. B. Higgins, Secretary, and M. P. H. 
Love, Tyler. 

December 27, 1860, E. H. Vandecar, W. M.; B. C. 
Allen, S. W.; Alvin S. Higgins, J. W.; John C. 
Boggs, Treasurer; George Johnson, Secretary; 
Thomas B. Harper and Peter Harrison, Stewards, 
and E. G. Smith, Tyler. 

December 18, 1869, W. B. Lyon, W. M.; O. W. 
HoUenbeck, S. W.; Charles Hell wig, J. W.; Frank 
Lux, Treasurer; J. R. Crandall, Secretary; C. C. 
Crosby, S. D.; Wm. Barter and J. M. White, Stew- 
ards; Wm. M. Crutcher, Marshal, and Thomas 
.Jamison, Tyler. 

December 17; 1874, 0. W. HoUenbeck, W. M ; J. 
M. Fulweiler, S. W.; Thomas Dickinson, J. W.; 

D. W. Lubeck, Treasurer; (/. C. Crosby, Secretary; 
.John R. Winders, S. D.; Grifiith Griffith, J. D.; W. 
B. McGuire and W. G. Greene, Stewai-ds; John M. 
White, Tyler. 

Officers installed December 27, 1881, St. John's 
Day, by P. M., J. G. Bisbee, assisted by J. M. Jacobs, 
Master of Ceremonies: O. W. HoUenbeck, W. M.; 
J. M. Fulweiler, S. W.; J. E. H. Elfendahl, J. W.; 
W. B. McGuire, Secretary; D. W. Lubeck, Treasurer; 
W. L. Moore, J. D.; James Borland and John C. 
15 .ggs. Stewards; J. R. Willis, Tyler. Past Masters, 
Moses Hyneman, E. H. Vandecar, J. R. Crandall, 
J. H. Neff, W. B. Lyon, O. W. HoUenbeck, Charles 
J. Hell wig, E. F. Holle, Elias L. McClure, J. G. 
Bisbee. Number of present Master Masons, forty-one, 
undone Fellowcraftsman. Stated meetings Saturday 
of or next procoding full moon. 

GOLD HILL LODGE, NO. 32. 

Tbe second organization in Placer was Gold Hill 
Lodge, No. 32, which obtained its charter from the 



-.^>6^^^^ 




(k^ttc^yi.LK^J)(^ 



SOCIETIES. 



30.5 



Grand Lodge of California, May 5, 1853, with the 
following charter members: James B. Henderson, 
Benjamin L. Heath, D. V. Mason, E. S. Roussin, 
Samuel McClure, Wm. E. Roberts, and W. VV. Caper- 
ton. There were nineteen Master Masons at the 
organization of the lodge at Gold Hill in 1853. 

The officerr* elected December 1, 1855, wore .1. B. 
Henderson, \V. M.; B. L. Heath, S. W. ; J. W. Spann, 
J. W.; D. V. Mason, Secretary;. J. B. Holcomh, 
Treasurer; E. L. Huneycutt, Tyler. 

December 5, 1858, the following were elected: 
B. F. Heath, W. M.; J. W. Spann, S. W.; M. Wal- 
dron, J. W.; James Holcomb, Treasurer; H. W. 
Starr, Secretary, and W. S. C. Woods, Tyler. 

December 17, 1860: Jaraea E. Stewart, W. M.; 
Henry W. Starr, S. W.; Julius Malsh, J. \V.; Samuel 
McClure, Treasurer; Isaac Stonecipher, Secretary; 
D. V. Mason, S. D.; L. B. Daniels, J. D., and M. 
Waldron, Tyler. 

December 5, 1865; T. B. Harper, W. M.; Henry 
VV. Starr, S. W. ; George Small, J. W.; Isaac Stone- 
cipher, Secretary; M. Waldron, Treasurer; B. C. 
Evans, S. D.; H. Lohse, J. 1)., and J, T. Manter, 
Tyler. 
I This lodge was subsequently removed to Lincoln, 
I where it is now located. The ofR 'ers elected iti 
i December, 1874 were: H. C. Curtis, W. M.; James 
1 B. Young, S. VV.; E. J. Sparks, J. VV.; Wm. Ingram, 
I Treasurer; A. C. Flemming, Secretary; Isuuc Slone- 
! ci))her, S. D.; John Haenny, J. I).; VV. B. Robinson 
I and T. S. E wing, Stewards; T. B. Harper, Marshal, 
' and George Dysert, Tyler. 

Officers for 1880: Edmund Jones Spark-t, VV. M.; 
James Striplin, S. W.; J. U. Crosby, J. W.; Wm. 
Ingram, Treasurer; John Haenny, Secretary; C. H. 
Hoppert, S. D. ; James F. Guthrie, J. D. ; Oliver 
Perry Richardson and Lorenzo Dow Nash, Stew- 
ards, and Thomas Burrill Harper, Tj'ler. 

Past Masters: J. B.Henderson. Benjamin L. Heath, 
D. V. Mason, James E.Stewart, T. B. Harper, Isaac 
Stonecipher, H. C. Curtis, Mahlon Waldron, James 
Edgar Young, Edmund J. Sparks, Chrislo|)her C. 
Sanders. 

Number of Master Masons in 1880. thirty. Stated 
meetings, Saturday of or next preceding full moon. 

MICHIGAN CITY LODGE, NO. 47. 

Located at Michigan Bluff"; was instituted under 
charter from the Grand Lodge of California, dated 
May 3, 1854. This, for a number of years, was a 
■ very prosperous lodge, having in 1860 over forty 
members. In 1880 the membership was forty-four. 
The officers for the last named year were: P. N. 
Juergenson, Master; John Tickell, S. W.; F. VV^. 
Lament, J. W.; Walter Willey, Treasurer; C. S. 
Montgomery, Secretary; VV. C. Shain, S. D.; Julian 
Boesinger, J. D.; Patrick McHale, Marshal; G. R. 
Cowan and Henry Williams, Stewards, and Samuel 
M. Huff'aker, Tyler. 

Past Masters: Benjamin Dulaney Dunnam, J. T 



Higbee, Warren Cassius Shain. Peter Nicoloi Juer- 
genson. Stated meetings, Saturday of or next pre- 
ceding full moon. 

On the 24th of June, 1856, this lodge, assisted by 
Rising Star Lodge, No. S3, of Todd's Valley, cele- 
brated St. John the Baptist's Day at Michigan Bluff". 
A procession was formed at Masonic Hall at the 
hour of 4 o'clock p. .m., and proceeded to the Union 
Church, where the regular exercises were opened 
by prayer by Chaplain Taylor, after which an 
eloquent oration was delivered by B. T. Buckley. 
After the usual exercises at the church, the proces- 
sion marched to the store formerly occupied by H. 
T. Buckley, Esq., where was prepared a luxurious 
repast. This Lodge occupied its new hall at Michi- 
gan Bluff" January 24, 1858, the officers at that time 
being, J. T. Higbee, W. M.; P. D. Butler, S. W.; D. 
Taggart, J. W.; Jacob Levin, Treasurer, and F. E. 
Noble, Secretary. 

ILLINOISTOWN LODGE, NO 51. 

Was instituted under charter from the Grand 
Lodge of California, dated May 3, 1854, with the fol- 
lowing charter members: J. Jones, J. M. Collier, 
J. T.^Burdge, J. Hill, E. J. Brickell, J. M. Fritz, 
J. W^. Cook, Charles Rice, Joshua Bigham, George 
Everhart, and J. W. Thomson. 

The lodge was located at lUinoistown until 1868, 
when Colfax absorbed the ancient town. June 24, 
1868, the lodge dedicated its new hall in due form. 
A procession was formed and, headed by the cornet 
band of Sacramento, marched through the principal 
streets of the town to the hall, where an address was 
delivered by Judge MeKune. The procession again 
formed and repaired to the railroad depot, where 
addresses were delivered by Hon. Aaron A. Sargent, 
of Nevada, and Rev. J. E. Benton, of Dutch Flat. In 
the evening a grand ball was given, which was 
attended by 175 couples. 

The officers for 1880 were: Morris Lobner, Master; 
William Benjamin, S. W.; Thomas Hooper, J. W.; 
W. B. Hayford, Treasurer; Wm. B. Storej^ Secre- 
tary; P. II. Maginn, S. D.; Leland Cadjen, J. D.; 
William Rowe and W. A. Himes, Stewards; Darius 
Ingersol, Tyler. 

Past Masters: (reo. W. Applegate, James P. Ilodg- 
don, W. A. Himes, Wm. Benjamin, Morris Lobner, 
Wm. B. Storey, Wm. B. Hayford. Number of Mas- 
ster Masons, thirty-one. Stated meetings, Saturday 
of or next preceding full moon. 

RISING STAR LODGE, NO. S3. 

Was instituted at Todd's Valley on the 8th of 
May, 1856, under charter from the Grand Lodge of 
California, with the following-named charter mem- 
bers: J. W. Harville, J. M. Hackett, Arteraas Baker, 
L. Worsburg, G. M. Martin, S. S. Willard, W. R. 
White, W. T. McGinnis, John Dogen, G. VV. Decker, 
and T. M. Todd. 

This lodge is now located at Forest Hill. The 



39 



30J 



HISTORY OF PLACER CX)UNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



first officers were J. \V. llarville, W. M.; Martin 
Hoover, S. W.; John M. Minor, J. W.; S. S. Wil- 
liams, Treasurer; Wni. Rufus Longley, Secretary; 
I). P. Marshall, S. D.; Albert Knapp and R. O. 
Cravens, Stewards; and H. E. JSIewman, Tyler. 

On the 2(;th of December, the day of St. John the 
Evangelist, the members of the lodge dedicated their 
new and handsome hall at Todd's Valley. The ora- 
tion was delivered by Dr. J. R. Crandall, of Auburn. 
After the exercises of the day, the fraternity repaired 
to the Long Island House and partook of a sumptu- 
ous repast. 

The following officers were then installed: W. 
Rufus Longley, VV. M.; M. Hoover, S. W.; D. J. 
Baker, J. W.; J. W. llarville. Secretary; iVrtemas 
Baker, S. 1).; J. Follensbee, J. D. 

In ISGO the officers were Josejjh S. Follensbee, W . 
M.; N. Benedict, S. VV.; H. Ott, .J. \V.; S. S. Wil- 
lard, Treasurer; R. O. Cravens, Secretary; W. R. 
Longley, S. D.; J. F. Smith, J. I).; A. Baker and P. 
Powell, Stewards; G. \V. Decker, Marshal, and VV. S. 
Shields, Tyler. 

In 1875 the officers were: F. W. Allen. W. M.; K. 
Allen, S. W.; James Hodgos, J. \Y.- A. H. Cowden, 
Treasurer; A. Mclveiiley, Secretarj'; ('. Trafton, S. 
D.; C. Volland, J. D.; W. R. White and L. Blumen- 
thal, Stewards; J. F. Smith, Marshal, and Andrew 
Morehead, Tyler. The lodge was then located at 
Forest Hill and had forty-six members. 

In 1880 the officers were Erskinc Allen, W. M.; 
Jame.s Hod^'es, S. VV. ; Charles H. Drury, J. W.; 
Christian Volland, Treasurer; Andrew Morehead, 
Secretary; Charles Trafton. S. D. ; J. H. Armstrong, 
J. D.; Thomas Scott, Marshal; J. M. Landers and 
Peyton Powell, Stewards, and Joel F. Smith, Tyler. 

Past Masters: J. W. Harville, \Vm. Rufus Long- 
le}', J. S. Follensbee, F. W. Allen, James R. Clover, 
Jacob W. Byrd, Plrskine Allen. Membership, thirty- 
eight. 

WISCONSIN II ILL LODGE, NO. 74. 

Was instituted in June, 1855, under charter from 
the Grand Lodge of California, dated May .3, 1855, 
and on Saturday, the 23d of June, the officers were 
installed, and the lodge consecrated and dedicated 
with appropi'iate ceremonies at Wisconsin Hill. 
The lodge has surrendered its charter. 

CLAY LODdE, NO. lUl . 

Is located at Dutch Flat, and was instituted May 
8, 1856, under charter from the Grand Lodge of Cal- 
ifornia, with the following charter members: J. H. 
Montgomery, George Rishie, E. Hogan, M. S. Gard- 
ner, E. L. Bradley, Isaac Gill, J. A. Beal, S. Hey- 
man, Jacob Schubert, and J. M. Fritz. 

The lodge has a fine hall located on !\lain Street, 
and built shortlj' after the society was organized. 

The officers in 18(i() were: S. B. Harriman, W. M.; 
Thos. Pattinson, S. W.; L. D. Kopp, J. W.; E. L. 
Bradley, Treasurer; B. F. Mooro, Secretary; .1. S. 
Bloom, S. D.; J. C.Lillie, J. D.; J. Moultor, Tyler. 



In 1875 the officers were: E. M. Thomas, W. M.; 
George H. Davidson, S. VV.; Noble Martin, J. W.; 
Isaac T. Coffin, Secretary; M. S. Gardner, Treas- 
urer; Geo. C. Cabot, S. D. ; Benjamin Floyd, J. D. ; 
Thos. J. Nichols and David Rose, Stewards; C. M. 
Kopp, Marshal; V. Curren, Tyler. Number of 
members, sixty-one. 

The officers in 1880 were: S. E. Swenson, W. M.; 
Henry Disque, S. W.;^ Alex. Drynen, J. W.; H. R. 
Hudepohl, Treasurer; J. M. Knight, Secretary; E. 
M. Thomas, S. I).; J. S. Floyd, J. D.; C. M. Kopp, 
Marshal; D. M. Eshbach and W. Fred. Michel, Stew- 
ards, and Isaac T. Coffin, Tyler. Number of mem- 
bers, fifty-five. 

Past Masters: L. I). Kopp, B. F. Moore, Samuel B. 
Harriman, Thomas Pattinson, Jehoiakim Jones, I. T. 
Coffin, VVm. H. Kruger, N. W. Blanchard, A. G 
Olliver, E. M. Thomas, Charles M. Kopp, S. Ed. 
Swenson. 

IONIC LonclE, NO. 121. 

Ijocatcd at Iowa Hill; was instituted October 
15, 1857, under charter from the (xrand Lodge of 
California, with the following charter members: E. 
II. Vandocar, Thomas P. Slade, W. C. Rich, George 
E. Smith, John C. Simpson, J. M. Power, J. H. Neff, 
and J. Stockwell. 

Officers in 1875: J. J. Rich, W. M.; James Ross, S. 
W.; John G. Bisbee, J. VV. ; J. B. Carder, Secretary; 
J. W. Chinn, Treasurer; J. H. Mitchell, S. D.; W. F. 
Gould, J. D. : J. P. Jost and Edward Mitchell, Stew- 
ards; John Butler. Marshal, and A. L. Leighton, 
Tyler. Number of members, thirty-five. 

Officers in 1880: Wm. G. Wolfe, W. M.; Garrett 
Booth, S. W.; John Beaugarde Hobson, J. W.; 
James Weaks Chinn, Treasurer; Albert P. Smiley, 
Secretary; Ed. Geo. Spencer, S. D.; Chester Hack- 
ett, J. D. ; Jamas B. Carder, Marshal; J. J. Rich and 
Henry Hammill, Stewards, and John VV. Myrick, 
Tyler. Number of members, thirty-six. Stated 
meetings Wednesday of or next preceding full moon. 

ORANITE LODGE, NO. 222. 

Located at Roeklin; was instituted July 24, 1872, 
under charter from the Grand Lodge of California, 
with the following named charter members: J. T. 
Kinkade, J. A. Lindsey, John Sweeney, W. D. Per- 
kins, George Bailey, James Hanley, B. F. Smith. A. 
H. Scheutze, N. S. Page. Aaron Harrison and Samuel 
Trott. 

Officers in 1875: J. T. Kinkade, W. M.; W. F. 
Schuetzc, S. W.; John M. Connor, J. W.; John Muir, 
Treasurer; Z. Bates, Secretary; S. E. Webster, S. D.; 
Isidor Levinson, J. D.; J. G. Booth and Geo. Hoath. 
Stewards; Lewis Curl, Tyler. Number of members, 
twenty-three. 

Officers in 1880: John Sweeney, W. M.; J. W. 
Taylor, S. W.; Isidor Levin,son, J. W.; W. F. 
Sehuetzo, Treasurer; H. C. Curtis, Secretary; Jas. P. 
Burchard, S. D.; Edwin Purdy, J. D.; John Nye 



SOCIETIES. 



307 



Taylor, Marshal; Lewis Curl and A. N. Moore, 
Stewards; Ben. F. Smith, Tyler. 

Past Masters: J. T. Kinkade, VVm. Fred. Scbuetze, 
11. C. Curtis, and John Sweeney. Number of mem- 
bers, forty-three. Stated meetings, Monday of or 
next preceding full moon. 

TYRE LODGE, NO. 238. 

Located at Gold Run; was chartered by the (rrand 
Lodge of California October 14, 1875. 

Officers in 1876: Alexander G. Oliver, Master; 
Henry L. Lovejoy, S. W.; J. A. Stone, J. W.; Thorn- 
ton King, Treasurer; J. Y. Thomas, Secretary; Wm. 
King White, S. D.; Wra. G. Oliver, J. D.; Wm. Jones 
and H. L. Noyes, Stewards; Hans M. Dahl, Tyler. 

The officers in 1880 were: Alexander G. Oliver, 
Master; John Y. Thomas, S. W.; Henry L. Noyes, 
J. W.; George M. Chaney, Treasurer; Joel A. Stone, 
Secretary; Mark F. Noyes, S. D., Wm. Jones, J. D. ; 
James E. Woodward and Joseph Rogers, Stewards, 
and Wm. Henry White, Tyler. 

Past Masters: John W. Ritchie, A. G.Oliver, Wm. 
K. White, Joel A. Stone. Number of members, 
twenty-seven. Stated meetings, Thursday of or next 
preceding full moon. 

PENRYN LODCiE, NO. 258. 

Located atPenryn; was instituted under charter 
from the Grand Lodge of California, dated October 
15, ISSO. 

The officers in 188(1 were; Levant Markham, W. 
M.; J. Penpraze Mediand Phillips, S. W.; James 
Biekicson, J. W.; Griffith Griffith, Secretary; J. R. 
Little, Secretary; Hosea Taylor, S. D.; Wm. W. 
Tippins, J. D.; Wm. Cranley, .Marshal; Robert W. 
Roberts and Wm. W. Severance, Stewards; Robert 
Mathews Rowe, Tyler. 

Master Masons: Peter F. Caddy, Pierce C. Da 
Bois, A. B. Tippens, Jacob H. Free, John J.Hughes, 
John Jenkin, David Loyd, Charles Martin, Alex. 
McLennan, Owen R. Owens, Albert 11. Schuelze, 
Matts Sundholm, Edwin Tippet, Ira F. White; and 
Henry Nelson, Entered Apprentice. Number of 
members, twenty-six. Stated meetings, Thursday 
of or next preceding full moon. 

O. W. HOLLENBECK. 

Orrin Whitcomb Hollenbeck was born June 2, 
1832, in the town of South Egremont, Berkshire 
County, Massachusetts. His parents were Cyrus 
and Marinda (Dorman) Hollenbeck, both natives of 
Berkshire County, where the son was born. A sister 
of Mr. Hollenbeck, Marilla J., now the wife of 
George C. Benjamin, still lives on the old farm in 
Massachusetts, which has Been the homestead of 
the HoUenbecks since the county was redeemed 
from a wilderness. Here Orrin W. passed his boy- 
hood, following the usual course of youth in that 
land of industry, thrift, and study, obtaining his 
education and laying the foundation of life in the 



solid principles of self-reliance, integrity and honor 
that have marked his career. 

At the age of nineteen he assumed the responsibil- 
ities and duties of a school teacher, selecting for his 
field the county of Wj'oming, Pennsylvania, where 
he taught successfully through two terms. After 
closing his school in Penn.sylvania he returned, a 
triumphant young man, to his home in Massachu- 
setts, and after making a short visit accepted a posi- 
tion as teacher in New Jersey. This honorable 
calling he pursued until 1854, when he took passage 
by steamer and by Panama to California, arriving 
in San Francisco October 4th of that year. Passing 
the metropolis without delay, he sought his future 
home in the mountains of Placer County. His first 
location was at Mountain Springs, a few miles south- 
west of Dutch Flat, and near the present town of 
Gold Run. This was a lively mining camp, although 
the great hydraulic mines of the present were not 
then opened. Here he remained engaged in mining 
and other business until 1859, when he went to Little 
York, in Nevada County, where he continued the 
business of mining for about eighteen months, and 
then returned to his old stamping ground, having 
faith in the great gravel range that runs through 
Dutch Flat and Gold Run. 

He now entered upon a more extended business 
career. He believed that his Mountain Springs was 
as good a foundation for a town as Dutch Flat, 
Little York, or any of the towns on the gravel 
range, and, locating a tract of land, proceeded to 
lay out his town. Having done this, he erected a 
hotel and proceeded to make business and a town. 
His efforts in having a post-office established were 
crowned with success, and he was made postmaster 
in April, 1862. The place still bore the name of 
Mountain Springs, but in 1862 became officially 
known as Gold Run. Improvements in building up 
the new town and in constructing roads from it to 
the larger and the lesser towns surrounding Gold 
Run were encouraged and assisted by Mr. Hollen- 
beck, until he saw the village a fi.xed fact and a 
prosperous ti-ading and mining camp. This enter- 
prise led to its legitimate results by making business 
and increasing the value of his town-lot property. 

After continuing the hotel for four yeai-s he sold 
the property and established a variety store, still 
retaining the post-office. The construction of the 
Central Pacific Railroad, and the development of 
the Gold Run mines, increased business, and Mr. 
Hollenbeck was prosperous. 

From this, in 1867, he was called to serve his 
county, being nominated by the Republicans for the 
very important and responsible position of County 
Treasurer, and to this office he was elected over 
Col. Wm. McClure, a pioneer and one of the most 
popular Democrats in the county, Mr. Hollenbeck 
receiving the largest vote given, and about 100 
above the average of the ticket. This position 
necessitated his removal to Auburn, the county seat, 



308 



HISTORY OF PLACER COTTNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



where he has resided since early in 18fi8. To the 
same position he was re-elected, in 1869, receiving 
1.338 votes to his opponent's, Frank Lux, 1,268, and 
again in 1871, receiving 1,707 votes, and his oppo- 
nent, E. (J. W. Aibreeht, 1,306. These successive 
elections were a substantial testimonial in favor of 
his business qualifications and sterling integrity. 
In 1873 he was again nominated by his pai'ty, but 
by a combination of factions with the Democratic 
Party, his opponent, Mr. B. D. Dunnam, a Mexican 
War veteran and pioneer, was elected. 

Eetiring from office in 1874, he formed a partner- 
ship with Mr. Moses Andrews, one of Placer's oldest 
and most prominent citizens, for the purpose of a 
general banking business, purchasipg gold dust, etc. 
This firm is also the agent of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s 
Espi'ess, and through it a large amount of business 
is transacted. 

In politics, as well as business Mr. Hollenbeck has 
always been prominent and active. At heart and 
deeply seated are the great progressive principles of 
the Republican Party, and for these he has labored 
with indefatigable zeal and unflinching devotion at 
all times. As Secretary of the Republican County 
Central Committee, he has manifested an ability and 
skill as a manager that has gone far toward mak- 
ing the party triumphant when the greatest fears 
were apprehended. In his parly, as in society and 
business, he is a leader among men, and now. in 
the prime of life, while happily contemplating an 
honorably and successfully spent past, can look 
forward into the future with bright prospects. 

Mr. Hollenbeck is a prominent member of the 
Masonic Order, as his name often appears as officer 
of different grades in his lodge. In April, 1880, he 
was elected Junior Grand Warden of the Grand 
Lodge of the State of California. He is also Treas- 
urer in the Delta Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and 
of other societies, all evincing the trust reposed and 
the active part he takes in public and social affairs. 

The hapjjy event of his life, as all marriages are 
happy events, was his marriage with Mrs. Hester 
McLean, of Manchester, Nevv Hampshire, on tha 
16th of October, 1859. One son, Lincoln W.. born 
in 1865, blesses the union. 

lillV.M. .\K(JH .MASO.NS. 

The Royal Arch is an advanced order of Masonry 
derived from the York Branch, though dating their 
origin from the second building of Solomon's Temple, 
which date is obtained by adding 530 to the current 
year, or making 1881 the year2Ul a. i.or Au)w 
Inventionem (year of discovery). The officers are: 
High Priest, King, Scribe, Treasurer, Sccrelar}. Cap- 
tain of the Host, Principal Sojourner, Royal Arcli 
Captain, Masters of the Third, Second and Fjr-t 
Vails, and Guard. 

I.IBA.NIS CHAPTER, NO. 17. 

The tiisl of these chapters organized in I'lacer 
County was Libanus C'ha|)ter. No. 17, at Iowa Hill, 



on the 8th of May, 1857, under charter from the 
Grand Chapter of California, with the following 
charter members:* Squire Powell, J. W. Harville, 
Thos. P. Slade, H. W. Roberts, E. Hogan, M. S. 
Gardner, E. h. Bradley, J. C. Coleman, R. M. Trim, 
and G. Rudolph. 

At the first annual meeting, held December 14, 
1H57, the following officers were elected and installed : 
E. H. Vandeear, H. P.; Thomas P. Slade, K.; G. L. 
Hamlin, S.; G. Rudolph, C. of H.; J. C. Coleman, P. 
S.; J. F. Neff, R. A. C; J. C. Simpson, M. 3d V.; 
J. Stockwell, M. 2d V.; H. W. Roberts, M. 1st V.; W. 
A. Housel, Treasurer; W. C. Rich, Secretary; J. F. 
Vandivier, Guard. They were installed by J. W. 
Harville, P. H. P. 

December 17, 1858, the following were elected offi- 
cers: J.. I. Priest, M. E. H. P.; J.C.Coleman, E. K.; 
S. F. Vandivier, E. S.; J. F. Nett", C. H; J. Lancaster, 
P. S.; W. H. Patton, R. M. C; D. Q. Priest, M. 3d 
v.; J. C. Simpson, M. 2d V.: J. Dodds, M. 1st V.; H. 
W. Roberts, Treasurer; W. C. Rich, Secretary; W. 
H Woods. Guard. 

The officers for 1875 were: James Ross, H. P.; E. 
G. Si)encer, R.; J. M. Smith, S.; W. W. Poole, C. H.; 
J. ¥. Vandivier, P. S.; J. H. Mitchell, R. A. C; C. 
Hacket, M. 3d V.; J. P. Just, M. 2d V.; W F. Gould, 
M. 1st v.; John Schmidt, Treasurer; John Butler, 
Secretary, J. J. Rich, Guard. 

OLl\E CHAPTER, NO. 23. 

Was in-itituted at Todd's Valley, under dispensa- 
tion, June II, 1858. The following were its first offi- 
cers: J. W. Harville, M. E. 11. P.; John M. Minor, E. 
K; D. J. Baker, E. S.; Wm. R. Longley, C. H.; 
M:artin Hoover, P. S.; John Hatch, R. A. C; S. T. 
Leet, Higbee and Robinson, M. Vs. 

May 25, 1859, it received a charter from the Grand 
Chapter of Cilifonua, with the foUowini^ charter 
members: J. W. Harville. W. R. Longley, S.imuel T. 
Leet, R. O. Cravens. W. R. White, W. S. Stevens, G. 
W. Decker, J M. Minor, George Hoover, D. P. Mar- 
shall, J. F. Kirby. R. Corey, J. R. Glover, J. H. Gun- 
sell, D. J. B.iker, I). C. Scott, J. S. Follensbee, S. S. 
Willard, J. V\^ Waters, W. G. Montgomery, Henry 
Gooding and C. M. Peck. The chapter is now 
located at Forest Hill. 

The officers in 1875 were: A. H. Cowden, H. P.; 
T. N. llosnier, K.; Abraham Breece, S.; J. F. Smith, 
C. H ; F. W. Allen, P. S ; J. L. Welker, R. A. C; 
Peyton Powell, M. 3d V.; M. B. Tubb.s, M. 2d V.; 
John Tickle, M. 1st V ; W. R. While, Treasurer; J. 
R. Glover, Secretary. 

DELTA CHAPTER, NO. 27. 

Was organized al Auburn, May 17, I860, under 
charter from the Grand Chapter of California, with 
the following charter members: E. H. Vandeear, B. 
F. Myers, Henry Gooding, H. R. Hawkins, J. R. 
C^randall, Wm. Weld, Jas. R. Murphy, Jas. B. Stew- 

*The cluirter uieinliers and officers in 1875, herein given, are 
fioni the " Uii'eetiiry of I'laeer County " for )t)75. 



SOCIETIES. 



S09 



art, Alfred Spinks, L. KuUman, H. B. Waddilove, 
VVm. Timson, and D. C. Scott. 

The first officers were: B. H. Vandecar, M. E. H. 
P.; Benjamin P. Myres, K. K; Henry Gooding, E. S; 
Hiram R. Hawkins, 0. A. H,; John R. Crandall, P. 
S.; \Vm. Weld, R. A. C; VVm. Timson, M. 3d V.; N. 

B. Waddilove, M. 2d V.; L. Kallman, M. 1st V.; D. 

C. Scott, Secretary; James E. Stewart, Treasurer; 
James R. Murphy, Guard. 

Jn 18G1 its officers were: E. H. Vandecar, H. P.; 
B. F. Myers, K.; Henry Goodiiiir, S.; D. C. Scott, C. 
H.; J. R. Ci-andall, P. S.; \Vm. Weld, U. A. C; Wm 
Timson, M. Hd V.; A. Spinks, M. 2d V.; L. Kullman, 
M. Ist v.; H. R. Hawkins, Secretary; Jas. E. Stew- 
art, Treasurer; E. G. Smith, Guard. The chapter 
then contained thirty Royal Arch Masons. 

On the 14th of December, 1865, the following were 
elected officers: B. F. Myers, H. P.; J. R. Crandall, 
K.; Thomas Jamison, S.; Samuel Beck, C. H.; T. B. 
Harper, P. S.; Mack Webber, R. A. C; D. W. 
Lubeck, Secretary; William Sexton, Treasurer, and 
J. V. Wardwell, Isaac Stoneeipher, and Wm. K. 
Creque, Masters of the Vails. 

At a meeting held at their hall in Auburn, Decem- 
ber 10, 1809, the following were installed as officers 
for the ensuing year: J. R. Crandall, High Priest; J. 
V. Wardwell, King; Chas. J. Hellwig, Scribe; T. B. 
Harper, Captain of the Host; Isaac Stoneeipher, 
Principal Sojourner; J. D. Pratt, Royal Arch Cap- 
tain; G. W. Applegate, Master 3d Vail; B. F. Myres, 
Master 2d Vail; Thomas Jamison, Master 1st Vail; 
John McBride, Secretary; D. W. Lubeck, Treasurer; 
Lsaac Brodriek, Guard. 

The officers elected December 17, 1S81, were: J. 
G. Bisbee, H. P.; George Washington Applegate, K.; 
J. R. Winders, S.; D. W. Lubeck, Secretary; O. W. 
Hollenbeck, Treasurer; C. H. Graham, C. of H.; J. 
M. Fulweiler, P. S ; B D. Dunnam, M. 3d V.; James 
Borland, M. 2d V.; W. L. Moore, M. Ist V.; R. W. 
Roberts, Guard, and T. M. Todd, Organist. 

On the 27th of December these were duly installed 
by P. H. P., J. T. Kinkade, assisted by R. F. Rooney. 

Past High Priests: E. H. Vandecar, B. F. Myres, 
Dr. J. R. Crandall, C. J. Hellwig. J. T. Kinkade, J. 
G. Bisbee. 

SILOAM CH.4PTER, NO. 37. 

Located at Colfax; was instituted March 30, 1809, 
under charter from the Grand Chapter of California, 
with the following named charter members: J. H. 
Neff, E. L. Bradley, M, S. Gardner, 1. T. Coffin, J. 
H. Lakamp, Wm. Endean, A. G. Oliver, J. Y. Thomas, 
James Holmes, B. Mur|)hy, and R. J. Tolraan. 

The offi(u-rsin 1875 were: J. H. Neff, H. P; A. G. 
Oliver, K; W. A. Himes, S.; 1. T. Coffin, C. H.; W. 
B. Osborn, P. S.; L. Lobner, R. A. C; O. K. Cloud- 
man. M. 3d v.; James Cook, M. 2d V.; W. S. Makins, 
M. 1st V ; W. B. Playford, Treasurer; M. Lobner. 
Secretary; J. P. Hodgdon, Guard. 



CAPT. MELVIN S. GARDNER. 

This gentleman was born in Bowdoinham, Saga- 
dahoc County, Maine, December 12, 1814. At the 
age of nineteen years he entered upon a seafaring 
life, which he followed until 1849, at which time he 
resolved to seek his fortune in the " far West." He 
joined the Knickerbocker Company, which left New 
York on the 5th of February, 1849. Their route was 
across the plains, and their journey was long and 
tedious, and they suffered the usual privations inci- 
dent to such a trip in early days. He arrived in 
San Francisco, (California, October 25th, which places 
him in the list of 49ers. Soon after his arrival he 
engaged in mining, first at Coloma, and subsequently 
itt Yankee Jim's and Iowa Hill. In 1854 he located 
in Dutch Flat, and joined E. L. Bradley in introduc- 
ing water into that camp for minlnii purposes. 
Success crowned their labors, and the Dutch Flat 
^Vater Company was well and favorably known in 
Placer County for many years. In 1857, Captain 
Gardner visited his old home and married Priscilla F. 
Hough, a native of Lebanon, New Hampshire. By 
this union there were two daughters, both living at 
the present time. His wife died in 1860. In 1803, 
be returned to Dutch Fl^t. One year later he went 
East again, and was united in marriage to Miss 
Abhie E. Adams, a native of Bowdoinham, Maine. 
Two children were born to them, a daughter and 
son, the former dying in infancy. In 1872 the Dutch 
Flat Water Company sold its interests to the Cedar 
Creek Company. The pi-operty was valuable, embrac- 
ing a large amount of fine hydraulic ground, in con- 
nection with the ditches. Ca|)tain Gardner after- 
wards purchased Spring Brook Ranch in Los Gatos, 
Santa Clara County, and planted an extensive almond 
orchard, one of the largest in the State. By the 
death of Captain Gardner, which occurred November 
27, 1878, of heart disease, the community lost one 
of their most esteemed citizens. In him the public 
school and church ever found a friend. In eai'Iy 
life he made a profession of religion and united with 
the Baptist Church. 

ORDER OF THE EASTERN STAR. 

This is an Order of which only a Master Mason, or 
his wife, mother, widow, sister, or daughter can 
become members. The Order was first established 
in France in 1730, and in the United States at a 
much later date, when it flourished as a Masonic side 
degree, or Ado])tion Kite, until 1855, when the Order 
of Eastern Star, as now conducted, was established. 
The designation is usually O. E S. The officers are: 
Worthy Matron, Worthy Patron, Associate Matron, 
Conductress, Associate Conductress, Treasurer, Sec- 
retary, Adah, Ruth, Ksthcr, Martha, Electa, Warder, 
and Sentinel. 

CRYSTAL CHAPTER, NO. 58. 

Is located at Auburn. At the meeting of the 
Chapter on the lOlh of November, 1881, the follow- 



310 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ing officers were elected: Mrs. Julia M. Lubeck. 
W. M.; James G. Bisbee, W. P.; Mrs. Mary Fulweiler, 
A. M.; J. R. VV^inders, Secretary; C. J. Hell wig, 
Treasurer; Mrs. Elizabeth Willis, C; Isabella Boggs, 
A. C; Julia E. Holle, Adah; Mary Ann McGuire, 
Ruth; Miunetta W. Bisbee, Esther; T. Holle, Electa; 
J. M. Fulweiler, Chaplain; Levesa C Boggs, W ; F. 
P. Grohs, S. 

INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS. 

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as it at 
present exists throughout the world, is an American 
institution of the present centuiy, although the Order 
of Odd Fellows existed in England long anterior to 
the organization in this country. The object of the 
early English organization appeared to be more for 
conviviality than benevolence and the advancement 
of the social condition. The members recognized 
each other in a way mysterious to the public, 
and acted so singularly that they were given 
the name of "odd fellows," which long usage 
made the name of the society. In the early 
part of this century Thomas Wildey emigrated 
from England to this country. He had belonged to 
an Odd Fellows' Lodge in his native land, and 
desired to institute a similar institution in the land 
of his adoption. For this purpose he applied for 
the proper authority from the organization he had 
left, but failed to get it. He therefore determined 
to proceed independently, and, then a resident of 
Baltimore, Mai-yland, advertised in the papers of that 
city for any of the Order to meet at a public house 
in Baltimore, known as the "Seven Stars." Pursu- 
ant to that notice there met on the 26th day of 
April, 1819, five persons, to wit, Thomas Wildey, 
John Welch, John Duncan, John (jheatbem, and 
Richard Rushworth, and there on that day organ- 
ized the "Independent Order of Odd Fellows," distin- 
guishing it from the "Order of Odd Fellows" of Eng- 
land, being organized without a charter or dispensa- 
tion from any Grand or older organization. With 
the ex])anded ideas and nobler aspirations that seem 
to inspire all people as they are transplanted to the 
free soil and free institutions of the Great Republic, 
so did the founders of Odd Fellowship in America 
view the greater field, and prepared their institution 
for a wider and nobler scope, with "Faith, Hope and 
Charity" as its watchwords. With the organization 
of the Order, at the same time and place, was 
organized 

WASHINGTON LODtiE, NO. 1. 

This was a worthj^ name for the first lodge of that 
Order that was to be in the gre:it future first in love, 
first in chai'ity, and first in cementing the brotherhood 
of man. The officers and members of this lodge were: 
Thos. Wildey, N. G.; John Welch, V. G.; John Duncan, 
John Cheathem and Richard Rushworth. This was 
a small beginning — it« survival was doubtful, and the 
full scope of its object and powers not fully com- 



prehended. For many years the growth was slow, 
but the foundation was solid, the object noble, the 
association fi-aternal, and the benefits so real, tangi- 
ble, and substantial that when it became fully known, 
the prejudice against secret orders removed, then 
the growth was rapid, until now the membership has 
grown. to half a million men, and its charities have 
called for over $27,000,000. The hallt,, lodges, 
encampments and libraries are in every town of 
importance in the land, and its charities are every- 
where. 

In 1821 a convention was held in the same city, on 
the 7th of February, for the purpose of forming a 
Grand Lodge. That, because of some obstructions, 
failed to produce the desired result until the ensuing 
22d of May, when that old pioneer lodge surren- 
dered its charter and received one from the Duke of 
York Lodge of England, and became subordinate to 
the general head in America. The Grand Lodge of 
the LTnited States was formed February 22, 1825, at 
which time there were but nine subordinates on the 
continent; and in 1828 the number of the Order was 
first stated, there being given at the time but 568 as 
the result of a growth of nine years. Ten years 
later, the total amount paid out for relief of 
of members that year was §4,505.85. From such a 
beginning has developed that grand beneficiary influ- 
ence among men, the magnitude of which can best be 
realized by glancing at the subjoined statistics com- 
piled from reports of grand and subordinate bodies 
under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge: — 

THE ORDER IN 1878. 

Grand Lodges - - 50 

Subordinate Lodges ._.6,975 

Rebekah Degree Lodges . . 734 

Grand Encampments 1,863 

Lodge initiations. 33,860 

Lodge members 442.291 

Encampment members 82,408 

Relief by Lodges §1,553,726 70 

Relief by Encampments 177,180 69 

Relief by Rebekah Lodges . . , 9.498 29 

Total relief §1,740,405 68 

Revenue of Lodges __ ..83,814,126 98 

Revenue of Encampments 415,934 22 

Revenue of Rebekah Lodges. 36,925 32 

Total revenue §4,266,986 52 

The following is an exhibit of the operations of the 
entire Order, including Australia, Germany, etc.: — 

FRO-M 1830 TO DECE-MBER 31. 1878. 

Initiations 1 .094,965 

.Members relieved 859,126 

Widowed families relieved 115,127 

Members deceased 81,648 

Present membership 450,238 

Total relief. .§27,468,286 36 

Total receipts 73,504,918 00 



SOCIETIES. 



Ill 



ODD FELLOWSHIP IN CALIFORNIA. 

The first legitimate step to plant the seed of Odd 
Fellowship on this coast had its birth in the city of 
Philadelphia, a short time previous to January 12, 
1849, a chai-ior having been issued by the U. VV. 
Grand Sire, Hoen E. Knease. bearing the above date, 
and having on its face the names of Messrs. Samuel J. 
Torbet, Charles Justis, Frank M. Caldwell, George 
H. Weaver, John Willetts, and James Smiley, peti- 
titioners, and entitled " California Lodge, No. 1." 
Three of these brothers, with the books and papers, 
arrived in San Francisco on the 20th day of May, 
A. 1). 1849. 

The excitement attending the discovery of gold, 
and the many wild tales told of the immense rich- 
ness of the rivers and bars in the mountains, caused 
a portion of the brothers named to seek the glitter- 
ing ore in the interior of the State, and consequently 
deferred the organization of the Lodge. The books 
and papers were in the hands of Mr. James Smiley, 
who, with others zealous in the cause, persevered 
with the work until they had secured a sufficient 
number of brothers who were in possession of final 
cards to assist in making up the compliment of 
charter members required by the laws under which 
they had secured the charter. On the 9th day of 
September, just one year previous to the admission 
of the State into the Union, California Lodge, No. 
1, sprang into existence, Mr. James Smiley, acting 
under authority, instituting the lodge. 

Assisted by such books as are now in existence, we 
find that Col. R. H. Taylor was the first elected N. 
G.; H. W. Henly, V. G.; E. C. Franklin, Secretary, 
and John M. Coughlin, Treasurer; and Messrs. Julius 
Eose, Wm. Burling, J. N. Dall, David Jobson and 
Lewis Tremble, comprised the lodge, and are entitled 
to the honor of organizing the first lodge, and first 
planting the standard of charity and mutual relief 
on the shores of the Pacific. Although as early as 
1847, we have reason to suppose, there was an asso- 
ciation formed and working as a regularly organized 
lodge, having all the necessary paraphernalia, books, 
etc., to successfully carry on the work. This organ- 
ization was in successful operation until the discov- 
ery of gold in May, 1848. The members were 
seized with the excitement common to all citizens 
of the State, and concluded to suspend the working 
of the lodge, and all left for the mines. Previous to 
doing so, they destroyed the books, etc., to prevent 
them falling into improper hands, and packed the 
regalia away. Thus ended the first organization of 
the Order in California. 

IN PLACER COUNTY AUBURN LODGE, NO. 7. 

Auburn Lodge, No. 7, was instituted by P. G., Geo- 
I. N. Monell, under date of dispensation, October 7, 
1852. The fir^t officers were: Hansen Hazel, N.G.; 
J. B. Squire, V. G.; M. P. H. Love, Secretary; Rob. 
J. Fisher, Treasurer. The charter members were; 



James B. Squire, .John F. Scott, James Bowen, 
James E. Miller, and Hansen Hazel. 

Officers for term commencing January 1, 18S1, 
were: Amos Hinkle, N. G.; James D. Borland, V. 
G. ; J. H. Rittinger, Secretary; Wilson Hunt, Treas- 
urer. Past Grands: James Borland, Thomas Cain, 
M. Dodsworth, A. Fougeron, H. Gerlach, W. G. 
Greene, A. Holer, W. B. Lyon, G. W. McCreedy, 
John T. Reed, D. W. Spear, S. M. Stevens, J. W. 
Smith, H. Furley, John Walker, S. B. Woodin, John 
Young, S. VV. Willis, J. H. Sawyer, VV. B. Hughes, 

E. F. Cook, and Amos Hinkle. Number of members 
in good standing January 1, 1881, 101. Night of 
meeting, Saturday. 

MOUNTAIN LODGE, NO. 14. 

Was instituted by D. D. Grand Master Hansen 
Hazel, on the 2.3d of July, 185.3. The petition was 
sent by residents of Mad Canon, praying for the 
establishment of a lodge in that place, to be known 
as Mountain Lodge, No. 14. At the unanimous 
request of the lodge, its locality was changed, by 
dispensation from the Grand Master, to Michigan 
City, now Michigan Bluft'. 

The officers were : P. N. Cook, N. G.; B. F. Dewey, 
V. G. ; James Kennedy, Secretary; A. J. B. Seymour, 
Treasurer. The charter members were: Wm. Cory, 
P. G.; Geo. H. Van Cleft, James W. Duncan, N. P. 
Cook, Wm. H. Hardy, Benj. T. Dewey. 

Officers for term commencing January 1, 1881: 
S. T. Snedicor, N. G; C. W. Middleton, V. G.; Wm. 

F. Farrier, Secretary; Edward Polifka, Treasurer. 
Past Grands: B. D. Dunham, S. T. Snedicor, Joseph 

Taylor, H. L. Van Emon, J. L. Robertson, Edward 
Polifka, G. W. Hoffman, G. A. Manelin, E. Thomas, 
Walter Willey, C. F. Freitag, P. McHale, E. L. 
Dooley, Wm. Smith, James Blackburn, J. D. Mc- 
Cormick, Adolph Weske, Geo. W. Cusick, John 
Whitfield. Number of members January 1, 1881, 
forty-three. Night of meeting, Saturday. 

PLACER LODGE, No. 38. 

Was instituted at Iowa Hill on the 14th of April, 
1855, by D. D. Grand Master, H. Hazell. charter 
members were: Benj Antill, H. Mattox, C. H. Frisch- 
gesoll, A. L. Long, W. McCracken. 

Officers for the term commencing January 1, 1881 : 
John Mill, N. G.; C. H. Wilcox, V. G.; Wm. Van 
Vactor, Secretary; J. F. Brown, Treasurer. 

Past Grands: W. S. Makins, Henry Stemple, Wm. 
Van Vactor, C. H. Hoppert, Adam Barrett, P. Stone. 
John Eisgler, J. B. Bisbee, Louis Solomon, W. J. 
Tener, John Vasdig, C. F. -Maey, Alex Dolt, O. J. 
Spencer, Wm. Watts, John Butler, Thos. Entiwistle. 
Number of members in good standing January 1, 
1881, forty-seven. Night of meeting, Saturday. 

WASHINGTON LODGE, NO. 40. 

Was instituted at Yankee Jim's on the 10th of 
May, 1855. The officers were: E. Bunn, N. G.; P. B. 



81: 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Fagan, V. G.; Wtn. Winchester, Secretary; M. B. 
Tubbs, Treasurer. (Charter members were: Samuel 
Todd, Thos. 11. Whitaero. Ezekiel Bunii, D. C. Scott, 
Jacob Staub. 

.MINERVA J>OD(iE, NO. 5.1. 

Was instituted at Todd's Vallej-, March 20, 
1856. Officers were: Wm. X. Hall, N. (i; Charles 
Constable, Y. U.; V. J. Hitter, Secretary; H. M. 
Constable, Treasurer. Charter members were: T.N. 
Whitacre, A. (i Road. H. M. Constable. F. J. Ritter, 
Charles Constable. Wm. N. Hall, .Tohn H. Gwjnin. 

COVENANT LODliE, NO. 73. 

Located at Bath, was instituted on the 30th 
of September, 1S57. The officers were: S. C. Steele, 
N. G.; Albert N. Davidson, V. G. ; E. W. Bradford, 
Secretary-; R. D. iMassitigwell, Treasurer. Charter 
members: Daniel Crib. A. Crib, Samuel Watson, S. 
C. Steele, C. R. Sanborn. Officc^rs for term commenc- 
ing January 1, 1881: Joseph Taylor, N. G.; H. 
Schwalenberg, V. G.; Robert Winsj)ear, Secretary; 
Christian Yolhind, Treasurer. 

Past Grands: E. \V. Bradford, R. Winspear, J. Q. 
Aekerman, P. .M. Worlhingioii, ('. VoUand, Jacob 
Kelting, W. D. Andrews, \V. H. Craig, Wilson Hunt, 
L. Remler, M. W. Crary, Henry Long,C. H. Ranlett, 
Charles Fett, Charles Schmutzler, Joseph Dilts, 
Richard Pecht. Jacob Kelting. Henry Schwalenberg, 
Joseph Taylor, Leonard Remler. Number of mem- 
bers in good standing January 1, 1881, fifty-three. 
Night of meeting, Wednesday. 

OLIVE J.ODGE, NO. 81. 

Olive Lodge, No. 81, located at l)utch Flat, was 
instituted by D. D. G. M., N. U. D. Traphagen, on 
the 8th of December, 1858. The officers were, N. 
W. Blanchard, N. G.; H. S. Wooster, V. G.; P. C. 
Craig, Secretary; B. F. Moore, Treasurer. The 
charter members were: S. (J. Steele, P G.; H. S. 
Wooster, Solomon Williams, N. W. Blanchard, P. C. 
Craig, L. Gross, B. F. Moore. Officers for the term 
commencing January 1, 1881: Orlando H. Lee, N. 
G.; Thomas F. Guding, Y. G.; James Jameson, 
Secretary; H. M. Hudepohl, Treasurer. 

Past Grands: N. W. Blanchard, J. N. Boke, J. W, 
Beach, J. J. Brady, 1. T. Coffin, G. B. Chadwiek, J. 
J. Dunning, J. Foerner, R. Hudepohl, W. II. Hill- 
house, R. Hoskin, James Jameson, ('. M. Kopp, W. 
N. Keeler, H. C. Kathin, l' A King, G. W. Ryberd, 
T. J. Nichols. J. K. Squier, Wm. Trather, E. M. 
Thomas, A. A. Ferguson. J. 11. Runckle, John B. 
Frick, H. \j. Rickai'd, John G H i|ipright. Number 
of members January 1, 1S81, Uii. Night of meet- 
ing, Wednesday. 

VALLEY LOlXiE, NO. 107. 

Was institato<i at Lincoln, on the 1 1 Lh of Septem- 
ber, iSlil, by R. W. Grand Warden, David Kendall. 
The officers were: Alfred Bateman, N. G.; Harvey 
Kile, Y. G.; J. B. Dameron, Secretary; Myer Cohen, 



Treasurer. Charter members were: T. B. Harper, 
M. Cohen, A. Bateman, Harvey Rice, and Thomas 
S. Levy. Officers for term commencing January 1, 
1881: Anthony Blackie, N. G.; Howard M. Stacey, 
\^G.;C. L. Hotehkiss. Secretary; Chris. H. Hoppert, 
Treasurer. 

Past Grands: T. B Harper, C. L. Hotchkiss, F. 
Wastier, J. Dallman, G. S. Butler, Samuel Dodd, John S. 
Dodd,S. Dallman, Andrew Laswell,N. V\^. Starr, Peter 
Saiing, Jacob Welty, P. G. Owens, Hollis Newton, 
J. Orchard, H. Anderson, C D. Aldrich, Wm. C. Ro.se. 
Number of members January 1. 1881, forty-six. 
Night of meeting, Thursday. 

COLFAX LODGE, NO. 132. 

Located at Colfax: was instituted on the 18th 
day of April, 18G7. The officers were: John Finyland, 
N. G.; Jacob Keck. Y. G.; James Harrison, Secre- 
tary; A. H. Goodrich, Treasurer. Charter members 
were: A. H. Goodrich, James Harrison, Jacob Keck, 
John Finyland, and N. D. R. Traphagen. Officers 
for term commencing January 1, 1881: John Butler, 
N. G.; Wm. Rowe, Y. G.; George B. McCullough, 
Secretary; Leopold Lobner, Treasurer. 

Past Grands: A. H. Goodrich, P. A. Gay, William 
(rable, James Harrison, L. I/obner, E. Webster, G. 
B. McCullough, D. S. McCullough, P. McMahon, 
James Harrison, George Benvic. E. J. Newett, John 
Butler. Number of members January 1, 1881. 
thirty-one. Night ofmeeting, Saturday. 

liOLD RUN LOPGE, NO. 139. 

Was instituted on the 23d day of August, 1867, 
with the following named officers: J. A. Stone, N. 
G. ; N. A. Beaves, Y. G. ; H. A. Unrah, Secretary; 
Thornton King, Treasurer. Charter members were: 
J. A. Stone, U. S. Walcott, W. R. Feidler, George W. 
Heppard, J. H. Weissberger, Parker Halloway. 
Thornton King, and N. A. Beaves. Officers for term 
commencing January 1, 1881: Edwai-d II. Willard, 
N. G.; ChaHes H. Mellor, Y. G.; Chas. E. Kidd, 
Secretary; John A. Harrison, Treasurer. 

Past Grands: N. A. Beaves, T. E. P. Slade, J. H. 
Hoskin, C. A. Bartlett, John Spinney, W. H. Smith, 
A. C. Cook, W. W. Anderson, John N. Jersen, M. F. 
Noyes, J. A. Harrison, C. E. Kidd. Number of 
members January 1. 1881, thirty-six. Night ofmeet- 
ing, Saturday. 

ROSEVILLE LODGE, NO. 203. 

Was instituted on the 26th day of June, 1872, 
with the following officers: R. Ward, N. G.; John 
McCluney, Y. G.; J. D. Pratt, Secretary; W. J. 
Branstetta, Treasurer. Charter members were: B. 
W. Neff, J. D. Pratt, Robert Ward, L. D. Thomas, 
S, A. Boutwell, S. Denney, and George K. Cirhy. 
Officers for term commencing January 1, 1881: 
James M. Fitzgerald, N. G. ; Jerry C. Givens, Y. G.; 
Samuel J. Pullen, Secretary; George K. Cirby, 
Treasurer. 




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STORE 8r RESIDENCE OF D.W.I-UBlCK. 




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SOCIETIES. 



313 



Past Grands: B. W. Neff, Eobert Ward, John 
McClung, J. D. Pratt, S. J. Pullen, A. N. Moore, L. 
D. Thomas, Edwin Purdj', James O. Gould, M. J. 
Neher. Number of members January 1, 1881, seventy- 
nine. Night of meeting, Saturdaj'. 

ORDER OF KNKiHTS OF PYTHIAS. 

All who have read the ancient story of Damon 
and Pythias will at once know the intent and mean- 
ing of the Knightly Order that has for its title the 
name of the devoted and honorable friend. As long 
ago as the third century before the Christian era the 
term has been a synonym of truth and fidelity. 

Damon and Pythias were disciples of the Pythago- 
rean principles of friendship. The tyrant of Syra- 
cuse had condemned Pythias to death, but the victim 
begged for his liberty for a short period that he 
might return to his home and arrange bis affairs 
previous to his execution. Damon pledged his life 
for the return of his friend. The tyrant, appearing 
satisfied if he would have one to execute, granted 
the strange request and accepted the pledge. Before 
the appointed time of execution the faithful Pj'thias 
returned to undergo his fate and relieve his friend 
from jeopardy. The noble action of the condemned 
man, and the perfect confidence manifested by the 
friend, so excited the astonishment of the tyrant, 
Dyon3^sius, that he not only released both friends 
but begged to be admitted to their friendship. 

Such an example has been held as the chivalric 
model of true manhood through all the intervening 
centuries, and as such presented to the brotherhood 
of clerks and attaches of the various Bureaus and 
Departments at Washington. The great war of the 
Jiebellion was raging with all its intensity' and fierce- 
ness in the beginning of 1864, and during the year 
were to occur the culminating campaigns, both polit- 
ical and military, that were to determine the future 
of the Kepublic. They were dark daj's. The neces- 
sity of organization, of intimate relationship, of 
mutual knowledge and confidence with associates, 
for self-protection and the good of the public, were 
apparent to all. Being the period of a great war, 
many of the associations assumed a semi-military 
character. 

Such were the circumstances that led to and sug- 
gested the organization of the Knights of Pythias. 
The exigencies of the Government had called a 
large number of men to Washington in a civil capac- 
ity, as officers, clerks, and attaches of the various 
departments. Generally, they were far from home, 
friends, and relatives. Naturally they sought for 
association and friendship. Those who were music- 
ally inclined formed the Arion Glee Club. This was 
too limited. Mr. J. H. Bathbone, who had previously 
conceived the idea of an association of the kind, and 
had drawn up a form of constitution, now saw the 
opportunity to carry it forward. Assisted by Mr. 
J. T. K. Plant, he prepared a ritual and plan of an 
order of friendship for mutual aid and protection 



among the clerks of the departments, which were 
presented to the members of the Arion Glee Club 
and others, were heartily approved by them, and on 
the 10th of February, ]8()4, the Order of Knights of 
Pythias was organized, with the motto oi Justitia et 
Fidelitas, and its principles based on the lesson of 
friendship and honor as taught by the example of 
Damon and Pythias. 

WASHINGTON LODGE, NO. 1, 

Was the title of the lodge organized, with J. H. 
Rathbone as Worthy Chancellor; Joel K. Woodruff, 
Vice-Chancellor; J. T. K. Plant, Venerable Patri- 
arch; D. L. Burnett, Worthy Scribe; A. Van Der- 
veer, Banker; R. A. Champion, Assistant Banker, 
and George R. Covert, Assistant Scribe. 

On the following 8th of April a Grand Lodge was 
formed with but one subordinate body as a base of 
authority; but there soon followed four other organ- 
izations, among which was Franklin Lodge, No. 2. 
Soon, however, all ceased to operate excepting No. 
2, which maintained its existence and exercised the 
functions of a Grand Lodge. 

A reorganization took place, and on the 9th of 
July, 1866, the new Grand Lodge held its first meet- 
ing, at which there was a total membership in the 
Order of 139. On the same date the Supreme Lodge 
of the United States held its first meeting at Wash- 
ington. 

From that time prosperity has rewarded by suc- 
cess the zeal of its members for the expansion of the 
Order. The membership has increased to upwards 
of 100,000, extending over the United States, Can- 
ada and the Hawaiian Islands. From the primitive 
object of encouraging friendship, and guarding the 
interests of a class, the broad principle has spread 
its joyful light over all classes, knowing no south, 
no north, no east, no west; no class or religion, but 
a human brotherhood of all who possess its require- 
ments and conform to its rules. 

The Order is very- popular and prosperous in Cali- 
fornia, with lodges in every county. Pacific Lodge, 
No. 52, K. of P., is located at Newcastle, and is in a 
prosperous condition. 

SONS OF TE.MPERANCE. 

From the earliest occupation of California by 
Americans efforts have been put forth by public- 
spirited and reformatory individuals to stay the 
progress of intemperance or exterminate the evil. 
Temperance societies were formed under various 
stj-les of organization. Prominent of these in Cali- 
fornia, in the first decade following the discovery' of 
gold was the Order of Sons of Temperance. Lodges, 
or divisions, of this Order existed in every county 
of the State, and of course several were formed in 
Placer County. Their organization was copied as 
far as necessary after the older secret orders, with 
officers of many departments with symbolic letters 
attached to their names signifying their positions 
in the Order. 



314 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



THE INDEPENDENT ORDEK OF (iOOD TEMI'LARS, 

As a temperance organization, soon absorbed the 
Son« of Temperance, appearing in California in 1860. 
The symbol by which the Order is usually desig- 
nated are the letters I. O. G. T. The officers are 
Past Worthy Chief Templar, VV^orthy Chief Templar, 
Worthy Vice-Templar, Worthy Recording Secretar^^ 
Worthy Treasurer, Worthy Inside Guard, Worthy 
Outside Guard, etc. 

N umerous lodges of the Order are in Placer County, 
and the membership has, probably, during their 
existence, included nine-tenths of the people, though 
not as permanent members in good standing. The 
Order being reformatory and social, without great 
cost or dreadful penalties, is very popular, the mem- 
bership consisting of ladies and gentlemen, and are 
of much beneficial influence. Almost ever}' village 
and hamlet in the county has its Good Templar 
Lodge, and these are increasing in numbers and 
power. The first of these in Placer was the New 
York Lodge, No. 14, instituted December 27, 1860, 
by I). S. Cutter, D. G. W. C. T., at Auburn, and had 
thirty-one members. R. C. Poland was Worthy 
Chief Templar. Subsequently there were organized 
Nil Dosperandum Lodge, at Dutch Flat; Isabella 
Lodge, at Gold Run; Roseville Lodge, Rocklin Lodge, 
Newcastle Lodge, Ophir Lodge, Granite Lodge, at 
Penryn; Auburn Lodge, at Auburn; Clipper Gap 
Lodge, Star of the Hill Lodge, at Forest Hill; Rosy 
Crown Lodge, at Iowa Hill; Lincoln Lodge, at Lin- 
coln, and the Placer County District Lodge. This 
lodge met at Auburn May 19, 1881, and elected the 
following District officers: J. C. Hawver, D. D., 
Forest Hill; Mrs. Don Foster, D. V. S., Auburn; D. 
H. Mills. OS., Colfax; Miss Viola Rackliffe, D. F.S., 
Auburn; Warren Reed, D. T., Ophir; T. B.Carter, 
1). M., Michigan Bluff; Miss Hattie Swan, D. D. M., 
Auburn; .Mrs. R. A. Mills, i). I. G., Rocklin; W. 
Rittinger, D. O. G., Auburn; M. Gregory, D. C, 
Roseville. 

IMPROVED ORDEK OF RED .MEN. 

This is a society for social culture and benevolence, 
and is an American institution of a comparatively 
recent date. As its name implies, it adopts as far as 
practicable the titles and customs of the aborigines 
of America, the different organizations being styled 
Tribes; the officers being Cfreat Sanap, Great Sachem, 
Great Chief, Great Prophet, etc.; their days of meet- 
ings, Sleeps; their sessions. Councils; their chair, 
Stump, and so on. 

The Oneida Tribe is located at Dutch Flat, and the 
Deleware Tribe at Newcastle. 

PATRONS OF IU'SB.\NDRY. 

This order is organized in the interest of the tiller 
of the soil, and is a recent American institution. 
The symbol is P. of H., and the different organiza- 
tions are styled granges; hence the members are 
denominated grangers. 



There are several granges in Placer County, as 
the Lincoln Grange, at Lincoln, Roseville Grange and 
Newcastle Grange, all receiving their charters from 
the State (rrange of California. 

ANCIENT ORDKR OF UNITED WORKMEN. 

An Order of friendship, unity, and mutual assist- 
ance to its members and other purposes. This is 
one of the many orders of recent organization, and 
its large membership and increasing numbers are 
evidence of its popularity and usefulness. 

There are several lodges of the Order in Placer 
County, those at Newcastle, Rocklin, Lincoln, 
Auburn and Michigan Bluff being in a flourishing 
condition. 

WAR VETERANS. 

Throughout California are many veterans of the 
war with Mexico, now growing old and venerable. 
They were among the first of the pioneers, and 
have always been held in high respect and consid- 
eration, as to a very great extent they have been 
enterprising and honorable men. There are also 
many who have borne arms in other wars, more 
notably the War of the Rebellion, and these, 
too, are veterans. The ex-soldiers have formed 
numerous societies, which are generallj' represented 
in Placer County. Among these are the War Vet- 
erans, who December 18, 1881, published the follow- 
ing advertisement in the Placer Herald: — 

NOTICE TO EX-SOLDIERS. 

All the veterans, resident in Placer County, of the 
Mexican War, the Civil War, the Modoc War, or any 
other war, ai-e requested to meet at Music Hall, 
Auburn, on Saturday, December 24, 1881, for the 
purpose of taking such steps as will result in an 
organization of said veterans, and attending to other 
business of material interest. By request of 

Capt. E. D. Shirland. 

J. S. Dean. 

B. D. Dunnam. 

Pursuant to the above call, some ten or twelve 
Mexican or Civil War veterans met at the Herald 
office, December 24, 1881, for the purpose of taking 
initiatory steps toward the formation of an organi- 
zation to include all ex-soldiers resident in Placer 
County. Judge J. Ives Fitch was elected Chairman, 
and Capt. B. D. Shirland, Secretary. After a gen- 
eral interchange of opinions, it was decided to take 
the necessary steps towards a permanent organiza- 
tion. Accordingly, Judge Fitch, Captain Shirland, 
and B. D. Dunnam were appointed a committee to 
draw up a Constitution and By-Laws, and report at 
a meeting to be held at the Court House, January 4, 
1882, when it was expected a permanent organiza- 
tion would be effected. Both Capt. Shirland and 
Mr. Dunnamjire veterans of the Mexican War, the 
former having been a member of Stevenson's Regi- 
ment, arriving in California in 1747, Captain of Cal- 
ifornia Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion, and 
a resident of Placer County since 1848. 



CHURCH, BENCH, AND BAR. 



SI .', 



The primary object of the association was stated 
to be to collect money by organized effort for the 
" Soldiers' Home of California." All who had served 
in the army or navy of the United States, and hon- 
orably discharged, were eligible to membership. 



CHAPTER XL. 
CHURCH. BENCH, AND BAR. 

An Eloquent .Sermon —A Financial Sermon — Cluirch Organiza- 
tion — Mormonism in Auburn — .James E. Hale — The Bench 
and Bar — The Judiciary — District .Judges — Superior Judge 
— County Judges — District Attorneys — Attorneys Regis- 
tered in Placer County— W. H. Bullock— C. A. Tuttle. 

The American civilization as known east of the 
great plains was transplanted upon the shores of the 
Pacific and in the mountain region of the placers by 
the immigrants of 1849, who came in one grand 
body, bringing with them, the customs, religion, and 
principles in which they had been taught in their old 
homes. Among the settlers were men of the world, 
professors of religion, ministers, lawyers, and doc- 
tors; men of ignorance and men of education; men 
of reckless character, and men of firmest pur- 
pose of right and honor; generally young or in the 
early years of middle life; few were aged, and vigor, 
manhood, and independence were the characteristics 
of all. The rough element, the stalwart yeoman, 
and the refined intermixed, forming a heterogene- 
ous society in which every extreme was found. 
Ministers were, perhaps, the least among the profes- 
sions, particularly in the mining regions, and the 
organization of church societies proceeded slowly. 

Sunday, however, was usually observed; by some 
as a day of rest, devotion, reading or writing letters 
to the dear ones at home; by others, as a day of 
repairing and renovating garments, visiting the 
towns and stores for purchasing the week's supplies, 
selling gold dust, and enjoying all the sport obtain- 
able. If no church bell called them to meet in 
Christian service, nor spire pointed to a better world, 
there were many whose thoughts on that day recurred 
to the duties in which they had been trained, and the 
Sabbath was held sacred, and its traditions pre- 
served. Many have said that in early times there 
was no Sunday in California. This was not wholly 
true. There were ministers among the miners, and 
occasional services were held. Some of the ministers 
are reported as having fallen from grace and turned 
gamblers, and curious stories are told, but among the 
representatives of the cloth were true and stalwart 
men. 

.IN ELOQUENT FRONTIER SERMON. 

The following, one of the most eloquei\t appeals 
that ever rang among the forests and rocks of the 
Sierra, is reported as one of the first of the sermons 
to the miners. That gamblers, hard drinkers, and 
roystering characters comprised a large portion of 
the people will be readily believed. But a pioneer 



Methodist preacher was among them and he sought 
to influence them to better lives. His audiences 
were small, and his efforts appreciated but by a few 
of those who had adhered to the faith. He therefore 
gave notice that on a certain Sunday, in a beautiful 
grove where was a gushing mountain spring, he 
would before preaching give a barbecue, and supply 
better liquors than the saloons of the neighboring 
town furnished its customers. The day came and 
a crowd assembled. The preacher began his service, 
when he was interrupted by a gambler known as a 
desperate character, with, "Mr. Preacher, I say you 
are a liar ! You promised us better liquors than we 
had in town. Now where is your liquor?" 

•' There! " answered the preacher, in tones of 
thunder, and, pointing his finger at the matchless 
spring, gushing up in a beautiful fountain, with a 
sound like a shout of joy from the earth, " There," he 
repeated, "there is the liquor which God, the Eter- 
nal, brews for all his children ! Not in the sim- 
mering still, over smoky fires, choked with poison- 
ous gasses, surrounded with the stench of sickening 
odors and corruptions, does j^our Father in heaven 
prepare the precious essence of life — the pure cold 
water, but in the green glade and grassy dell, where 
the red deer wanders, and the child loves to play — 
there God brews it; and down, low down in the 
deepest valleys, where the fountains murmur and 
rills sing, and high upon the mountain tops, where 
the native granite glitters like silver in the sun, 
where the storm-cloud broods, and the thunder- 
storms crash, and away far out on the wide, wild 
sea, where the hurricane howls music, and the big 
waves roll the chorus, sweeping the march of God — 
there he brews it, that beverage of life, health-giv- 
ing water. And everywhere it is a thing of life and 
beauty — gleaming in the dew-drop; singing in the 
gentle rain; shining in the ice-gem, till the trees all 
seem turned to living jewels; spreading a golden 
veil over the setting sun, or a white gauze around 
the midnight moon; sporting in the cataract; danc- 
ing in the shower; sleeping in the glacier; folding 
its bright snow curtains softly about the wintry 
world, and weaving the many-colored sky, that ser- 
aph's zone of the syren, whose warp is the rain- 
drops of earth, whose woof is the sunbeam of 
heaven, all checked over with celestial flowers by 
the mystic hand of refraction. Still always it is 
beautiful — that blessed life-water ! No poison bub- 
bles on its brink; its foam brings not madness and 
murder; no blood stains its liquid glass; pale 
widows and starving orphans weep not burning 
tears in its depths; no drunkard's shrinking ghost 
from the grave curses it in words of eternal despair ! 
Speak out my friends, would you exchange it for 
the demon's drinU, alcohol?" 

A shout like the roar of a tempest answered, "No!"' 

A FIN.iNCIAl, SEimON. 

Of another pioneer preacher of a different charae- 



SIT) 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ter the following is told of one, who, in the story, is 
called "Old Jack Martin," and is represented as an 
eccentric character who crossed the plains in the 
flood of immigration in 1850. 

He had been an e.xhorter in the States, but the 
gold fever tore him from his theological studies and 
turned his feet toward the West. With pick, shovel, 
and pan he went to work in a gulch on the 
American River; but fortune was not lavish of her 
smiles in his particular case, and he soon found him- 
self flat on 'bedrock,' with not a pound of flour or 
bacon in the cabin. In disgust he abandoned his 
claim and drifted down to Sacramento, where for a 
few weeks he earned a precarious livelihood. The 
mining fever again attacked him and drove him to 
the mountains, where in a few weeks he was dis- 
covered walking about the camps, preaching to all 
who would listen to his harangues, which were 
usually delivered from the top of a stump or the 
head of a whiskey barrel loaned him by some accom- 
modating saloonist. At the close of each sermon be 
would pass a tin box, prepared for the purpose, 
around in the crowd. 

At a later day he settled down as the regular 
Pastor of a charge in Dutch Flat, where a rude 
church had been erected by such of the miners as 
had not lost all of their religious inclinations in their 
search for gold. A rather good story is related of 
the manner in which the old man woke up his con- 
gregation on the matter of a little back salary due 
him. On a certain Sabbath morning an unusually 
large congregation assembled to hear him discourse. 
Before the beginning of the service Jack descended 
from the pulpit, and was seen to approach several 
brawny members of the congregation and whisper 
into their ears. When he returned to his stand the 
muscled worshipers quietly arose and stationed 
themselves at the door, after which the preacher 
calmly said: — 

" My dear brethren, it is now about a year since 
I first showed up in this pulpit and headed you 
toward the living pastures on the straight and 
narrow gospel trail. I've tried to ladle out the 
square truth as I caught on to it in my skirmishes 
through the Holy Writ. In my prayers I have 
shown no partiality, but have wrestled just as hard 
when asking Heaven to open the eyes of ' Bummer 
Jim ' and turn him from his wickedness, as I have 
when imploring that the truth be made manifest to 
Colonel Ward, the owner of the Monarch mine. 

"Now, I'm going to talk business to you, after 
which I will drive ahead with the regular service. 
I want money! 1 am going to have money, too, 
before I sling a word this morning. You are not 
doing the square thing with me, and you know it. 
When I agreed to look after your spiritual welfare, 
you promised me a clean 2,000 a year, but during 
the year jiasi 1 have received less than 1,000. Now, 
1 have stationed a mob of business at the door, and 
the fir.-it impenitent sinner that tries to make a sneak 



on the open air, will be the leading character in a 
lively little incident that he will remember as long 
as he lives. A collection will now be taken up, and 
as I call each man's name, I want him to draw his 
bag and empty some dust into the box. Tony Arnold, 
just you circulate the box. Pass it there to Doc 
Wilson first. Now, Doc, spill yer dust and set the 
boys a good example. Tip 'er up — don't be afraid 
of dropping a grain or two too much. Contribute 
your mite, that your days may be long in the land 
that flows with milk and honey. Now, Aleck Jones, 
it's j'our turn. Thanks, that was a decent spill. 
Johnson, 1 saw the bulk of the wealth on your side 
of the table in the game at Kentuck's last night, and 
the church wants its percentage. Good enough — 
that's a fair share. Judge Mason, skin your weasel 
and pay toll, or don't travel. That's the ticket — 
nothing mean about you. Judge. Now, Shorty, chip 
in and give the glorious cause a boost — may the 
Lord be as liberal in shaking blessing.-t down on you. 
Your pull next. Arkansaw, ante and pass the buck. 
Hold on, that don't go. You didn't drop three grains 
into the box. Tip 'er up again, and may your bless- 
ings be choked off as you choke oft' the stream of 
dust." 

Thus he went over the whole congregation. Not 
one of them had the " cheek " to refuse a contribu- 
tion. When the dust was brought forward the 
preacher said; — 

" The cause of the Lord and Jack Martin 'II not 
suffer now for several months, and I shall continue 
as heretofore, to herd your souls on the best theo- 
logical grass to be found in the gospel ranges. The 
text chosen reads as follows: 'inasmuch as you 
did it unto one of the least of these, m}^ brethren, 
ye did it unto me.' " 

From this text he preached such a povverful finan- 
cial sermon, that several came forward after the 
service and wanted to double their contributions. 

CHURCH OROANIZATION. 

The first church organization in Placer County 
was at Auburn, in June, 1852, by the Methodist 
Episcopal Society. Rev. James Hunter officiated, 
having service at his residence every alternate Sun- 
da3% at Auburn, and at other places on the other 
Sunda^-s. Mr. Hunter was succeeded by Rev. Mr. 
Brook, he by Rev. J. D. Blain, subsequently Presid- 
ing folder, and then by Rev. N. R. Peck, now the 
successl'ui horticulturist. Among those who have 
presided over the Methodist Church at Auburn are 
the Rev. J. H. Peters, Rev. J. B. Hill, Rev. Mr. 
Brooks, Rev. Mr. Nelson, Rev. Mr. Elliott, Rev. E. 
11. Kins, Rev. H. D. Hunter, Rev. S. II. Todd, Rev. 
G. W. Fii,ch, and Rev. T. B. Hopkins. 

In the Methodist Episcopal (Jhurch at Auburn a 
Sunday-school was organized in October, 1852, by 
Rev. James Hunter, the Pastor. This has been con- 
tinued, having a large library and a good attend- 
ance. 



CHURCH. BENCH, AND BAR. 



S17 



The Methodist Episcopal Church at Dutch Flat 
was organized in 1857, by Rev. G. B. Hinckle, P. C, 
and Rev. S. B. Simonds, P. E. Among the first pas- 
tors of the church was Rev. T. H. McGrath, in 1860, 
who removed to the territory of Nevada, and there 
labored diligently in the service, organizing several 
church societies, but ultimately withdrawing from 
the ministry. 

Since the first organization churches have gener- 
ally been maintained in Auburn, but in September, 
1837, the Herald makes the strange announcement 
that there was not a minister of any religious denom- 
ination at that time located in Placer County. The 
fact is also noticeable that in nearly all the mar- 
riages previous to 1870 the ceremony was performed 
by a judicial officer, indicating a scarcity of minis- 
ters, or an indifference to the religious character of 
the marriage tie. 

The non-residence of ordained preachers did not 
deprive the people of divine service, as clergymen 
from other localites often visited the dirt'erent towns. 
Fine church edifices were erected in nearly every 
village at an early A&j in their histor3-, generally by 
the Methodists and Catholics, and at the present 
time there are but very few towns where there is 
not a spire pointing heavenward, and in the larger 
towns each of the principal denominations have 
their elegant place of worship, fully organized 
church societies, and regular service. 

MOR.MONIS.M IN AUBURN. 

In 1856 Auburn was honored by a representative 
of the Church of Latter Day Saints, in the person of 
Rev. Mr. Stuart, who proposed to establish himself 
permanently there as a teacher of the Mormon faith. 
At that time the only resident clergyman was Rev. 
Mr. Brooks, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
the Rev. Mr. Stuart was encouraged in his efforts. 

The following is an extract of a letter from Mr. 
Stuart to the Western Standard in May, 185G: — 

" We preached in the Court House yesterday to a 
goodly number of the respectable citizens of Auburn. 
They manifested quite a desire to hear, whether they 
will investigate is not for me to say, but for them 
to determine. We are determined lo do our duty, 
with the help of God, come what will. We have 
appointed Brother Charles Hardy to preside here; 
he is a worthy young man, a resident of this place. 
Brother Hardy is on his way to Salt Lake Valley 
from Au.stralia ; he intends slopping here till fall,- 
and while he remains he wishes to do all the good he 
can; we recommend him to the brethren, and all 
good men who wish to investigate our principles." 

As nothing more is ever said of the Mormon 
Church in Auburn, it is probable that but few con- 
verts were made. 

JA.MES E. HALE. 

Among the throng marching westward across the 
broad plains and towering mountains, towards the 
land of gold, in the eventful 1849, was James Ellery 
Hale, then an ambitious young lawyer, looking, with 
many of his companions, forward with hope at the 



bright prospect of wealth and fame that awaited him 
on the Pacific Coast. Since then the period of the 
average years of man has passed, and the pioneer 
still battles the way of life, bearing the honored 
marks of time upt)n his brow, and buoyant in spirit, 
bold in act, ready in speech as when he left the 
comforts of Eastern civilization to build up a new 
one in the unknown West. The frosts of many 
winters crown his head, but his body and mind 
retain the vigor of the prime of manhood. 

Judge Hale first saw the light in the town of 
Smithfield, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, where 
he was born on the 15th of October, 1824. He passed 
his youthful years in his native county, there attend- 
ing school and college, studying the profession of 
the law, and was there admitted to the bar. With a 
thorough education and a noble profession acquired, 
like an enterprising American youth, he went West, 
seekingfor the field of his future labors and triumphs 
the broad and fertile prairies of Illinois. In 1846 
he settled in Knox County, Illinois, and there com- 
menced the practice of his profession. As ho was 
becoming well established in his practice, the excit- 
ing news spread over the world of the discovery of 
gold in California, and the bright opportunity then 
opening at once impressed itself upon the young 
lawyer. Illinois was then a frontier State of the far 
West, and its people looked across the plains as the 
direct route to the Pacific, and large companies were 
formed to make the journey with wagons drawn by 
mules or oxen. The influence of many joining induced 
others, until it seemed as if the "Sucker State" 
would be depopulated of its young and most active 
men. The great rivers were convenient channels to 
carry the emigrants from all parts of the State far 
on their journey to the West, and this convenience 
and the passing of the hopeful and hilarious bands 
raised the excitement and swelled the crowds. Hale, 
joining one of these companies, hitched up his oxen 
on the west bank of the Missouri in the spring oj 
1849, and drove out into the wilderness of an unnamed 
land. In the slow progress of an ox-team, Sacramento 
wag reached on the 26ih of October of the same year. 
That was the end of the journey, nearly all the 
immigrants pushing forward to that point after their 
long journey, calling there for letters and news from 
home, disposing of their jaded teams and getting 
outfits for the mines. From Sacramento Hale sought 
the mines of El Dorado and Plainer, making the latter 
his permanent home since February, 1852, his resi- 
dence being at Yankee Jim's for some years. He 
came as a lawyer and has continued the practice, 
except when in office, during his life. 

From the earliest date of the golden era in Califor- 
nia, Judge Hale has borne a conspicuous part in 
politics. In early life, as a Whig, ho took an active 
part in advancing its interests, attending its con- 
ventions, and " stumping " the county. Such a man, 
with ambition and energy, soon came to the front. 
In the political campaign of 1852. Hale was nomi- 



31 S 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



nated at the Whig State Convention as one of the 
Presidential electors, and by the County Convention 
for State Senator. In that year California gave a 
large Democratic majority, and Placer was one of 
the strongest Democratic counties. The Democratic 
candidate for the Senate was Joseph Walkup, who 
was elected by a majority of 552. In 185-1: he was 
elected County Judge on the Whig ticket, defeating 
Abram Bronk, Democrat, and Hugh Fitzsimmons, 
Broderick Democrat. This position he held until 
1SG9, when he was succeeded by E. H. Vandecar, a 
Democrat. While holding the office of County Judge 
the Whig party had gone out of existence, the Know- 
2s'othing party had grown into being, swept the 
State and disappeared, and a chaotic mass of ele- 
ments was opposing the Democracy. These at last 
crystalized into the Republican party, and from that 
time Judge Hale has been one of its most prominent 
members. In 1863 he was elected to the State 
Senate by the Republicans of Placer, the county 
then being entitled to two Senators. His Senatorial 
term continued through four j^ears, during which 
time political matters of the most vital importance 
agitated the public. The great questions pertaining 
to the saving and the restoration of the Union, 
amendments to the Constitution, and the establish- 
ing of equal rights among men, found in Judge Hale 
a clear expounder according to Republican principles, 
and one ever ready to do battle for the right. 

While a strong and active partisan when political 
questions were at issue, in all subjects of a non-polit- 
ical character his counsel was sought by people 
of all parties. In all eases he advocated the cause 
of the people and the material interests of Placer 
County. Throughout the history of the county fre- 
quent mention is made of his acts, from which a story 
of his life may be gleaned. In November, 1867. • 
Judge Hale was appointed by Governor Low 
reporter to the Supreme Court, which position he 
held until 1871. In 1872 came the Presidential Cam- 
paign, with Gen. U. S. Grant and Horace Greeley 
the op])osing candidates. James E. Hale was nom- 
inated one of the Presidential Electors on the Repub- 
lican ticket and was elected. At the meeting of the 
College of Electors, Judge Hale was chosen to carry 
the vote to Washington. This journey was success- 
fully made, the Judge being accompanied by his fam- 
ily, and remaining for a visit of several months in 
the East. 

In the Judicial campaign of 1875, James E. Hale 
was the Republican, and T. B. Reardan, of Nevada 
County, was the Democratic nominee for the office 
of District Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District, 
comprising the counties of Placer and Nevada. In 
Placer County Hale received a majority of 148, but 
the majority in Nevada for Reardan was 267, thus 
securing his election. 

A Constitutional Convention was called to meet in 
1878 to form a new Constitution for California. Each 
Congressional District was entitled to eii^bt deletfates 



to the convention, to be selected and voted for by the 
State at large. The different parties combined to 
nominate a non-partisan ticket to counteract the 
influence of the W^orkingmen's Party, which was 
looked upon as a party of impracticable ideas. 
James E. Hale was nominated as a Non-Partizan, 
and was elected a delegate at large to the Conven ■ 
tion. The session continued 157 days and formed 
the Constitution, which was adopted by a vote of the 
people, Jlay 7, 1879. 

A writer for the Foothill Tidinjs making pen por- 
traits of the members of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion saj's: — 

Judge Hale, of Placer, is the Nestor of the Con- 
vention. Full of the conserved wisdom of the past, 
he has only to open his mouth to evolve speech as 
by machine work. Even the jerks of his hands, 
the pivoting and sweep of his venerable head seem 
automatic. The wiry gray hair upon his rounded 
poll stands out as if electritiod, and he were insula- 
ted upon a glass stool. The spectacles upon his eyes 
give him the drowsy look of that oracular bird 
which is deemed to attend upon the patron goddess 
of our State, whose effigy surmounts our rostrum. 
Hale sits down as if he were an old Dutch clock 
ready to be wound up again. He is a living witness 
to the ''conservation of force." But there beats not 
an honester heart within an old drab coat than that 
of Hale's. •' God's blessing on his frosty pow." 

The new Constitution required an election of all 
State officers in 1871). among which were six Asso- 
ciate Justices of the Supreme Court. Judge Hale 
was one of the candidates nominated by the Repub- 
licans. In this campaign he vvas unsuccessful, being 
defeated by a combination of Democrats and Work- 
ingmen. The following year he was agp.in in the 
field as candidate for the Assembly from Placer. In 
this he was successful, serving the term with dis- 
tinction to himself and usefulness to the State and 
his county. 

Judge Hale was, while ori a leive of absence vis- 
iting the East, married July 23, 1856. in Knox 
County, Illinois, to Miss M u-y Hart Pierce, a native 
of Smithfield, Pennsylvania. Immediately after the 
marriage he returned with his bride to California. 
Two children were the fruits of this marriage, both 
dying young. The sad notices of their death read- 
ing, that Clayton Douglas, only son of J. B. and 
Mary H. Pierce Hale, died October, 7, 1863, aged two 
years, four months and twenty-two days. Another 
soon following, saj's: Died at iuburn. December 5, 
18C3, of scarlet fever, Nellie Pierce, only child of 
James E. and Mary H. P. Hale, aged six years. 

THE BENCH AND B.\R. 

Before the organization of Placer County, in 1851, 
litigation was nearly all carried on in the Justices' 
Courts. 

In 1849 Gordon N. Mott and 1'. W. Thomas set- 
tled in Auburn, and mingled mining and law practice 
together. Otis L. Bridges commenced the practice 
at Auburn early in 1850. James S. Christy, H. O. 



CHURCH, BENCH, AND BAR. 



310 



Ryerson, and R. D. Hopkins also commenced the 
practice in the latter part of 1850. Christy had 
first located at lllinoistown, and 0. A. Tuttle was 
located at Bird's Valley. It must not be supposed 
that practice supported all these lawyers, but min- 
ing and law together engaged their attention. 
Nearly all catcs were tried before a jury. The cur- 
rency was gold-dust by the ounce. Many humorous 
and some exciting scenes took place in the courts. 

A teamster had hauled a load of goods with oxen 
to Spanish Corral, where Ophir now is, eai-ly in 
1850. He was taken sick and called a physician 
from Auburn. The physician visited him five times, 
but on the last visit took his gold scales and demanded 
his pay, six ounces for each visit. The teamster 
gave him sixteen ounces. The doctor returned to 
Auburn and attached the teamster's cattle for the 
remainder of his fee. Mott was for the defense. 
The jury found that as the doctor had taken his 
gold scales on the last visit be went as a collector 
and not as a doctor, and that he was also exorbitant 
in his charges, and made him refund one ounce to 
the teamster and pay his own costs. It would not 
have been safe for the doctor to have refused to 
comply with the verdict. Mott remained at Auburn 
till 18,53, and then removed to Marysville. He was 
afterwards one of the Judges in Nevada Territory, 
and also a Member of Congress from that Territory. 
Bridges had been Attorney-General of the State of 
Maine. He was proud of this distinction, and was 
continually alluding to it. Thomas was humorous 
and loved to draw out Bridges on this matter, and 
then ridicule him. Bridges left Auburn in the latter 
part of 1852. James E. Hale was at Millertown in 
1850, but in 1851 went to Yankee Jim's and com- 
menced practice there. Hugh Fitzsimmons settled 
in Auburn in the latter part of 1850. In 1851 he 
was elected County Judge. He was a native of 
New York and was a cultivated gentleman. B. P. 
Myres also came to Auburn in 1851. 

In 1852 Myres and Ryerson were on opposite 
sides of a case before Jordan, Justice. Some lan- 
guage deemed insulting passed, and the attorneys 
engaged in a fight. While the battle raged Ryer- 
son's client moved the Justice to adjourn the court, 
and Myres' client objected. The Justice failed to 
decide the motion and the trial proceeded. 

Ryerson was a native of New Jersey and a man 
of fine education, and a well-read lawyer. He 
returned to New Jersey in 1855. His brother has 
been one of the Supreme Judges of that State. 
Myres possessed a keen and analytical mind. The 
two were generally pitted against each other in 
1852-53. In the upper part of the county, M. E. 
Mills had also settled at Yankee Jim's in 1852, and 
C. J. Hillyer had located at Iowa Hill in 1853. In 
cases brought there Mills, Hale, Hillyer and Tuttle 
were employed. These suits often involved mining 
property of many thousand dollars in value. Christy 
was a native of Illinois, a well-read lawyer and a 



man of fine literary taste. He was passionately 
fond of novels, often reading the entire night. He 
died at Auburn in 1853. Hopkins was a native of 
Maryland. He was elected District Attorney in 
18-51, and held the office for several years. He now 
resides in San Francisco. Jlills was a man of fair 
ability, but a man of an infinite fund of words. He 
would consume hours in argument, drawing fine dis- 
tinctions on points of law, which it was sometimes 
diflicult for the Court to comprehend. He was Dis- 
trict Attorney in 1854-55, and died at Auburn in 
1858, a victim of the intoxicating bi->wl. 

Thomas was a native of Maryland, but came to 
California from New Y'^ork City. He was proud and 
impetuous in his tempera nent. He had been admit- 
ted to the bar in New York. He spent most of his 
time in conversation in the saloons and on the streets, 
read but little, and depended on absorbing his law 
during the session of the courts. His large acquaint- 
ance gave him a good practice. He was by nature 
a politician, and in a political controvei-sy was bitter. 
In a speech which he made during the election of 
1854 he denounced a certain gentleman as a gam- 
bler. Dr. Dickson was the bearer of a message from 
the gentleman to Thomas. The latter refused to 
receive it because the sender was not a gentleman. 
Dickson then sent a peremptory challenge to Thomas, 
which was accepted. He killed Dickson at the first 
fire. Dickson was a native of Mississippi, and a refined 
and educated gentleman. The aftair cast a shade 
over Thomas' subsequent life. He became District 
Attorney, an<l then a Senator, and died at Auburn 
in 187-, broken in purse and spirit. After 1854, 
owing to a decision of the Supreme Court, limiting 
.Justices' jurisdiction, legal business was mostly 
transferred to the District Court. About this time 
Hale, Mills, and Hillyer removed to Auburn, and for 
several years the practice was divided between the 
three, and Myers, Thomas and Tuttle. Many 
important questions arose, and the Bar of Placer 
County was justly regarded as an able one. Tuttle 
and Hillyer formed a partnership in 1857, and the 
latter removed to Auburn. Hale became Countj'^ 
Judge in 1854, and Myres District Judge in 1859. 
Hillyer removed to Virginia City in 1863. He has 
acquired a great reputation as a lawyer, and was 
employed by the firm of Mackay, Flood and Fair in 
1878-79-80 to attend to their mining interests at 
Virginia City. He now resides at Washington. 
The county of Placer has generally been fortunate 
in its judiciary. This, however, has not always 
been the case. In 1858 a County Judge was elected 
who was from the Mohawk Valley, N. Y. and had been 
a clerk in a store. After his election he went into a 
lawyer's office to prepare for the discharge of his 
duties. His first case was this: A family at Todd's 
Valley consisted of a step-father, his wife, and two 
daughters of the wife by her first husband, aged 
thirteen and fifteen years. The step-father had 
married the mother when the girls were young — 



320 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



mere babies. An industrious well-to-do blacksmith, 
about forty years old, married the eldest girl with- 
out the consent of the mother. vShe procured an 
indictment against the clergyman for performing the 
ceremony. Tattle was for the defense. Thomas, 
the District Attorney, called a witness to prove the 
marriage, and the mother to prove that she had 
objected to it. and rested. Tuttle called the second 
daughter, when the following colloquy took place: — 

Judge — What do you call that girl for? 

Tuttle — I expect to prove by her that the step- 
father has raised the girls, and has stood in loco 
parentis and been their guardian, and gave his con- 
sent to the marriage. 

Judge — 1 wish you to understand that this Court 
will not permit a young girl like that to be called to 
contradict an old woman like that. 

Tuttle — The District Attorney does not object. 

Oourt — It is my business to take care that this 
Court is not imposed on. 

The witness retii'ed and Tuttle took his seat. 
There was a painful silence for three or four min- 
utes, when the Ju<lge saiil, " Why don't you goon ? " 
Tuttle answered, " The Court refuses to let our wit- 
ness be sworn." There was a short pause, when 
the District Attorney told the jury that the 
testimony was all on one side. The Judge then 
instructed them to find a verdict of guilty. The 
jury retired, and in tive minutes returned with a ver- 
dict of not guilty. 

Fitzsimmons, when he ceased to be County Judge, 
removed to Forest Hill, where he practiced several 
years and then went to GoM Hill, State of Nevada, 
where he now resides. 

Jo Hamilton was one of the pioneer lawyers of 
Placer County, locating at Auburn, where he has 
resided for many years. In 1860 he was elected 
District Attorney, and again in 1862. In 1871 he 
was elected Attorney-General of the State, and 
re-elected in 1875. Gen. Hamilton is one of the 
leading Democrats, as also one of the best-known 
lawyers of California. Since retiring from the 
office of Attorney-General he has resumed practice 
at Auburn. 

The following anecdote is told, which indicates 
thestanding of this gentleman among the heathen of 
California. A Chinese notable traveling in the 
country, acting as an interpreter and general agent 
among his countrymen, presuming to occupy a posi- 
tion similar to that of an American attorney, when 
asked as to his means of obtaining an honest liveli- 
hood, he responded, "Me big lawyer; me alle same 
Jo Hamilton." 

Kdward W. Ilillyev, a 3'ounger brother of C. J. Hill- 
yer, commenced the jjractice of law in Auburn. In 

1862 he became Lieutenant of California Volunteers, 
and subsequently became Lieutenant-Colonel. In 

1863 he was elected to the Assembly from Placer, and 
obtained leave of absence from the army to serve 



his term. In 1871 he was appointed U. S. District 
Attorney for the State of Nevada. 

W. H. Bullock commenced practice at Michigan 
Bluffs in 1856, and W. H. Norton at Lincoln some 
two j-ears later. Mr. Bullock is a native of Massa- 
chusetts and a graduate of Williams College. Norton 
came to California from Wisconsin. Both gentlemen 
have been practicing at Auburn several years. H. 
H. Fellows commenced practice at Auburn in 1863. 
He was a man of a fine legal mind. After serving 
as District Attorney and coming into the possession 
of a good practice, he died, another victim of intem- 
perance. His sad end was lamented by many 
friends. C. A. Tweed, who had been pra'-ticing at 
Dutch Flat for some time in 1864, formed a part- 
nership at Auburn with E. L. Craig. Mr. Tweed 
was afterwards appointed by President Lincoln one 
of the Territorial Judges of Arizona. J. M. Ful- 
weiler commenced the practice at Dutch Flat in 
1868, and soon after removed to Auburn. 

Judges Myres and Hale are the Nestors of the Bar 
in Placer County, for they have practiced there con- 
tinuously since 1852. C. A. Tuttle removed to Oak- 
land in 1868, but has since retained a portion of his 
former practice in the county. J. T. Kineade has 
been practicing at Auburn for several years. Hale 
and Craig have been partners for several years, and 
Bullock and Norton have recently formed a partner- 
ship. W. B. Lardner, a young lawyer, commenced 
the practice at Auburn in 1878, and W. A. Hughes 
in 1880; and J. E. Prescott also settled at Dutch 
Flat in 1879. Lardner is now District Attorney, 
and Myres is Superior Judge. 

The many important cases that have occupied the 
courts of Placer it would be impracticable to detail 
in this volume, but many are referred to in the dif- 
ferent chapters. 

THE JUDICIARY. 

Since the organization of the county the following 
judges and attorneys have presided over its courts: 

District Judges. — Seth B. Farwell, 1851 to 1852; 
John M. Howell, 1852 to 1859; Benjamin F. Myres, 
1859 to 1864; T. B. McFarland, 1864 to 1870; T. B. 
Keardan, 1870 to 1880. 

County Judges. — Hugh Fitzsimmons, 1851 to 
1855; James E. Hale, 1855 to 1859; E. H. Yandecar, 
1859 to 1863; Hart Fellows, 1863 to 1868; D. W. 
Spear, 1868 to 1872; J. Ives Fitch, 1872 to 1880. 

Superior Judge. — B. F. Myres, 1880. 

District Attorneys. — R. D. Hopkins, 1851 to 
1853; P. W. Thomas, 1853 to 1855; M. E. Mills, 1855 
to 1857; P. W. Thomas, 1857 to 1861; Jo Hamilton, 
1801 to 1864; C. A. Tweed, 1804 to 1866; E. L. 
Craig, 181)6 to 1870; H. H. Follows, 1870 to 1872; 
J. M. Fulweilor, 1872 to 1876; W. H. Bullock, 1876 
to 1880; W. B. Lardner, 1880. 




Photographed by J M. Jacobs 



John T. Ashley. 



CHURCH, BENCH, AND BAR. 



321 



ATTORNEYS REGISTERED IN PLACER. 



L. Aldrich, 

— Allen, 

Geo. L. Anderson, 
James Anderson, 

— Ankeny, 
L. B. Arnold, 
A. J. Ball, 

W. H. L Barnes, 

— Beatty, 

J. S. Belcher, 
W. C. Belcher, 
Thos. Bodley, 
Olis L. Bridges, 
Abram Bronk, 
C. J. Brown, 

— Buckner, 

— Buckner, 
W. H.Bullock, 
J. E. Campbell, 
J. F. Cannon, 
W. R. Cantwell, 
C. E. Carpenter, 
A. P. Catlin, 

J. Christy, 
J. S. Christy, 
Jos. Churchman, 
P. H. Clayton, 
James Coffrolh, 
Cornelius Cole, 
E. L. Craig, 
R. O. Cravens, 
E. B. ('rocker, 
N. Greene Curtis, 
J. P. Dameron, 
Wm. P. Dangerfield, 
Horace Davenport, 
A. B. Dibble, 
Geo. W. Donnelly, 
Charles C. Dudlej', 

— Dunlap, 
Charles Dyer, 
P. Edwards, 
J. L. English, 
M. M. Estec, 
Seth B. Farwell, 
Hart Fellows, 

— Ferguson, 
H. H. Fellows, 
J. Ives Fitch, 
J. Jones Fitch, 
Hugh Fitzsiramons, 

— Foote, 
H. E. Force, 

C. G. W. French, 
C. A. Friend, 
J. M. Fulweiler, 
J. Garber, 

— Gardner, 



E. H. Gaylord, 

— Gilman, 

— Glover, 

W. H. Goodfellow, 
J. H. Goss, 
W. B. Greer, 
J. J. Griffith, 
James E. Hale, 
Jo Hamilton, 
J. Hardy, 

— Harley, 

— Harmon, 
H. H. Haitley, 

— Harrison, 

— Harshaw, 
Creed Haymond, 
Hiram R. Hawkins, 
John Heard, 

L. Hermance, 
A. S. Higgins, 
Felix B. Higgins, 

E. E.Hill, ^ 
Curtis J. Hillyer, 
Ed. W. Hillyer, 

— Himrod, 
P. J. Hopper, 
R. D. Hopkins, 
N. E. Horce, 

F. A. Hornlilower, 
F. J. Houston, 
John M. Howell, 

— Howard, 

J. F. Hubbard, 

— Hughes, 

— Hyer, 

T. R. Jones, 

— Johns, 

C. A. Johnson, 
J. Neely Johnson, 

— Judah, 

— Kelts, 

Charles A. Keyser, 
J. T. Kinkade, 

H. J. Labatt, 
C. W. Langdon, 
W. B. Larduer, 
M. S Latham, 
L. D. Lattimer, 
W. D. Lawrence, 
W. S. Long, 

E. Longj-ear, 

F. S. Manford, 

— Markham, 
J. B. Marshall, 
Francis McConncU, 
John R. McConnell, 
J. G. McCullough, 
T. B. McFarland, 



C. F. McGlashan, 
\\^. H. McGrew, 
J. H. McKune, 

— Melbourne, 
Henry Meredith, 
M. S. Meyer, 

M. E. Mills, 
Geo. R. Moore, 
James Moore, 
W. W. Morel and, 

— Munson, 
Benj. F. Myers, 
J. A Neuues, 

— Newell, 
A. C. Niles, 
W. C. Norton, 

— Oeden, 

— Patton, 
Geo. N. Peck, 
R. C. Poland, 
J. E. Prewett, 
T. B. Reardan, 
Wm. C. Rich, 

— Robinson, 

— Robertson, 

— Ross, 

C. W. C. Rowell, 
H. O. R3'erson, 
S. W. Sanderson, 

— Sanders, 

— Saunders, 
Joseph W. Scobey, 
Niles Searles, 

P. H. Sibley, 
Peter Singer, 



J. P. Slade, 
Horace Smith, 
A. W. Smith, 
J. C. Smith, 

— Spaulding, 

D. W. Spear, 
Lansing Stout, 

— Sunderland, 
A. VV. Sweet, 

— Taylor, 

— Tallman, 
Phil. W. Thomas, 
G. W. Towle, 

C. A. Truett, 
Chas. A. Tuttle, 

C. A. Tweed, 
W. W. Upton, 

— VanBuren, 

E. H. Vandeear, 
A. A. VanGuelder, 
Wm. VanVactor, 

A. W. Walker, 
G. L. Waters, 
G. G. Webster, 
J. S. Welch, 

J. F. Welch, 

D. W. Welty, 
Chas. Westmoreland, 

B. C. Whiting, 
Thos. H. Williams, 
J. L. Wilber, 

E. M. Wilson, 
J. W. Winans, 

F. W. Wj-man. 



W. n. BCLLOCK. 

William Horalio Bullock is a native of Massachu- 
setts, having been born in the old " Bay State" in 
1828. There he remained until the years of man- 
hood, acquiring the education and profession that 
have been so important to him in after life. In 1851 
he came to California and sought his fortune in the 
mines, chiefly at Lowell Hill, in Nevada County. 
After an experience of six months in the gold region, 
he returned to his native State, where he remained 
until 1855, when he determined to make his future 
home in California, and hither he came, landing in 
San Francisco in October of that year. He then 
settled in Michigan Bluff, where he remained in the 
practice of law for nearly ten years, subsequently 
removing to Auburn. In 1875 Mr. Bullock was 
elected District Attorney as an Independent, he 
being a Democrat. 

When the nominations of the Independent Party 
were made, the Herald said: — 

W. H. Bullock, candidate for District Attorney, is 
one of the best nominations made, and for this rea- 
son, Mr. Bullock is one of the best read lawyers in 
the county; and apart i'rom the important nature of 



41 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



much of Placer's litigation, the people will readily 
conceive the vast importance of securing us much 
talent for this position as possible. 

Ill 1877 he was re-elected on the Democratic ticket, 
holding his position until 18S0. when succeeded by 
W. B. Lardner. The administration of Mr. Bullock 
was claimed as attended with more ability, more 
general quiet, and less expense than any adminis- 
tration of the office for years preceding. Since 
retiring from public office he has resumed the prac- 
tice of his profession in Auburn, and is now one of 
the most prominent lawyers at the Bar of Placer 
County. 

C. A. TITTLE. 

Charles A. Tuttle was born in LeRoy. (xenessee 
County, Xew York. November 5, 1818. His parents 
were Harvey and Lucy (Taylor) Tuttle, the father 
born in Barkhamsted. and the mother at Hartland, 
both in Litchfield (bounty, Connecticut. They were 
married in 181G. and removed to LeRoy. The 
paternal ancestors of .Mr. Tuttle emigrated from 
England in l<i'2-t. and landed at Portsmouth. New 
Hampshire. On his mother's side he traces his 
ancestry to Capt. John Brown, who was killed in 
battle at Lake Champlaiii during the French 
and English war in 17.'J0. .John Brown, of Ossawa- 
tamie, was a grandson, and Lucy Taylor, Mr. Tut- 
tle's mother, was a granddaughter of Capt. John 
Brown. The subject of this sketch has inherited 
the strong and positive traits of character exhibited 
in the Brown family, as will be readily observed by 
all who are familiar with his political course. The 
principles of libertj' of conscience and the inalien- 
able birthright of man are born in the blood and 
bred in the bone, and with the determination and 
courage of his ancestors he has always been ready 
to express and act upon his opinions. 

While a child of seven years, in a boyish attempt 
to use an axe, ho cut his right knee, and from the 
wound he became a cripple by the stiffening of the 
joint. His father, who.se ideas of a son were 
strength and skill to assist him on the farm, told 
him with a mournful face: •■ Now j'ou will never be 
good for anything, and I must send you to 
school." After receiving the usual instruction in 
reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and gram- 
mar, at the public school, he prepared for college at 
a private school in the village of LeRoy, under the 
instruction of the Rev. Mr. Metcalf, the Episcopal 
clergyman of the village, and entered Hobart Col- 
lege, at Geneva, N. Y.. in July, 1840. 

From his earliest recollection, when told he would 
not be good for anything. Mr. Tuttle had formed the 
resolution to become a lawyer, and at the end of 
two years he left college and entered the law office 
of Gardiner & Delano, at Rochester, New York. 

In October, 1845, he was married to Maria L. 
Batchelder, daughter of Enos Batchelder, a farmer 
in LeRoy. Soon after marriage Mr. Tuttle and his 



wife removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he 
was admitted to practice in the United States Terri- 
torial Courts, and commenced the practice in com- 
pany with S. P. Coon, who was elected Attornej'- 
General of Wisconsin in 1849. 

In the winter of 1849, Mr. Tuttle determined to 
remove to California, and in March, in company with 
three others, left Milwaukee for Independence, Mis- 
souri. From this point the party, on the 26th of 
April, commenced the long journey across the plains, 
arriving in California late in July. On the 28th of 
Jul}', 1849, he arrived at lUinoistown, and shortly 
after engaged in mining at Barnes' Bar, on the North 
Fork of the American River. There were but few 
people in that region at that time. Mr. E. T. Men- 
denhall had located at Illinoistown. Dr. F. W. Todd, 
now of Stockton, and F. Hill, of Oregon, had settled 
at Todd's Valley, Capt, Thompson and Archie 
McDonald were at Bird's Valley, ■' Yankee Jim" was 
mining in a gulch where the town now bears his 
sobriquet, and Capt. Tichenor was mining in a gulch 
in the locality which afterwards became Michigan 
Bluff. On the rivers were a number of Oregonians 
and sailors who had left their vessels in San Fran- 
cisco, and a few Americans who had come by way of 
the Isthmus of Panama. 

In February. 18.50. Mr. Tuttle went to Stony Bar, 
on the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Amer- 
ican River, and there he tried his first California 
law-suit before a tribunal of miners. One Capt. 
Smith, a Scotchman, and several sailors, also Scotch- 
men, had built a cabin on Stony Bar, and mined 
there during the winter, and had located the bed of 
the stream for summer mining. A company of Ohio 
men came to the bar in March, looking for diggings. 
These men posted notices up and down the river, 
calling a miners' meeting to decide whether foreign- 
ers should hold claims. On Sunday a large crowd 
assembled. Mr. Tuttle volunteered to defend the 
Scotchmen. He addressed the audience and used all 
the arguments he was master of to show the injus- 
tice of forcing the Scotchmen to abandon their 
claims. There were some present who had been in 
the Mexican war, and these said, "we fought for this 
country and it is ours by right." The meeting 
decided that the Scotchmen could not hold a claim, 
and the Ohio men took possession. 

In 1851 Mr. Tuttle went East, and in the summer 
of 1852 returned overland with his wife and settled 
at Bird's Valley. In the political campaign of 1853 
he became the Democratic candidate for the Senate, 
and was elected. This was his first acquaintance 
with politics, and with the public men of this State. 
At the session which followed he made the acquaint- 
ance and became the friend of David C. Brodcrick. 
The Supreme Court of this State had about this time 
decided that no appeal could be taken from the State 
Court to the Supreme Court of the United States. 
At the session of 1855 Mr. Tuttle. in connection with 
Judge Whiting, of Monterey, prepared a bill to 



THE CRIiMINAL RECORD. 



823 



enforce such appeals in proper cases. His speech on 
the bill was published and generally circulated, and 
to the surprise of everyone the bill passed. The law 
will be found in the Statutes of 1855, page eighty. 
This act laid the foundation for the controversj- 
between the advocates of States' Rights and their 
opponents, which was carried on in this State, and 
which aided much in the formation of the Republi- 
can Party. Mr. Tuttle retired from the Senate at 
the close of the term in 1855, an adherent of the 
Republican Party, then organizing in the East. He 
canvassed the northern part of the State in 1856 for 
Fi-emont, and in 1857 he presided over the Republi- 
can State Convention. In the spring of 1856 he 
formed a partnership with C. J. Hillyer in the prac- 
tice of the law at Auburn. Mr. Hillyer was a grad- 
uate of Yale, and an able lawyer. The firm trans- 
acted a large business until 1863, when Mr. Hillyer 
went to the Territory of Nevada and settled at Vir- 
ginia City. He now resides in Washington, D. C. 

In 1860 Mr. Tuttle was on the Republican Elec- 
toral ticket, canvassed the Stale in advocacj^ of the 
party, and had the honor of casting his vote as 
Elector of California for Abraham Lincoln for Pres- 
ident. In 1863 he was appointed by Governor Stan- 
ford Reporter to the Supreme Court, which position 
he held till the fall of 1867, when he resigned. As 
Reporter his work comprised ten volumes, from the 
twenty-second to the thirtj^-third of the California 
Reports. They are spoken of in the highest terms 
by the profession. 

In the fall of 18G7 Mr. Tuttle was elected to the 
Legislature from Placer County. In the winter of 
1868 he removed to Oakland, because a change of 
climate was deemed necessary for the health of his 
wife. Mrs. Tuttle visited the East the following 
summer for her health, and died at Brooklyn, New 
York, in October, 1868. 

Mrs. Tuttle was a grailuate of the LeRoy Female 
Seminary, and a lady of refinement. She had early 
studied under Mr. Stanton, an artist, and left a num- 
ber of paintings, which now adorn the walls of Mr. 
Tuttle's residence. She left three sons, two of whom 
are now memljers of the bar. 

In 1871 Mr. Tuttle was appointed by Governor 
Haight one of the revisers of the work of the Code 
Commissioners, and in company with Sidney A. John- 
son was engaged ou that labor until the passage of the 
Codes in the spring of 1872. In the summer of 1873 
he was again appointed by the Supreme Court 
Reporter of its decisions, which position he held 
until the spring of 1878. During this period he 
published thirteen volumes of reports. In 1875 he 
was nominated by the Independent Party for Con- 
gress, but failed of election. 

Although Mr. Tuttle's life-work has been tbat of 
a lawyer, yet he takes a deep interest in politics, and 
has positive opinions on all political questions. He 
still resides in Oakland, but retains considerable 
practice at Auburn, being much attached to Placer 



County, and intends to return there and pass the 
remainder of his life. There is probably no one liv- 
ing who was more completely identified with the 
early history of Placer L'ounty, or who is better 
acquainted with its mining and other resources 
than Mr. Tuttle. 



CHAPTER XL I. 
THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 

The Rurity of Crime — The tirst Highway Robbery — Execution 
of Robert Scott — .Scott's Last Words — Execution of John- 
son at Iowa Hill — A Law-maker Law-breaking — James 
Freeland Hanged — E.xecution of Joseph Bradley — Murder 
and Lynching at Auburn — Robbery and Battle — "Rattle- 
snake Dick " — Dick Changes his Location — The Robber 
Gang — Robbery of ^Vells, Fargo & Co.'s Express — Record 
of George Skinner — Dick and a New Gang -Dick's Hatred 
of John C. Boggs — Escape from Jail — Robberies by the 
Gang — Phillips, of the Mountaineer House — Mysterious 
Death of a Prisoner — Death of " Rattlesnake Dick " — An 
Affecting Letter — The Last of the Tragedy — Chinamen 
Slaughter a Family — The Chinese Expelled from Rucklin — 
Expedition After Ah Sam — Discovery and Death of the 
Murderer — Murder by Indians — Wrecking a Railroad 
Train — Singular Reve atiou of Murder — A Tragic End — 
Homicides and Robberies. 

In all frontier countries the criminal record is 
expected to greatly exceed that of old and well 
organized communities, and the following, as occur- 
ring in a single county in California during a period 
of thirty years, may appear so formidable as to 
reflect disadvantageously upon the civilization of 
the Pacific Coast. The fact should be borne in 
mind that it is an aggregation of many years, gath- 
ered from the records of the courts and the criminal 
items of the contemporaneous newspa])er8, and will, 
perhaps, not be found to exceed in proportion to 
population that of the large cities where the high- 
est civilization is sujijiosed to exist. No city of the 
United States contains a more mixed population 
than did the mining counties of California, and while 
some in the latter were desperate characters, having 
an evil influence upon others naturally inclined to 
virtue and honor, thus swelling the criminal record, 
there were many others determined that law and 
order should prevail, and through their efforts crim- 
inals were brought to justice and all deeds of crime 
were brought to public notice. While in some 
States many crimes pass unnoticed, or are avenged 
or punished by the persons aggricvefl, and no great 
record is made, in California, as in the most law- 
abiding communities, all are made a matter of pub- 
lic record, making the comparison of statistics 
entirely unfair. 

THE RAIUTV OF CRI.ME. 

During the first few years of gold-mining, crime 
was remarkably rare. There wasvery little security 
for property but the knowledge that punishment 
would be quick and terrible, without any inter- 
vention of the tedious processes of the courts, or the 
technicalities of the law now so universally used to 



324 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



shield the criminal. E^en suspicion sometimes 
brought punishment, the suspected being required to 
prove their innocence or suffer, and therefore 
where otherwise crime would probably have been 
committed, those who might have been inclined'to 
trespass upon the rights of others were deterred 
from so doing. 

Horse-stealing was more common, as the stolen 
property so materially aided the thief to e,5cape. 
This class of crime was one of the most heinous 
of offenses, and was usually summarily punished. 
Idle men were regarded with distrust. Of these 
there were two groups — the gamblers and the 
thieves — the first giving their occupation as that 
of miner, and the other as rancher, until it was 
jocularly said that the term miner was synonymous 
with gambler, and that of rancher with horse-thief. 

THE FIRST HIGHWAY ROBBERY. 

Probably the fir.st large robbery within the 
region of the gold mines occurred on the plains 
between the Auburn Ravine and the crossing of 
the American River, and was in the fall of 1848. 
An English gentleman traveler, whose name is for- 
gotten, related, many years ago, the following inci- 
dent: He, happening to be in Sm Francisco when 
the first excitement of the gold discover}' was car- 
rying oft' the people, joined a party for the mines. 
They, with the crowd, went first to Sutter's Fort, 
and then to Sutter's Mill, at Uoloma. After min- 
ing with moderate success in the vicinity sutfioientl}' 
to learn the methods in operation, the}' traveled 
north to some unnamed ravine north of the North 
Fork, and there worked with good success for sev- 
eral months. In October the}' made preparations to 
return to San Francisco. Purchasing some riding- 
animals from some .Mexicans, and a p.ick-mule to 
carry their blankets and gold-dust, ihoy started on 
their journey. The pack mule was quite heavil}- 
laden with the precious cargo, and was taken in 
charge by one and then another of the part}', who 
would lead it in advance of the other-i. The d ly 
was exceedingly jjleasant as the little cavalcade 
marched out of the foot-hills. I'Dllowing the single 
trail, or bridle path, that led towards Sutter's Fort. 
An unpeopled wilderness extended on all sides. Xo 
person was met or seen, and as the d:iy wcn-e on, the 
party became careless and tired, and were considera- 
bly separated from each other on the trail. While 
thus riding and approaching a grove ot' trees where 
they thought of camping fc)r the night, the mule and 
treasure considerably in advance, iher.j ruig from 
the grove a shot and the leader of tht^ mule fell from 
the saddle. A quick charge, the twirling of u cou|ile 
of lassoes, and the riderle-^s h >r-ie aul gold-laden 
mule were in thi* ]M>ssessioii of a parly of t'oiir or 
five Mexiriii-i, and under whip and spur were (lying 
tovvard the Uio tie los Americanos. The first 
thought of the party of miners was to attend to 
their wounded companion, but soon they aiipreri.ited 



the loss of their treasure, and some started in pur- 
suit. The animals they were riding were of little 
value, and the pursuit was fruitless. 

The next day Sutter's Fort was i-eached, the mur- 
dered friend was buried, and a party was organized 
to pursue the robbers. Some delay attended these 
preparations, and several days passed before the pur- 
suers could proceed. In the meantime it was learned 
that the robbers were headed by Jose Armijo, a son, 
or nephevv, of the former Governor Armijo of New 
Mexico, who is so graphically described by Kendall 
in his account of the Texan expedition to New 
Mexico. 

The bandits had fled up the San Joaquin Valley, 
and the pursuing party followed. The chase was a 
long one, and the trail plain, as the Mexicans had 
gathered quite a large caballada before leaving the 
occupied region. The pursuers followed through the 
whole length of the great valley, through the south- 
ern passes of the Sierra Nevada, out upon the desert 
of the Mohave, and into the old •• Spanish Trail " 
that for many years had been the route of inter- 
communication between California and New Mexico. 
Here, with animals jaded, supplies exhausted, the 
season late, the robbers with their booty far in 
advance, further ])Ursuit was hopeless and the 
despoiled miners returned. 

EXECUTION OF ROBERT SCOTT. 

October 20, 1853, an atrocious murder was com- 
niittt'd near a house called "Traveler's Rest," in 
Auburn. Andrew King, a quiet and peaceable young 
man, hud refused to lend three dollars to Robert 
Scott at a gaming-table on the evening of the 19th. 
The next day Scott called King out of his house 
and, presenting two loaded revolvers, told King to 
take one and defend himself. This the latter refused 
and turned to go into the house, when Scott fired 
and instantly killed his victim. 

The murderer fled, but was pursued by many who 
turned out in the search, and on the 2-lth foUovving 
was arrested by (Nonstable M. P. H. Love and Dep- 
uty Sherift' E. B lioust, who had traced the fugitive to 
the Cosumncs liiver. In due time Scott was brought 
to trial, ail'] on the \'.'A\\ of February, 1854, was con- 
victed and sentenced hy Judge Howell to be hanged 
on the :ilst of March, 1851. 

On the day of the execution, a large number of 
peojile assembled at Auburn from all parts of the 
county to witness the ap]>alling sight of launching a 
fellow-being into eternity through the dread process 
of the law. Two thousand people had assembled, 
hut the utmost order prevailed. The Shei-ift" 
detailed the members of the Hook and Ladder Com- 
pany as a guard, and these accom])anied the pris- 
oner from the jail to the gallows, and there formed 
a line between the spectators and the culprit. The 
execution is reported in the Herald of that date as 
follows: — 

'• At the hour of half-])ast eleven a. m., he was 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



32: 



released from his irons, and dressed in a becoming 
manner. With his bands tied behind him, he was 
taken in a wagon from the jail to the place of execu- 
tion, followed by a large crowd of people. During 
his course to the gallows, Scott appeared perfectly 
cool and unmoved. Not a change was perceptible 
on his countenance. He sat on the front seat of 
the wagon, smoking a cigar, apparently an indiffer- 
ent looker-on at a dreadful scene about to be trans- 
acted. Immediately behind him sat the Sheriff and 
his deputies. 

" Upon arriving at the gallows, the prisoner 
mounted the stairs with a quick and firm step, 
accompanied b}' the Sheriff, Mr. Astin, and his depu- 
ties, and Sheriff Buell of El Dorado County and his 
deputies. Young, Welton, and Orr, and Constables 
McKinney and Robinson. Dr. John P. Harper was 
also present as attendant physician. 

"The crowd around the gallows was now very 
dense, and crowds were coming all the time from 
town to swell the numbers, but were kept in order 
by the guard who accompanied the prisoner. 

" The Sheriff read the order of the Court. 

'• After the order was read the Sheriff asked Scott 
if he had anything to say. When he stepped for- 
ward and addressed the multitude as t'ollows:" — 
" scott's last word.s. 

" ' I have but a few woi'ds to saj'. I have had a 
fair and impartial trial, and I am willing to abide by 
the law. 1 have done no more than I would do 
again to any man who would not give me satisfaction 
for what he had said. I return my thanks to John 
Spell, the Jailor, and Sam Astin, the Sheriff, and 
other friends, who have been kind to me. As for 
the paltry mob, vvho have urged on mj^ trial before 
1 was ready, they are too mean for my curses. I have 
done.' 

" These vvords were uttered in rather a low tone of 
voice, and were hardly' audible to many who were 
present. 

•' The prisoner was then dressed in a white robe, 
a black cap was drawn over his head, his feet 
securely tied, and placed in his proper position upon 
the trap, with the rope around his neck. The Sher- 
iff now announced the hour to be 12 o'clock, when 
the lever which worked the machinery was pushed 
forward, the trap fell, and Robert Scott's spirit was 
ushered into the presence of his God. He gave but 
a shudder or two, and all was over. It was an 
awful sight, and one which no man could look upon 
without feelings of regret — but Robert Scott had 
brought the penalty upon himself; he had deprived 
a fellow-being of life; he has atoned for it. 

" At twenty-two minutes i)ast 12 o'clock. Dr. Har- 
per examined the culprit, and was satisfied that he 
was dead. The body was permitted to hang ten 
minutes longer, when death was pronounced to the 
Sheriff bj' the Doctor. Scott was cut down, and 
buried at the foot of the gallows. Good order pre- 
vailed throughout the entire day.'' 



EXECUTION OP JOHNSON AT I0W.4. HILL. 

The execution of Wm. Johnson, at Iowa Hill, by 
a lynch court, created a great sensation at the time, 
agd was the cause of a long continued controversy 
in the courts and in the public press. Johnson had 
influential relatives and partisans, as many despera- 
does of that period had, and these were active in 
revenging the execution, and defending his char- 
acter. 

The following circular was issued by the citizens 
of Iowa Hill, in relation to the execution, which is 
undoubtedly the true version of the traged}': — 

" To THE Citizens of Placer County: In conse- 
quence of the false statements that have been put in 
circulation by interested parties, the people of Iowa 
Hill and vicinity deem it but justice to themselves 
that the following statement of the facts should be 
made public. 

"The whole matter originated as follows: At 1 
o-clock at night, in the (^ueen City Hotel, two per- 
sons, one a friend of Johnson, and the other a 
friend of Montgomery, had got into a difficulty. 
The friend of Johnson seemed likely to be worsted, 
and Johnson seized the arm of the other to protect 
his friend. Montgomery seeing this, seized-hold of 
Johnson, and told him to desist, holding at the same 
time a jack-knife, with a two-inch blade, in his right 
hand. Johnson told him to put, it (the knife) up, or 
he would cut his d — d bead off. Montgomery 
then put up his knife. Johnson then said, "I have 
a knife, too," and drew his Bowie-knife, flourishing 
it in the air. He then put it up. Montgomeiy then 
reached toward him with his right hand, when 
Johnson seized him by the hair of his head with his 
left, struck him violently in the face with his 
clenched fist three or four times, and, as he fell for- 
ward, kicked him in the stomach. 

" During this time there was no resistance on the 
part of Montgomery, whom the witnesses consid- 
ered in a state of intoxication at the time. 

" After he had risen, he went to the bar, and, tak- 
ing up a tumbler in each hand, cried, " show me the 

8 b that struck me," repeating the words, 

he walked several times around the room, passing 
near Johnson several times, but without recognizing 
him. Tbe bystanders then took the tumblers out ot 
Montgomerj''s hands. 

" After this nothing more occurred until about 
fifte&n minutes past 6 o'clock in the morning, about 
five hours after the above occurrence took place. 
Johnson rode up to the Queen City Hotel, on a horse 
he had just hired at Cad^- & Co.'s stables, and, seeing 
a friend, wont in to drink. As he advanced to the 
bar, he saw .Montgomer}- leaning against it, and, 
going toward him, addressed the following words 

to him: ' You d s b , I hear that you 

said I struck you with a slung-shot.' 

" Montgomery replied that he bad not said so, and 
asked Johnson who he was, and, raising his cap, 



326 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



said that he thought the marks on his forehead 
looked like it. 

"Johnson replied: 'D j-ou, you have two of 

my marks now, and I will give you another to 
remember me by.' As he said this he struck him in 
the mouth, knocking him down. 

" Montgomery complained that he was no match for 
him, being a smaller man. Johnson replied that he 
was a pretty fellow to run for Constable, adding, 

'd you, go and arm yourself with a knife and 

pistol, and make yourself my equal.' Then turning 
to the bar, he called for some brandy, bathed the 
back of his hand, the skin of which had been 
knocked off against Montgomery's teeth, saying that 
he had come all the way from Yreka to cut the hearts 
out of some men on Iowa Hill, oae of whom was a 
ticket seller, and the other a merchant. 

" Montgomery in the meantime had risen and relit 
his cigar, and walked slowly across the street to 
Cramer's Hotel, and asked for Mr. Colgan, who was 
sleeping there, but was told not to disturb him. In 
inquiring for him ho had gone into Mr. Cramer's 
room, and, seeing a pistol on the table, had asked 
for it, saying he had been attacked and was afraid 
to go into the street, and asked Mr. Cramer to 
accompany him to Colgan's store, which request he 
complied with, and they passed out and walked 
down the street arm in arm. 

"When about half the distance, Johnson saw them, 
and, leaping from his horse, drew his knife, saying, 

" You d — 8 of a b , are you armed now?" 

At this time he was within one step of Montgomerj^, 
with his knife raised for the blow. Cramer, seeing 
his threatening attitude, sprang and caught his arm, 
and received in so doing a slight wound in his hand. 
This saved Montgomery's life, as he had not at this 
time drawn his pistol, and was entirely without 
defense. The force with which Cramer seized 
Johnson's arm turned him partly round. Montgomery 
then drew his pistol and attempted to tire, but the 
pistol hung fire and did not go off until he had low- 
ered it for the purpose of re-cocking. Johnson, on 
sight of the pistol, fled aero-ts the street to the Queen 
City, followed by Montgomery, who fired again at 
him from the middle of the street, but without effect 
Johnson ran through the door, which was opened 
back, and dodged behin 1 it. Montgomery, following, 
tripped on the sill of the <loor, and would have fallen 
to the floor had he not caught at the door-post, from 
which he hung back in an inclined position. John- 
son, seeing him fall, s])r,iiig upon him, seizing 
him by the collar with his left hand, and stabbed 
him five or six times, and Montgomei-y fell back 
exclaiming, " I am a dead man." 

"Johnson then attempted to catch his horse, which 
was loose in the street, but was unable to do so, and 
finding the crowd pursuing him, he fled in the direc. 
tion of Wisconsin Hill, but was soon overtaken and 
made prisoner by W. M. Crutcher, Constable of this 
township. 



" We, the undersigned, having either been present 
during the above occurrences, or during the exami- 
nation, certify that the above is correct in all its par- 
ticulars, being the substance of what was testified 
by sworn witnesses. 

"Wm. R. Olden, Samuel Todd, 

G. C. Reed, James Herrick, 

M. B. Tubbs, J. R. Gilbert, 

J. H. Cramer, C. O. Kimble, 

J. Franklin, D. Symes, 

A. Butts, W. J. Armstrong, 

Glover Ault, J. T. Hill, 

T. W. Kent, W. D. Smith, 

A. Oxendine, B. D. Hows, 

J. Spratt, W. D. Squares, 

John Kavenaugh, John Armstrong, 

M. P. Miller, D. Lathrop 

A. L. Boydeu, Michael Gahan, 

S. N. Calvin, James Fox, 

J. Byers, Michael Rogan, 

John M. Denny, Henry N. Kimball, 

T. H. Green, B. M. Trim, 

W. L. Morrison." 

The following is a narrative of the events as they 
occurred after the arrest: — 

After his arrest the prisoner was taken to the oflice 
of Esquire Sibley, where he remained about two and 
a half hours, in charge of the Constables, at the end 
of which time he had a hearing before Esquire Sellen, 
of Wisconsin Hill — Esquire Sibley having, it was 
reported, been so much overcome with the fatigue oj 
dancing the night previous that he had gone to bed 
immediately after the prisoner had been brought into 
his office. The prisoner demanded twenty-four hours 
to prepare for trial, which was gr.mted, and he was 
turned over to Deputy Sheriff Sinclair, for safe-keep- 
ing until that time. In the meantime a large crowd 
had assembled in town from the surrounding country, 
and the desperate character of the prisoner and the 
fear of an attempt to rescue on the part of his friends, 
caused many of the people to volunteer their assist- 
ance as an additional guard. At four o'clock in the 
afternoon the town-crier announced that a meeting 
of the citizens would be held at the Queen City Hotel. 
The meeting assembled, came to order, and appointed 
the Hook and Ladder Companj- and twenty-five 
other citizens as a guard to the prisoner, and to 
prevent fire; also thirty two well-known citizens 
we're chosen to hold an examination of the prisoner. 
These persons wore nominated and voted for sepa- 
ratelj". without a dissenting voice. These were to 
select out of their number twelve, by b.illot, who 
were to serve as' the examining committee, and 
make a report to the people as soon as practicable. 
The meeting then adjourned, and after su]>per the 
guard appointed took possession of the prisoner, and 
removed him to a place of greater safety. At eight 
o'clock the committee commenced their examination, 
and continued until two in the morning, having 



THE CTJMllSAL EECCED. 



327 



examined some sixteen witnesses, who were all dulj- 
sworn and confronted with the prisoner, who was 
allowed the utmost latitude in cross-examining them, 
asking them leading questions in such a way that it 
amounted to testifying himself. Every witness that 
the prisoner wi-hed was sent for, sis of whom were 
his personal frii-nds; the others were most of them 
men who wei-e unacquainted with either party. At 
two o'clock the Committee adjourned, to meet at nine 
o'clock the following morning, and unanimously 
agreed upon a report, of which the following is 
a true copy, viz.: 

" That, on the evening of the 22d of December, at 
eight o'clock, a majority of the committee appointed 
to investigate the matter with regard to the alfray 
between Wm. M. Johnson and Thomas Montgomery, 
assembled in the Queen City Hotel, and immediately 
proceeded to select twelve of their number by ballot, 
as directed by the meeting, and your committee, 
after the most unprejudiced and careful investiga- 
tion, and after having examined all the witnesses 
(who were first duly sworn), both for and against 
the prisoner, to the number of sixteen, whose testi- 
mony was given in the presence of the accused, 
who was allowed the utmost latitude in cross-exam- 
ining the same, we, the committee, have come to the 
conclusion, from all the facts elicited in our exami- 
nation, that the prisoner, Wm. M. Johnson, without 
suflicient provocation in the first assault, and five 
hours after, without any provocation at all, in the 
second and third, is guilty of an assault and battery, 
with intent to kill. In testimony whereof we have 
hereunto affixed our names. 

•' John T. Hill, John M.Demiss, 

James Fox, J. Rj'ers, 

David Symmes, W. J.Armstrong, 

Michael Gahan, B. D. Howes, 

Michael Eogan, M. B. Tubbs, 

Daniel Lathrop, W. R. Olden, Chairman 

"At ten o'clock, on the 23d of December, the meeting 
h aving been called to order, the above report was read 
bj' the Chairman of the Committee, and the people were 
then asked what should be done with the prisoner. 
A universal cry of " hang him" burst from 1,500 
throats, and one among them made a motion which 
was seconded, that the people there assembled should 
select a committee and a Sheriff, who would proceed 
to hang him forthwith. This was passed almost 
unanimously, only some twenty voting against it. 
The committee thus selected having procured a rope, 
conveyed the prisoner to a tree at the north end of 
the town, to execute the sentence of the people 
Whilst under the tree, the conduct of the prisoner 
was such as might have been expected, from the 
reckless, desperate life he had led during the last 
five years, cursing and blaspheming in a m'jnnerthat 
was calculated to excite disgust in all who heard or 
saw him. At hi < owii request ho was allowed to 
become his own executioner, springing from the 
barrel on which he stood. 



"During the whole of the proceedings, notwith- 
standing the exciting nature of the business that had 
called thom together, during the whole of the two 
days, not a single man could be seen who was in the 
least excited by liquor; everything was done in the 
most deliberate manner; there was no haste, every 
man seems to have made up his mind to make an 
example that would prevent such crimes for the 
future." 

"Iowa Hill, January 5, 1855." 

Through the exertions of a brother of the executed 
man, a large number of indictments were obtained 
against citizens of [owa Hill, and many arrests were 
made. A numerous posse was summoned, making 
quite an army to make the arrests, as has been 
referred to in preceding pages, but the chief result 
was a large addition to the debt of the county — and 
no convictions. 

In February, 1855, Mr. Robert MeClure, of Yankee 
Jim's, went to San Francisco to meet his father on 
his return from the Atlantic States, and while the 
two, and a gentleman named VVorden from Iowa 
Hill, were stopping at Wilson's Exchange, then the 
leading hotel of that city, they were attacked by a 
large gang of roughs headed by Johnson, the brother 
of the one executed at Iowa Hill the previous Decem- 
ber, and were terribly beaten. The papers of San 
Francisco, as well as the govern mentof the city were 
then controlled by the rough element; but in the 
year following, the law and order people of the 
metropolis followed the example of the people of 
Iowa Hill and executed a number of politicians and 
desperadoes, and reformed the government. This 
was the Vigilance Committee of 1856. 

A LAW-MAKER LAW-BREAKING. 

April 8, 1856, at Sacramento, in the Orleans Hotel, 
R. S. "Williams, member of the Assembly from Placer 
County, met Mr. Borland, member of Assembly from 
El Dorado, and the two engaged in a dispute about 
some legislative matter, and the dispute resulted in a 
quarrel. Mr. Borland drew a pistol which Williams 
caught, and the two struggled into the street, when 
the pistol exploded aiid Mr. Borland was shot 
through the breast. Williams was held in 810,000 
bail bonds to await the action of the grand jury, and 
by that body was discharged. 

JAMES PREELAND HANGED. 

October 1, 1855, James Freeland, while gambling 
at Oak Flat with a man called " Greek George," 
accused the latter of cheating, and a quarrel ensued. 
During the raclee, Freeland picked up a gun standing 
in the room and killed his antagonist. For this he 
was tried, condemned, appealed to the Supremo 
Court where the judgment was affirmed, and on the 
6th of June, 1856, was banged at Auburn. Freeland 
was a young man, a native of Tennessee; had been 
a soldier in the Mexican war, and a resident of 
Placer County since 1850. He claimed to have acted 
in self-defense, and that the witnesses against him 



328 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



were attacking him when he fired the fatal shot. 
At his execution he maintained a firm and collected 
manner without a sign of bravado or braggadocio, 
which elicited the sympathy of the public. 

EXECaXIO.V OF JOSEPH BRADLEY. 

In 1856, Joseph Bradley killed Jacob Bateman at 
the latter's cabin near Auburn. Both the parties were 
negroes. Bradley was arrested, and in July, 1857, was 
found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on the 18th 
of September following. Upon the day appointed, 
the execution took place. Tbe gallows was erected 
about a mile and a quarter above town, near 
the junction of the Nevada, Ulinoistown, and Yankee 
Jim's road. A proce-ssion was formed at the jail, 
the escort being the Placer Rifles Military Company, 
under command of Capt. James Anderson. A coftin 
was placed in a light wagon and Sheriff King, Under 
Sheriff Bullock, and Deputy Sheritt' Sherman, having 
Bradley in charge, seated themselves upon it. .Mr. 
Zentmyer, the driver, and agentleman who conducted 
the religious ceremonies, occupied the front seat. A 
body of horsemen and laany citizens brought up the 
rear of the procession. Upon arriving at the place 
of execution at half-past two o'clock. Captain Ander- 
son formed his men in a square around the gallows. 
Sheriff King assisted Bradley from the wagon and 
walked with him upon the scaffold, followed by his 
assistant officers. The coftin was placed upon the 
platform and Bradley, seating himself upon it. 
listened with composure to the reading of the death 
warrant by Mr. Bullock. This over, at request, he 
rose, took oft' his hat and neck-handkerchief On 
being asked if he desired to say anything, he made 
some remarks; he thanked the officers for their 
kindness to him while in prison. Having finished 
speaking, he was placed upon the trap, his hands 
and feet were tied, a black robe put over his per.son, 
the noose adjusted around his neck, and a black cap 
drawn over his head by the Sheritt". This done, a 
prayer was offered by the gentleman officiating, and 
as the solemn Amen announced its conclusion, the 
Sheriff drew the lever, the trap fell, and the spirit 
of Joseph Bradley winged its way to the realms of 
eternity. After remaining until life was extinct, 
the body was taken down and buried near the foot 
of the gallows. Bradley conducted himself with 
firmness throughout the whole scL^ne. Al)Out 500 
persons witnessed the execution. 

Bradley was born in Maryland, near ihe District 
of Columbia; was thirty-nine years of age, and had 
a wife and three children living in Washington City. 
He made a short confession in which he acknowl- 
edged killing Bateman, bat that the killing was not 
premeditated. 

.MintDER .\ND LVNCHING IN AUBURN FEBRUARY 18, 1858. 

The town of Auburn, says the Herald of February 
18, 1858, was thrown into a state of excitement by 
the report that one of its oldest citizens had been 



killed. Investigation proved that Mr. James Mur- 
phy had been killed by a negro, named Aaron 
Bracey. The men owned adjoining lands, and Mur- 
phy had recently purchased some of the negro's 
land. They met near their boundary line, and 
Bracey struck his victim with a pick-axe, driving 
the steel into his brain. He (the negro) then came 
to Auburn and gave himself up, telling the officers 
that he had acciilentalh* struck Murphy, and feared 
he had hurt him bad. The negro was placed in jail 
and a posse of citizens went to attend to Mur- 
phy. He was found with a fearful hole in the back 
of his head, from which the blood and brains were 
oozing. He lived quite a while, and told the circum- 
stances of his murder. In the early part of the 
evening following the deeil, a rumor was current 
on the streets that an attempt would be made to 
lynch the murderer. Everything was quiet, how- 
ever, until, about half past two o'clock the next 
morning, Constable Boggs informed the Sheriff that 
a body of men were approaching the jail. As 
the Sheriff and deputies came out they were 
seized and held, and the keys demanded; while 
this w.is going on a posse bursted the doors in with 
a sledge hammer, and taking the murderer to the 
outskirts of the town proceeded to hang him. After 
Bracey had been taken from the jail, Father Quin, 
who had come up from Sacramento to see Mr. Mur- 
phy, interceded for the prisoner, and tried to quell 
the citizens. There were about sixty-five or seventy 
concerned in the lynching, though probably fully 
one hundred witnessed the hanging. The negro was 
the same one that killed a Chinaman in Auburn, in 
the spring of 1856, for which crime he was acquit- 
ted. Murphy died on the 25th, leaving a wife and 
two children. 

Bracey had a wife and family in Camden, New 
Jersey. He had been in California several years. 

ROBBERY AND BATTLE. 

The store of Otto Thiele & Co , of Daneville, was 
entered by robbers, five in number, at a late hour in 
the night, of March 19, 1859, after the proprietors 
had retired. Thoy secured the key of the safe, but 
not being able to open it, they awakened the men, 
and with threats of death if resistance was offered 
compelled one of them to open the safe. The rob- 
bers then obtained about Sl,350 in gold dust and 
amalgam, and ••?350 in coin; they then proceeded to 
feast themselves on whatever the store offered for a 
good lunch, and each one of the party provided him- 
self with a new suit of clothes, leaving the old ones 
in their stead. 

The alarm was given next morning, and Sheriff 
King and Constable Boggs repaired to Daneville, 
where they discovered the trail of the robbers, which 
led to a point on Bear River; swimming the river 
thoj' made their way to the Nevada road beyond 
Bear River, and took the stage running through 
Auburn to Nevada, and went as far as Grass Valley. 










^T^ ^Md-- 1?%^ 





S'.M. STEVENS DRUG STORE. 



# 



^- ^^ 







S.M STEVENS, RESIDENCE 
AUBUfflV PlACEfi CO.,CAL. 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



329 



Tho harbor of the thieves was ascertained to be 
in a cabin some two miles from Grass Valley, and a 
party consisting of Under Sheriff Van Hagan, Depu- 
ties Burrell, Johnson and Lockwood, of Nevada 
County, and Constable Boggs, of Auburn, proceeded 
to the cabin for the purpose of effecting a capture. 
Upon arriving they found the cabin to contain eight 
desperadoes, who started the fight by firing upon 
the officers. Shooting on both sides continued until 
the ammunition of the officers gave out, and they 
were forced to retire. 

Early the next morning they again returned to the 
cabin, and found one of the robbers had been killed 
outright, and another wounded in the leg. The bal- 
ance of the gang had fled. The name of the man 
killed vvas Ned Whitney, the murderer of Constable 
Leary at Columbia, Tuolumne County; Bill Riley was 
the wounded one. Deputy Sheriff' Lockwood was 
shot through the arm; none of the other officers 
were injured. The result of this fight was the break- 
ing up of one of the most successful gangs that ever 
operated in that locality. 

"RATTLESNAKE DICK." 

This noted criminal also aspired to the title of 
" The Pirate of the Placers." His real name was 
Richard Barter, and he was one of that class of men 
whose course in life is governed by circumstances — 
men of natural ability, of extreme selfishness, and 
vanity, and void of that native sense of honor that 
distinguishes intuitively between right and wrong. 
Such persons become prominent as circumstances 
lead them. Richard Barter, as a youth, was influ- 
enced by vile characters of both sexes, and became 
prominent as a degraded criminal. 

" Tis educatiou forms the coinmou miinl; 
.lust as the twig is bent the tree's inc'ined. " 

The follovving sketch of this "Pirate ofthe Piacer-s" 
is from a publication issued shortly after his death: 

" Rattlesnake Dick" was the son of an English 
Colonel, and was born in Quebec, about the year 
1833. As far as can be learned, and very little is 
known of his early history, Dick was a roving, reck- 
less sort of a boy; not exactly bad, in the common 
acceptation of the term, but decidedly "wild." He 
was caught in the great maelstrom that whirled 
around California after the discovery of gold, and 
came to this State during 1850, in company with an 
elder brother and an old man supposed to have been 
a relation of his family. They located at Rattlesnake 
Bar, a small mining camp in Placer County, on the 
North Fork of the American River, and it was from 
this camp that Dick received the prefix to his name. 
The brother and the old man soon returned to their 
home in Canada, leaving Dick to work out a career 
in California. 

This was the turning point in his life. Thrown, 
as he was, among scenes and men so different from 
any of his previous associations, he fell into the evil 
courses that eventually ended in his tragic death. 



He mined on the bar until 1S53, when whispers 
dei'ogatory to his good name and character came 
to be bruited among the miners of the North Fork. 
These finally culminated in his arrest upon a charge 
of stealing some clothing from the establishment of 
a Jew, who kept a little mining camp variety store. 
He was defended on this charge by Judge B. F. 
Myres, and pronounced "not guilty" by a jury. It 
was afterwards ascertained conclusively that he did 
not commit the crime, and that he was maliciously 
accused. During the same year (18.j3_) he was again 
charged with a ci'ime. His accuser was a Mormon, 
named Crow, who charged him with stealing a mule, 
and upon this allegation he was convicted and sen- 
tenced to tho State Prison for a term of two years. 
Circumstances tending to prove his innocence were 
afterwards discovered, and he was released 
before the sentence was carried into effect. It was 
not long after this that Dick was fully exonerated 
from all blame in this matter also, but the stain 
attending the conviction and sentence clung to him, 
for it was a fearful crime in those days to steal a 
horse, and people did not stop to inquire whether a 
man was guilty orinnocent after a conviction was once 
had. This was a terrible ordeal for a sensitive and 
high-strung young man, and Dick could not pass it. 
He had left his cell with the firm intention of lead- 
ing an honest and upright life thereafter, so that no 
one could again accuse him of wrong-doing. 

DICK CHANGES HIS LOC.VTION. 

With this intention he went to Shasta County, but 
even there his conviction for horse-stealing followed 
him, bi-ought to that locality, perhaps, by some 
wandering Bedouin of the mountains, who had 
known him at Rattlesnake Bar. Finding thatevery- 
body directed the glance of suspicion at him, he took 
a cursory view of his prospects. Here he was a 
stranger, almost, in a strange land, and yet he was 
so well known that go where he would, the shame of 
this alleged crime followed him like a sleuth-hound, 
and debarred him from retrieving bis fortunes or 
character, while those men who were living oft' the 
State by robbery and larceny inspired the people 
who sneered at him with the respect which fear only 
can give; and he resolved that if he could not elevate 
himself by fair means, he would at least make him- 
self feared by joining the outlaws that ravaged the 
State, and would thus also revenge himself upon his 
enemies. He therefore commenced by stopping a 
stage-coach on the mountain highway. 

"Rattlesnake Dick" was, to use his own expres- 
sion, " an Ishmaelito." In speaking of the cau.ses 
which led to his criminal career, Dick long after- 
wards said: " 1 left Rattlesnake Bar with the inten- 
tion of leading a better life, but my conviction 
hounded me at every turn until I could stand it no 
longer. 1 have been driven to it, and hereafter my 
hand is against everybody. 1 suppose everybody's 
hand is against me." 



330 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



" Rattlesnake Dick " was only about tweaty-one 
years of age when he entered upon his career of 
crime. He was nearly six feet in height, and weighed 
about 160 pounds, slight of build, but rather broad- 
shouldered; not fleshy, but very muscular. He was 
very handsome, from a woman's point of view, at 
least; for his features were regular in outline, and 
his form was almost a paragon of manly beauty. 
His hair was black, and his neck was long, while his 
flashing black eye betrayed everj^ passion that ani- 
mated his mind. In walking, he displayed that 
supple, springing motion peculiar to the Indian or 
the white man who has lived for the greater portion 
of his life upon the border. 

THE EOBBER GANG. 

As has been stated, he inaugurated his criminal 
career bj' robbing a stage in Shasta, after which ho 
committed other robberies on the highwaj' in that 
county, and wandering southward, existed by sluice 
robbing and other devices of like nature, until he 
reached his old haunts on the American River. Here 
he ranged from Rattlesnake to Folsom, where ho 
had a rendezvous, and where, in May, 1856, he gath- 
ered around him his first gang. The principal mem- 
bers of this gang were, George Skinner, <dias Walker, 
alias Williams; Cyrus Skinner, brother of George, 
and bearing the same aliases; Adolph Newton, better 
known as "Big 'Dolph Newton;" Nickamore Romero 
and Wm. T. Carter. With these men, " Rattlesnake 
Dick " for a time bade defiance to the law-abiding 
portion of the community. Stages were robbed, 
burglaries were perpetrated, and larcenies of every 
description committed. 

ROBBERY OF WELLS, FARGO k CO.'s EXPRESS. 

The crowning act of the gang, and the one that 
uliiniate!y resulted in its final dissolution, was the 
robbery of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s gold train from 
Yreka. Dick and his men had previously ascertained 
that the bullion, amounting to §80,000, would be 
packed on mules, guarded by twenty men, and 
driven by way of Trinitj' Mountain, and it was at 
this place they resolved to attack the train. Trinitj^ 
Mountain is in many places lonely and desolate in 
the extreme, being a spur of the basaltic formations 
that line the Sierra on its western slope, and a better 
position for the attack could not have been found. 
Their plan of attack was to the eflfect that George 
Skinner, Newton, Romera, Carter, and a Mexican 
should lie in wait for the train on the mountain, 
attack it, if necessary, and secure the plunder, while 
Dick and Cy Skinner made a raid into Placer County 
for the purpose of securing a band of mules upon 
which to pack the gold, as the express company's 
mules wci-c branded, and would betraj^ the robbers 
if they attempted to di-ive them off. 

George Skinner and his companions were very 
successful in carrying out their portion of the pro- 
gramme. They waited until the train, in charge of 
George Barstow, came abreast of them in a lonely 



highway over the mountains, when they sprang 
suddenly among the convoy, and, with weapons 
drawn and cocked, commanded them to stop. The 
action was so sudden, and the demeanor of the 
robbers so fierce, that the men with the train could 
not resist. The consequence was that they were 
all tied to neighboring trees and the train unloaded. 
They had waited several days for Dick and Cyrus 
Skinner to return with the mules, but they never 
came, and the robbers who had dared so much, 
resolved to get off, with a portion of the metal at 
least, that night; for they knew that something must 
have happened to the mule-raiding party. They 
carried away with them about !?40,000 worth of the 
gold, and buined the remainder in the mountain 
where it probablj' lies to-day, there being no record 
of its ever having been removed. Before leaving 
the spot, however, a quarrel arose among them as to 
the division of the plunder, and the Mexican was 
killed. They carried the gold to their rendezvous 
at Folsom, and there discovered that Dick and Cyrus 
Skinner had been arrested for stealing the mules, 
and were at that moment lodged in Auburn Jail. In 
the meantime, the party of twenty men tied up on 
Trinity Mountain managed to cut loose, and hurry- 
ing into the lower country, gave information of the 
robbery to the authorities. A fearful hue and cry 
was immediately raised against the daring robbers, 
and Jack Barklej-, then Wells & Fargo's detective in 
that section of the country, started in pursuit of the 
highwaymen with a posse of five citizens. The 
opposing parties met at night near Folsom, and the 
firing commenced on both sides. Almost at the first 
shot four of the posse deserted, leaving Barkley and 
another man to fight it out the best way they could. 
For a few moments the aflfraj* was very hot, Barkley 
shooting away from two revolvers, and his companion 
firing at every opportunity. George Skinner was 
killed, and Romera and Newton wounded — Romera 
being cajitured in the American River, which he 
attempted to cross bj- swimming, wounded as he was. 
Romera, Newton and Carter were tried for the rob- 
bery, and sent to the penitentiary for ten years each, 
dating from Jul}' 9, 1856; but Carter was afterward 
pardoned for certain information which he gave the 
detectives in regard to the stolen property, and 
which led to the ultimate recovery of the §-i0,000 
concealed in the " den " at Folsom, 

RECORD OF GEORGE SKINNER. 

The prison record of George Skinner may be 
appropriate at this point. He was sent to the pene- 
tentiary the first time in August, 1851, from El 
Doi-ado County, for some crime committed in that 
county, and served a term of two years. He was 
the twentieth man incarcerated in the State Prison 
of this State, June 13, 1854, he was convicted of 
grand larceny in Yuba County, and sent to the State 
Prison for three j^ears, but escaped October 24, 1854, 
and was killed in 1856, as stated. 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



331 



The first that is heard of his brother Cyrus was in 
Placer County, in 1856, he being convicted of grand 
larceny, and on May 2Gth of that year was sent to 
the State Pi'ison, on five commitments, for a term of 
fourteen years. He escaped shortly after, and it 
was while enjoying this furlough that he met "Rat- 
tlesnake Dick," and was arrested with that individual 
for mule-stealing. They both escaped from the jail 
at Auburn, where they were confined, and, separat- 
ing. Skinner was recaptured and sent to the pene- 
tentiary. He remained there until 1860, when he 
again escaped and left the State, emigrating to Mon- 
tana, where he met his just deserts, being hanged by 
a vigilance committee. 

DICK AND A NEW GANG. 

After his escape from Auburn Jail, Dick found his 
gang completely broken up, and finding that he 
could not hope to cope single-handed with the 
Sherifls of that section, he went to San Francisco, 
where he met a number of desperadoes, among whom 
were George Taylor, Aleck Wright, Billy Dickson, 
and Jim Driscoll, who afterwards formed the leading 
spirits of his gang. 

While in that city Dick ran a course which, if not 
exactly criminal, was decidedly loose, and he was 
arrested several times on suspicion, and finally 
" shown up " with a number of others in the Plaza — 
it being the custom of those days to introduce the 
thieves and other dangerous characters to the limited 
police force, that at that time guarded the city. 
About this time the Vigilance Committee arose, like 
a veritable giant of the people, and spreading terror 
among the evil-doers by their prompt and efficient 
measures, drove Dick and his new-found allies out 
of the city back to the placers. They ranged out of 
Rattlesnake Bar, along the various roads that inter- 
sect that portion of the State, and committed 
innumerable depredations without fear of punish- 
ment, for the country literally swarmed with des- 
peradoes from every clime beneath the sun, and the 
promoters of law and order were for the time being 
defied. A continual war was raging betvveen the 
highwaymen and the Sheriifs, and desperate fights 
frequently occurred on nearly every road in the 
State. 

dick's hatred of JOHN C. BOGGS. 

Probably the man most feared by these charactei-s, 
was John C. Boggs, then Deputy Sheriff of Placer 
County. Boggs seemed to bear a charmed life, for 
he fought these men wherever he found them, and 
always escaped without injury, although others were 
shot down beside him; and as a general thing he 
made a capture whenever he attempted one. It is 
strange, by the way, that Mr. Boggs was not elected 
Sheriff of the county in those days, for he did his 
duty in every instance, and accomplished more for 
the county in ridding it of desperate characters 
than any Sheriff that was elected, and he ran for 
the office often, but was invariablj- defeated. (Mr. 



Boggs is the present Sheriff of Placer County, being 
elected in September, 1879.) Politics, even at that 
early date in the history of this State, was pretty 
much the same as it is at the present time, and 
partisan feeling overbalanced every consideration of 
efficiency ibr the office. Rattlesnake Dick was 
particularly opposed to Boggs; not for any " business 
transactions " that had occurred between them on 
the road, but because, as Dick asserted, the Deputj' 
Sheriff had sworn falsely against him in some case 
for which Dick was tried. It is more than likely, 
however, that the deadly enmity which Dick bore 
towards Boggs was occasioned by the latter's per- 
sistent pursuit of the young robber, and his frequent 
frustrations of Dick's plans. 

It would be impossible to give a full and complete 
account of the numberless encounters between Boggs 
and Dick, but there are two that cannot be omitted, 
and will serve to show the character of the men. 
On one occasion, in the latter part of 1857, Boggs 
learned that Dick and George Taylor were on the 
stage from Nevada City, bound for Folsom; so one 
morning he rode out of Folsom and waited for his 
men, carrj'ing with him a compliment of handcuffs, 
a warrant, and a derringer. He met the stage as it 
was coming down Harmon Hill, and commanded 
the driver to stop, which he did. Stage drivers were 
in the habit of stopping frequently at the behest of 
strangers, even in those days. Dick and Taylor 
were on the top of the stage, in company with A. 
AV. Bee, afterwards Washington correspondent of a 
San Francisco journal. Boggs invited the two men 
he was after to alight, but they immediately denied 
their identity, and commenced parleying with the 
Deputy Sheriff in regard to the matter. Taylor at 
last demanded Boggs' authority and asked to see 
his warrant. The officer was for a moment thrown 
off his guard, and commenced fumbling in his pockets 
for the document asked for. He did not produce it, 
however. The two highwaymen taking advantage 
of the Deputj' Sheriff's obedience to their request, 
opened fire on him with their revolvers, which was 
promptly returned by Boggs with his derringer, but 
the single shot which he fired had no other effect 
than to increase the trepidation of Mr. Bee, who 
probablj' has a most vivid recollection of California 
life to this day. Dick and Taylor of course escaped, 
it being the height of folly for Boggs, unarmed as 
he was, to follow them after they had left the stage 
and struck over the hill. It is said that his coun- 
tenance presented a most woeful appearance on his 
return to Folsom, with his wristless handcuffs, his 
unserved warrant, and his empty derringer. He 
received the highest credit, however, for his coura- 
geous attempt, but his friends could not help "smil- 
ing" heartily at his abortive effort to capture two 
such desperate men as Rattlesnake Dick and George 
Taylor, with the single weapon he carried on the 
occasion. 

Another encounter took place in the forests of 



33: 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Nevada County, which proved more successful for 
Boggs. The authoi'itie^ learned that Dick could be 
found in the vicinity of Nevada City, and George 
Johnson, the Sheriff of Placer County, and Boggs, 
started in pursuit. They met Dick in the woods on 
the slopes of the Sierra, and the robber, as usual, 
showed fight. A running fight ensued without any 
damage being done, and Dick, after emptying his 
revolver at his pursuers, sprang away from them at 
a very brisk pace; in fact he would have escaped, 
had he not tripped in some undergrowth, and before 
he could rise again Johnson and Boggs were on him. 
He called for quarter which was freely given, and 
Nevada City Jail was his lodging place that night. 
He escaped soon after, as was his invariable custom. 
He seemed to have a peculiar faculty for breaking 
from the flimsy prison-houses that were erected in 
those days, and probably esca])ed from every jail in 
that section of the State. 

ESC.\PE FRO.M JAIL. 

He was once confined in the Auburn jiiil, which 
happened to be very crowded at the time, and as he 
was a known jail-breaker, as well as a desperate man, 
every precaution was taken to keep him within the 
walls. He was heavily ironed from the hip to the 
aidvle, and a strict watch kept upon him by the 
keepers. One daj' a gentleman named Hillard came 
to the jail, and asked permission of L. L. Bullock, 
who had charge of the place, to see one of the 
prisoners. His request was granted and Dick War- 
rick, an under keeper, opened the barred door lead- 
ing to the corridor where the prisoners were confined, 
and after Mr. Hillard had entered, locked it again, 
but forgot to take the key out of the lock, and went 
away to attend to other duties. IJattlesnake Dick 
observed his oversight and took advantage of it. He 
passed bis arm through the bars and unlocked the 
door, passing quiet!}- from the place, ironed as he 
was, and eventuallj- made his escape through the 
connivance of a man named Al. Briton, who con- 
cealed him in a barn near Aulnini, until it was safe 
for him '.o leave. 

ROBBERIES BY THE GANG. 

Dick was not immediately concerned in every rob- 
bery perpetrated by his gang, but jtrobably insti- 
gated and planned most of them. There was one, 
however, worthy of mention, that he was not at all 
cognizant of This was the robbery of the stage 
running between Rattlesnake Bar and Fol.-<om, by 
JimDriscoll and "Cherokee Bob." The two highway- 
men concealed themselves in a ditch above the road, 
and when the stage came within proper distance 
they leaped upon the 'boot," and before the bewil- 
dered driver knew that he had two unwelcome pas- 
sengers on board, Wells & Pargo's treasure box. con- 
taining SG,000, was in their possession. Thoj- 
buried the money and se))arated, Cherokee Bob 
crossing the mountains to Carson, and DriscoU, mak- 
ing his way through Dick Fuller's to Vernon, on the 



Sacramento River, where he took passage on a 
wood-boat to Red Bluff. Sheriff Bullock started in 
pursuit without a single clue, and the capture of the 
robbers seemed hopeless, for both Driscoll and Bob 
were comparatively unknown in a country where so 
many similar characters committed their depreda- 
tions. The Sheriff made the attempt, however, and 
one day, while in Sacramento, related the circum- 
stance to Chas. O'Neil and Dan tray, both of whom 
were Sherift's or deputies at the time. The fact that 
the robber, or robbers, for they did not know how 
many were concerned, had apparently left the State, 
impressed Messrs. O'Neii and Gay as being a trick 
peculiarly DriscoU's, and upon investigation this 
theory was strengthened by the fact that "a man 
with a halt in his walk" had been seen making his 
way to Vernon, and afterwards on the wood-boat 
for Red Bluff. As Driscoll had "a halt in his walk," 
the supposition became almost a certainty, and the 
authorities at Red Bluft' and other points were noti- 
fied; but Driscoll managed to elude the Sheriffs, 
both at Red Bluff' and Marysville, returning to Ver- 
non on the identical wood boat on which he had 
taken passage after the robbery. Mr. Bullock was 
on the lookout for him there, and when the boat 
made a landing he stepped on board and, much to 
DriscoU's surprise, arrested him. Driscoll, on his 
way back to Auburn, was continually asking the 
question, " Bullock, how did you know I did the 
job?" and "how in h — I did j^ou track me?" To 
which the reticent Sheriff' only smiled grimly, and 
replied, that such a notorious thief as Driscoll did 
not have much chance in California just then. He 
admitted his guilt; was sent to State Prison for a 
long term of years, and a short time after made a 
proposition to "turn up the swag" (meaning the 
$6,000) and leave State, if granted a free pardon; 
but the authorities would not listen to him, and 
Cherokee Bob took the treasure as a sort of legacy. 

PHILLIPS, OF THE MOUNTAINEER HOUSE. 

DriscoU's further history is closely connected with 
that of a man named Jack Phillips, and this sketch 
would not be complete without these details also. 
Phillips kept a wayside tavern, called the Mountain- 
eer House, on the Folsom road, about thi-ee miles 
from Auburn. This place did not possess the best 
reputation in the world from the start. As time 
passed on, rumors of midnight gatherings at Phil- 
lips', of other characters besides honest teamsters 
and mule-drivers, began to gain ground, and the 
place was avoided by everyone who regarded his 
life or property. After events proved that the house 
was a rendezvous for most of the desperadoes that 
then cursed the country, the worst being Tom Bell's 
gang, a band of cut-throats and highway robbers 
that numbered several hundred, and who pillaged 
the State from the Oregon border to the southern 
lakes, rivaling Murietla and his horde in boldness and 
brutality. These men had a regular code of signals. 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



333 



signs, and passwords, by which they made them- 
selves known to each other whenever they met. At 
Phillips' place, they introduced themselves by call- 
ing for liquor, and when pi-oducing the money with 
which to pay for the drink displayed a bullet with a 
string through it, and the individual being recog- 
nized as a member of the gang, was treated with all 
the hospitality due a "man of the road." Every 
effort to break up this rendezvous was unsuccessful 
until the murder of a Jewish peddler named Rosen- 
thal, on the banks of a lonely stream near Phillips', 
known as Rose Spring, when the authorities became 
aroused to more than their usual vigilance, and 
determined efforts were made to capture the 
unknown murderers. It was strongly suspected that 
Tom Bell's gang did the work, and that Aleck 
Wright, Billy Dickson, and Jim Driscoll, of "Rattle- 
snake Dick's" gang assisted, or knew more about 
the crime than they would willingly tell, but nothing 
definite was ever known in regard to the matter. 
Sheriff Paul, of Calaveras County, interested him- 
self in " working up" the murder, and in the course 
of his investigations came across a Mexican who dis- 
closed the string bullet signal of Phillips' to him, and 
he resolved to commence at that tavern. 

The Sheriff, in pursuance of this resolution, visi- 
ted the rendezvous, and producing the bullet, was 
freely admitted, and while staying all night at the 
place, succeeded in learning much to prove that 
Phillips harbored the desperadoes suspected. He 
left next morning and did not return for a week, 
■when he brought a posse of men with him and 
arrested Phillips and two others. The tavern- 
keeper was tried for harboring highway robbers, 
and served a term in the State Prison. 

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A PRISONER. 

The investigation in regard to the murder at 
Rose Springs still continued, and the convicts con- 
fined in the State's Prison received the information 
that Jim Driscoll, who was then in prison, was about 
to divulge to the officers all that he knew of the 
affair. Measures were promptly taken to prevent 
him from doing so. One day while passing under 
the corridor, a man known as "Dirty" Thompson, 
one of Tom Bell's gang, dropped a bar of iron on his 
head, and erysipelas eventually set in, which caused 
his death, although there is a legend among the 
convicts that Chas. Mortimer, who was confined in 
the prison at the time, fearing that he would make a 
confession before he died, administered poison to 
him. He died very suddenly at any rate. 

DEATH OP RATTLESNAKE DICK. 

And now after these scenes that have formed the 
criminal drama comes the closing act of all, the 
tragedy that ended the career of Rattlesnake Dick. 
He had boasted that he would never rot in a prison 
as long as a revolver could keep him out, and the 
manner in which he carried out the boast may be 



observed when it is known that although confined in 
nearly every jail in the northern mines, he succeeded 
in breaking them all. About half-past 8 o'clock on 
Monday night, the 11th of July, 1859, some one 
informed George W. Martin, Deputy Tax-Collector, 
of Placer County, that Rattlesnake Dick and 
another desperado had gone through Auburn on 
horseback. Mr. Martin mounted a horse, and being 
joined by Under Sheriff" Geo. C.Johnston and Deputy 
Sheriff W. M. Crutcher, started in pursuit. They 
met on the lilinoistown I'oad, about one mile from 
Auburn, and Johnston, who was riding ahead, called 
upon the men to halt. The only reply was made by 
Dick, who asked what was wanted, and the next 
instant a flash paled the sheen of the moonlight, 
and a bullet sped from the revolver which Dick held, 
passing through Johnson's left hand, cutting his 
bridle rein, and shattering the hand in a horrible 
manner. At the same moment Dick's companion, 
who was not recognized bj^ the Deputy Sheriff, fired, 
the ball passing Wm. Crutcher and entering the 
body of Martin, who dropped from his horse dead. 

For a moment the fight looked dubious for the 
ari'esting party, for Johnston occupied most of his 
time plying his spurs and the butt of his revolver 
upon his horse, which he could not control in any 
other way, the bridle-reins being gone and the 
animal being frightened by the noise of the firing. 
Johnston finally found an opportunity to fire, and 
Dick was mortally wounded. The two robbers, 
wounded, then turned and fled, and about half a 
mile further on some people in a house by the road- 
side saw two men riding past at a furious pace in 
the bright moonlight, one of whom was reeling in 
his saddle, being supported bj' the other. Parties 
scoured the country during the night, but without 
result, and no trace was discovered of cither until 
the next morning, when the driver and passengers 
of the Iowa Hill stage were horrified by the sight 
of a corpse lying by the roadside near the Junction 
House. It was recognized as that of Dick, and he 
had ridden over a mile from the scene of his last 
fight before lying down to die. He was shot twice 
through the body, both bullets passing clear through, 
from breast to back and side to side. Either would 
have ultimately proved fatal, but the immediate 
cause of his death was from a bullet through the 
brain, whether inflicted by his companion or himself 
is a question. L. L. Bullock, however, who was then 
Sheriff of the county, and who had the body con- 
veyed to Auburn, inclines to the belief that Dick, 
finding that he was bleeding to death, committed 
suicide, as he says when the body was found the 
arm was in such a position as would warrant the 
belief. When the body of Dick was found it was 
lying on a machilla, on a pile of brush, a saddle 
blanket partly covering him. He had on a pair of 
kid gloves; in the right hand of one was a slip of paper, 
on which was scrawled in pencil the words: — 

" Rattlesnake Dick dies but never surrenders, as 



334 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



all true Britons do;" and on the other side was 
written, " If J. Boggs is dead, I am satisfied." He 
probably mistook Martin for Boggs, his inveterate 
enemy, and supposed that he had been shot, and 
these last words showed the hate and fear in which 
this prince of highwaymen held the brave Deputy 
Sheriff. 

AN AFFECTING LETTER. 

A letter was found on the body of Dick, from his 
sister, which, for pathos and true sisterly love, and 
deep, enduring affection, has seldom been equalled, 
and the sympathy which it awakens in the breast 
of every kind-hearted man or woman must be gen- 
uine. How two such beings, so different in every 
respect, could be allied by bonds of relationship is 
almost past belief The following is a copy of the 
letter: — 

Sweet Ho.me, March 14, 1859. 

Mr Dear, Dear Brother: I can scarcely believe, 
or rather realize, that 1 am again indulging in the 
privilege of addressing j'ou, with the hope of being 
heard or under.-itood — and tremblingly I ask that 
you, my beloved brother, the guide of my infant 
joys, the long lost friend of my childhood, will allow 
a renewed correspondence to open between you 
and your good old home. Oh! how our hearts have 
ached for a word from your own pen. Years have 
passed away since your last letter reached us — 
years that now seem to be lifetimes. I have grieved, 
but never despaired, for 1 have prayed to the Father 
that bo would restore you to the paths of recti- 
tude; but if ho has not already, you will say: Ah 
me! Ho will never save me! But 1 say, faithfully, 
He will. Oh, brother, will you not be saved? God 
sees your heart, while you read these words. He 
knows, if there is a secret wish there, it is to be a 
better man. If there be but the bud of a resolu- 
tion. He knows. Hear him say: " Seek ye first the 
kingdom of God, and all things shall be added 
thereunto." Jesus will raise your head and make 
you a new man. Go to Him, oh! my brother. 

Will you not write a few words to j'our own 
home? It may, indeed, be a bitter task, but may 
it not prove a blessing ? Do try to overcome every 
obstacle; look down deep into your heart and see if 
there is not a wish to remember your sister, your 
own most affectionate sister. 

Harriet Barter. 

P. S. — Please do write, dear brother, and I will 
tell you so many things that will interest you. 

To Richard H. Barter. 

There was no envelope to the letter, and no indi- 
cation whatever as to where it was written or 
mailed, but as Dick received letters frequently, 
while in jail, from Canada, it is thought that this 
was from that section. 

THE LAST OP THE TRAGEDY. 

The body was brought to Auburn in a " prairie 
schooner," or mule team, and while lying on the 
sidewalk in front of Masonic Hall, in that town, an 
unwarranted indignity was imposed upon it by a 
prominent citizen named Sam Whitmarsh, who delib- 
erately raised his heavy boot and kicked the dead 



desperado in the face. This action, in a great meas- 
ure, defeated him for the office of Supervisor a year 
later. The rugged Argonauts could not vote for a 
man who would thus grossly insult a corpse. Dick 
was buried in the clothes he wore at his death — fine 
black pants, light-colored vest, a light drub merino 
coat, and kid gloves. Thus ended the career of one 
of the boldest villains that ever stopped a stage or 
rifled a treasure-box. George W. Martin was buried 
by the Masonic Order, and ten years afterward 
Aleck Wright was tried for his murder, it being 
believed he was the companion of Dick on the night 
of the affray, as he left that section of country imme- 
diately afterwards, but the evidence was not suffi- 
cient, and he was acquitted. 

It has always been a disputed point as to who 
really was with Dick on the night in question, some 
holding that it was George Taylor, and others that 
it was Aleck Wright, but it is generally considered 
that the latter was the man. The manner of his 
death is also involved in obscurity, but the theory 
that his companion on the night of the affray shot 
him is strengthened by the fact that Dick always 
told his gang that whenever it became impossible for 
him to escape, to kill him and get away themselves; 
but the position of Dick's hand, with a pistol in it, 
is no proof that he committed suicide. He found 
that he could go no further, and, knowing that the 
officers of the law were liable to discover him at any 
moment, wrote the lines quoted and gave the word 
to his comrade to kill him. 

CHINAMEN SLAUGHTER A FAMILY. 

The people of Placer County, as well as of the 
State, were shocked by the report of an appalling 
tragedy committed near Rocklin on the loth of 
September, 1876. The locality was three miles north 
of Kockliu, on a place known as the Old Ryan Ranch. 
The victims were Mr. H. N. Sargent, a well-known 
and highly respected citizen of that locality, and Mr. 
and Mrs. Xavier D. Oder, employed by Mr. Sargent. 
The murderers were Chinamen, headed by a young 
viper named Ah Sam, who for a number of years 
gerved as cook in different private families in Auburn. 
A few days previous, Mr. Sargent had sold these 
Chinamen a mining claim for $120, and the only 
known provocation for the murder was the desire 
on the part of the Chinamen to repossess the money. 
Mr. Oder and his wife were keeping house for Mr. 
Sargent, and, as though afraid to make the attack 
on all at once, they, to decoy Mr. Sargent from the 
house, told him they wanted to purchase more min- 
ing ground, and wished him to go with them to the 
claim for that purpose. While on the way to the 
claim, and nearly half a mile from the house, one of 
the Chinamen walking in the rear shot Mr. Sargent 
in the back; turning quickly to face his assailant, a 
Chinaman in advance shot him again. Five times 
he was shot before he fell, and then, for fear he might 
survive, he was shot again in the head. After this, 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



33c 



it is supposed, the murderous wretches rushed back 
to the house and completed their bloody work on 
Mr. and Mrs. Oder, before hunting for the money. 
At all events, Mrs. Oder, shot with a pistol and her 
head cut open with an axe, was found lying in a pool 
of blood on the floor, and in an adjoining room, 
trunks, broken open with the same bloody axe that 
had served to scatter the brains of Mrs. Oder, were 
found, rummaged of their contents, and all in them 
of value, including the •'?120 received by Mr. Sargent 
a few days before for the mine, gone. About si^ty 
yards from the house was the body of Mr. Oder, 
lying on his face, and pierced with three bullets. 

Soon after the outrage, a neighbor passing by took 
occasion to call. On approaching the door and see- 
ing the mangled and gory form of Mrs. Oder, he was 
horrified, and at once started for Rocklin to give the 
alarm. Officers were soon on the premises, who 
began at once a search for the murderers. They had 
no idea Mr. Sargent was killed, until, while hunting 
for the perpetrators of the horrible crime, they 
heard groans, and on going in the direction from 
which they emanated, found Mr. Sargent lying sense- 
less on his face, though still alive. He was at once 
taken to Rocklin and placed under surgical treat- 
ment, and though he revived sufficiently to recover 
his reason, during which time he gave the informa- 
tion that his assailants were Penryn Chinamen, and 
that Ah Sam was one of them, he died from the 
effects of his six wounds, any one of which might 
have proven fatal in time, about 9 a. m. the next 
morning. The Sheriff and Coroner were sent for, 
and while the former and his deputies scoured the 
country in search of the murderers, the latter held 
an inquest over the remains of the unfortunate vic- 
tims. The jury found in the case of Mr. Sargent, 
that he came to his death from wounds inflicted by 
Ah Sam and Ah Jim and another C/'hinaman to them 
unknown. In the case of Oder and his wife, they 
found that they came to their death at the hands of 
parties to them unknown. 

During the raid by the officers, some fifteen China- 
men in all were taken into custody and lodged tem- 
porarily — ^until the arrival of the east-bound passen- 
ger train — in Exchange Hall, Rocklin, where a heavy 
guard was required to keep the enraged citizens, who 
began to gather around, ft'om taking possession of the 
prisoners and lynching them. Out of all the China- 
men arrested, Sheriff MeCormick decided to hold four, 
and on the arrival of the train it took much tact and 
determined work on the part of the oSicors to get 
these four through the crowd to the depot and on 
the cars. The four Chinamen were taken to Auburn 
and lodged in jail. 

THE CHINESE EXPELLED PROM ROOKHN. 

On Monday morning, a meeting of the citizens 
of Rocklin was held, which decided to notify all the 
Chinamen in town to leave by six o'clock that even- 
ing, or be driven out. .Many packed up and left at 



once, and by 4 o'clock p. si., the last squad, burdened 
with their baggage, filed out of town, even to those 
who were employed by the railroad company. At 
6 o'clock a body of men marched to the Chinese 
quarters and demolished every house, to a total of 
about twenty-five, that the moon-eyes had previously 
occupied. In one was a stove containing some fire, 
and when the roof fell; the rubbish was ignited, and 
for a few minutes quite a conflagration was threat- 
ened; but a stream from the force-pump at the Rail- 
road Round House prevented the fire spreading. 
Meetings were held the same evening at Roseville 
and Penryn, and at each place committees were 
appointed to notify the Chinese of the respective 
neighborhoods to leave before 12 o'clock the next 
day. It is useless to say that at the expii-ation of 
the time few Chinese were to be found at either of 
the above-named places. 

A band of some fifteen to twenty armed men from 
Roseville, and another band of about 100 from 
Rocklin, traveled up and down the country from 
Penryn to Roseville, and out towards Folsom as far 
as the American River, visiting the various Chinese 
camps, driving out the occupants of those which had 
not already been deserted, and leveling their huts to 
the ground. Though determined in their work, they 
seemed not excited, and manifested no desire to 
plunder. At Pino, also, a delegation waited on the 
Chinese, and in a brief space of time there was not 
a Celestial around. 

The only Chinaman to be found in that section of 
the country was John Boggs' cook, who in consider- 
ation of being allowed to stay, promised Mr. Boggs 
that he would render him assistance in hunting 
up all the guilty parties. Assisted by this Chinaman, 
Mr. Boggs was enabled to arrest one Ah Fook, at 
Folsom. This Ah Fook was said by Boggs' China- 
man to be one of the murderers. From the day of 
the murder the most vigorous search was instituted 
for the assassins, and various arrests were made of 
Chinamem supposed to be more or less connected 
with the affair. Some were discharged for want of 
evidence, while others were kept in custody. The 
arch rascal. Ah Sam, managed to elude the officers 
and keep concealed from those who desired to know 
his whereabouts. 

EXPEDITION AFTER AH SAM. 

J. C. Boggs, of Penrj-n, a special detective for the 
railroad company, had from the start been very dil- 
igent in his search for the perpetrators, and, as 
results show, his diligence was only surpassed by 
his perseverence. After putting together certain 
points in the case which he had been able to collect, 
he came to the conclusion that Ah Sam was some- 
where up in Plumas County, and, accordingly, about 
the 1st of February, he started for that region in 
hopes of procuring his arrest. On arriving there 
and making inquiry, he heard of a Chinaman that 
answered the description of the one he wanted, who 



336 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



■was at the time cooking for G. W. Gulliver, at the 
Gold Strike 31ine, on Wolf Creek, near Greenville. 

Arrangements were made for his arrest, but, when 
the officers gained the premises it was found that the 
bird had flown. Other Chinamen, hearing of Boggs' 
pre.sence, had hastened ahead and warned Sam of 
approaching danger. Boggs remained in the neigh- 
borhood prosecuting his search for several days, 
until at length feeling that the culprit must be out of 
his immediate reach, he temporarily abandoned the 
search, and i-eturned home. * 

DISCOVERY AND DEATH OF THE JIQRDERER. 

Ah Sam, it seems, started for Rich Bar, which is 
on the East Branch of the North Fork of Feather 
River, about twenty -five miles from Greenville, but, 
owing to the deep snow and rugged country, he 
made his way with great difficulty. Oa the 15th of 
February, vvilh liis feet Irozen and nearly famished 
with hunger, he made his appearance at the cabin of 
Mr. Ira Wentworth, which is on a high mountain oif 
the road, and near Rich Bar. He desired food and 
shelter for the night. 

Food was given him, but Mr. Wentworth refused 
to harbor him. The next morning he made his 
appearance and again desired food, which was given 
him, and once moi-e he went away. That day Mr. 
Wentworth went down to the Bar, and told the boys 
at the mine of the suspicious-looking Chinaman on 
the mouniaiu. They had heai'd that the officers 
were looking for a Chinamen in that vicinity, and 
concluded this was the one, at all events they 
decided to arrest him, and for that ])urpose two 
young miners, T. J. Stentz and A. Buvinghausen, 
started in pursuit. They soon came on to Ah Sam, 
but, finding him intrenched behind a ledge of rocks, 
and armed with a pistol which he showed a 
disposition to use, they concluded that to take him 
without endangering their lives would require a 
larger force. Accordingly one remained and watched 
him, while the other went for i-einforccments, which 
soon arrived to the number of eight armed men. 

When Sam saw his arrest was inevitable, and real- 
izing what would follow, he told them, in good 
English, that he would kill himself before they should 
take him, and, before they could reach him, he took 
out his pistol and shot himself in the abdomen. He 
was taken down to Rich Bar, whore he lived two 
daj'.ii, refusing to answer questions or converse on 
the matter for which he had been arrested. 

On his death he was packed in snow and brought 
by way of Reno to Auburn, under the direction 
of District Attorney Bullock. Coroner Swett at 
once summoned a jury and proceeded to hold an 
inquest over the body. Numerous witnesses were 
examined from both Auburn and Penryn, who, with 
scarcely an exception, testified that thej' recognized 
the body before them as that of Ah Sam. The Jury 
brought in a verdict in accordance with the forego- 
ing statement. After the inquest the Chinamen 



were offered the body, but they refused positively to 
have anything to do with it. 

Accordingly, the Coroner had him buried the next 
day, near the Chinese burjing-ground. And thus 
fittingly terminated the career of one of the most 
brutal murderers that ever disgraced Placer County 
with his presence. The rewards that had been 
offered for his capture aggregated $850 — S600 by the 
State and §250 by the Chinese Six Companies. This 
amount, we presume, was divided among those who 
were instrumental in thus hastily terminating his 
career. 

MURDER BY INDIANS. 

John Norton was murdered int he fall of 1877 on 
the public highway leading from Auburn to Forest 
Hill, in broad daylight, by two of the most desper- 
ate Indians in that part of the State, Indian Charlie 
and Indian Bill. It seems that when the Indians 
saw Norton coming alone and on foot down the road, 
they made up their minds to rob him. On meeting 
him they demanded his money. Norton told them he 
had none, and started to run. At this Indian Charlie 
shot him, the ball striking his shoulder, but the shot, 
failing to have the desired eft'ect, the other Indian 
fired and Norton fell to the ground. The Indians, 
coming up, drew knives to complete the job their 
bullets had commenced. In their endeavor to cut 
his throat, Norton evidently grabbed the knives by 
the blade to ward them ofl', for, when found, his 
hands were shockingly cut. While engaged in their 
butchery another man came in sight, and the Indi- 
ans, becoming alarmed, escaped in the brush. By 
excessive diligence in follovving them up. Sheriff 
McCormick finally captured Charlie some ten miles 
above Auburn, near the North Fork of the Ameri- 
can River. 

About two months after the capture of Charlie, 
he obtained information which satisfied him that his 
man, 'Indian Bill," was at one of two camps in 
El Dorado County, either Volcanoville or Bottle 
Hill. It was upon the last day of his official term, 
before arrangements could be matured for making 
the search, when Deputies McCormick, Jr., and 
Laughlin were sent out in pursuit of the fugitive. 
They arrived at Georgetown, and accompanied b}* 
C. Cushman and Thos. Lewis, of the latter place, 
started for Bottle Hill, which place they reached 
about midnight. They surrounded the camp and 
gave the alarm, but the Indians refused to come out. 
The door of the cabin was then broken down, when 
McCormick and Cushman entered and discovered 
their man in a small side apartment, eyeing them 
through a low, naiTow doorway. McCormick told 
him to come out, they wanted him; he immediatelj' 
began to shoot. He could have been instantly' killed 
at this moment by McCormick, who had him covered 
with a Henry Rifle, but his point was to take the 
man alive. After some shooting on both sides, and 
his still refusing to come out, they threatened to burn 
him out, and at once began to pile fuel against the 




RESIDENCE OF A.H.GATES. 

UNCOllV,PUC£-/f CO.fiAL. 







^'J^O^JIIi! 



RESIDENCE OF W^ AMBROSE. 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



337 



side of the wigwam. Seeing this he finally gave 
himself up, though not without a desperalo straggle 
to retain his arms, consisting of pistol, rifle, and 
hatchet. 

This completed the capture of every known fugi- 
tive from justice in the County at that time, and 
Sheriff MeCormick, on retiring from office, left every 
accused rascal within his jurisdiction, including five 
murderei's, safely in the lock-up, giving to his suc- 
cessor an even start and clear sailing. 

WRECKING A RAILROAD TRAIN. 

A desperate attempt was made to rob the East- 
bound mail and express train on the Central Pacific 
Railroad, near Cape Horn Mills, on the night of 
September 1, 1881, but fortunately the would-be 
robbers obtained no booty. To stop the train the 
robbers had torn up one of the rails, and coming on 
the place under full headway, the engine jumped 
the track. As it was the forward locomotive, the 
mail, express, baggage, and one fruit car were 
ditched, but without doing any material damage. 
Alarmed at the shock, the clerk of the mail car 
appeared at the door, when ho received a command 
to throw up his hands. This was the first intimation 
as to the cause of the stoppage. A similar demand 
was, at about the same time, made on the express 
messenger; but instead of complying with their 
request, he dodged back at once and extinguished the 
lights. Strange to say no further demands were 
made, but a few minutes later the robbers were 
heard halloing to each other as if collecting their 
forces for a retreat. A runner was sent back to 
Colfax, who telegraphed to Sacramento, and the 
wrecking-train, having on board a number of detec- 
tives, was dispatched to the scene of the would-be 
robberj' at once. On an inspection of the grounds 
after the departure of the robbers, there were found 
nine masks, fifteen or twenty giant-powder cartridges, 
a quantity of fuse, axes, sledges, etc., and such other 
minor article's as were necessary for a sj-stematic and 
wholesale robbery. It was afterwards learned by 
Sheriff' Boggs and his deputies, that three men were 
living in a cabin on the North Fork of the American 
River, who claimed to be miners, but who had neither 
mining tools to work with nor a claim to work. 
This suspicious circumstance furnished a clue, which 
being worked up, led to the capture of every one 
engaged in the attempt. 

The persons arrested were; John Mason, B. Stein- 
egal, Reuben A. Rogei-s, and A. II. Frazier, September 
11th, and George H. Shinn, October 27th. The trial 
of the train-wreckers constituted one of the causes 
celehre of Placer County. 

SINGULAR REVELATION OF MURDER. 

On the 16th of September, 1881, the citizens of 
Placer County were shocked with the revelation of 
what had every appearance of being a foul and 
deliberate murder, which had been committed five 



years previous. The ciriuim-ilances are related as 
follows: 

In 1859. Ambrose S. Niles came to California 
across the plains from Wisconsin. There came 
with him, from the same State and same neighbor- 
hood, a friend by the name of James Singleton. 
After arriving in this State, Nilos settled on some 
land about four miles west of Lincoln, Placer County, 
while Singleton went to work in the same neighbor- 
hood for wages. Nilos soon acquired some promi- 
nence in business, and was generally regarded as an 
upright and reliable man. Singleton, being industrious 
and steady, made money and saved it. Niles became 
quite heavily indebted to Singleton, though in just 
what amount can never be l?:nown After several 
years of farming, during which time Singleton had 
become well known in and about Lincoln, and quite 
a favorite among those with whom he worked, he 
struck out for other fields of labor. He went to 
Nevada, but in a year returned to Lincoln. He then 
went to Sacramento, and between O ikland and 
Sacramento he worked at the livery business up to 
the time of his death. 

About Thanksgiving time in 187G, he came from 
Oakland, whore he was then employed, to Lincoln, 
for the purpose of visiting his friends, and if possible, 
to get his money from Niles. After visiting briefly 
in town, he, promising to see his friends there again, 
got on a wagon which was going that way, and rode 
out to Niles' place. Either the ne.xL day or ihj day 
after, he and Niles went to Sheridan with a team, 
and from that day no one ever savv him again alive. 
Of course those he had promised to visit inquired of 
Niles what had become of him, and Niles' answer 
was, that while at Sheridan he jumped on the train 
and went to Maiysville. The thought of foul play 
at the time seemed to have entered the heads of 
some of the neighbors, but Niles' excellent standing 
discouraged any general expression on the subject. 

It was known that Niles' hired man, Ropp. had 
filled up an old well at Niles' request the day afcer 
the latter and Singleton had went to Sheridan. On 
being questioned, Niles told a conflicting and unten- 
able story, and all the circumstances put together 
tended to confirm the suspicions, and after Niles 
sold out and vrent away certain parties would say, 
occasionally, they would give so and so to see the 
bottom of that old well. About two months previ- 
ous to the discovery of the body, one Thomas Brown, 
who from the first had been a convert to the idea 
that Niles had something to do with the disappear- 
ance of Singleton, went to Sacramento, and there 
learned, on top of all else, that Niles had negotiated 
a note due to Singleton from some other party. On 
his return he again agitated the subject, and insisted 
that the old well should be dug out. Others sided 
with him and it was resolved to do something. The 
Coroner was applied to, but he had no authority to 
impose an expense on the county for digging out 
old wells. Fmally, upon the suggestion of the Dis- 



338 



HISTOKY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



trict Attornej', W. B. Lardner, a subscription was 
taken among the citizens sufficient to pay the 
expcnsesof digging out the well. Accordingly work 
was begun. They continued digging until they 
came upon boards laid quite regularly like a 
rude floor. Most of the party said: "Here is the 
bottom, and no body has been found." But one of 
them, thinking the regularity of the floor a suspi- 
cious circumstance, persuaded his comrades to con- 
tinue the search. Upon proceeding lower down 
they found, two and one-half feet of earth beneath 
the boards, sticks and trash thrown in promis- 
cuously. These being removed, another floor of 
boards was found. LTpon raising one of these, 
the legs of a human body were discovered. Their 
search had been rewarded by the discovery of the 
body of James Singleton. They at once stopped the 
process of exhuming the body and notified the Cor- 
oner and District Attorney. A guard was then 
placed over the well, which remained on duty all 
night. The Coroner, the next morning, took charge 
of the body. The news of the finding of the body 
spread like wildfire throughout the country, and the 
most intense excitement prevailed. The body was 
taken into the town of Lincoln, and the streets were 
thronged with excited people. The remains were 
in an advanced state of decomposition. The skull 
had been literally mashed. The clothing was well 
preserved and readily identified. An inquest was 
held over the remains, the jury being composed of 
E. Jarvis, John Rea, John Heanny, H. C. Johnson, 
T. H. Jeter, E. Herryford, and N. Coates. The fol- 
lowing was their verdict: — 

In the matter of the in(iuisition upon the body of 
James Singleton, deceased, wc, the undersigned, 
jurors summoned to appear before J. D. Redfern, 
Coroner of the county of Placer, at Lincoln, on the 
17th day of September, 1881, to inquire into the 
cause of death, and having been sworn according to 
law, and made such inquisition, after inspecting the 
body and hearing the testimony adduced, upon our 
oaths, each and all do say. That we find the deceased 
was named James Singleton, a native of Ireland, 
aged about fifty years; that he came to his death 
about the middle of November, 1876, by the blow of 
a deadly weapon on his head inflicted by the hand 
of one A. S. Niles, according to our best information 
and belief and which was done about four miles 
west of Lincoln, on the premises at that lime owned 
by said A. S. Niles, in this countj-; all of which we 
certify to by this inquisition in writing, bv us signed 
this 17th day of September, A. D. 1881. " 

in the meantime Sheriff Boggs and Constable 
Hotchkiss, of Lincoln, were out after the supposed 
murderer, Niles. It was reported that Niles, who 
was out selling patent beds and seat cushions, had 
that day passed through Wheatland. Hearing of 
this, a Deputj' Sheriff of Yuba County, Thos. Beven, 
started in pursuit, and made the arrest about five 
miles from Wheatland, on the road to the foot-hills. 
Niles asked on what chai-ge he was arrested, and 
when told for murder, it i« said he turned very pale 



and broke completely down. After his arrest he 
was turned over to the officers of Placer County and 
lodged in the Auburn jail. He then admitted that 
the body found was that of Singleton, and con- 
fessed that he throw it in the well. He denied, 
however, that he slew him, but said as they were 
driving home they got into a dispute on religious 
matters, which was followed bj- an altercation, in 
which Singleton struck him, and while he was 
defending himself the horses took fright and ran 
away, throwing both of them out, stunning Niles, 
and that the wheels passed over Singleton's head, 
smashing his skull. Niles said that after his recov- 
ery from the shock he examined Singleton and found 
him dead, and, fearing that he would not be believed 
in stating the above, he concluded to throw him into 
the old well near by and fill it up, and thus avoid 
any ti-ouble and save the county the expense of an 
inquest. 

A TRAGIC END. 

After being in jail about a week he concluded to 
end his misery by committing suicide. It seems 
that he borrowed a knife from Mason, one of the 
accused train- wreckers, for the ostensible purpose of 
cutting tobacco. This he took pains to whet to a 
keen edge, and with it cut his throat. It was about 
midnight, and one of the prisoners, who was awake 
reading, heard a noise like the falling of water- 
Hearing Niles groan at the same time, he asked if 
he was sick. To which the reply was made: " Yes, 
but not much." His weak, husky voice aroused the 
suspicions of his neighboring prisoner, who at once 
gave the alarm and called the Sheriff". Medical 
assistance was summoned, but he could not be saved. 
He lived but a few minutes. The act was evidently 
contemplated, his principle motive, as appeared from 
a letter to his wife, being to end his miserable exist- 
ence, save lawyers' foes, and save what property he 
had for his wife and family. While in his letter he 
denied his guilt, the fact that he destroyed himself 
was generally regarded as evidence that he was 
guilty of the crime of which he was accused, and 
that he felt a certainty of conviction and an inflic- 
tion of the severest penalty. Much sympathy was 
expressed for his family, and for his brothers, both 
of whom wore men of excellent standing. But for 
Niles himself the general opinion was that his 
tragic and awful end was a just conclusion to what 
must have been a miserable life. 

HOMICIDES AND ROBBERIES. 

Several of the most noted criminals and homicides 
have been noticed in the preceding pages. Of those 
not there named there is recorded the killing of a 
man named Mayberry by A. E. Tompkins at Span- 
ish Flat on the 2-lth of January, 1853, in a quarrel 
over the sale of a mine. 

1853. 

March 1st. — J. J. Schmidt was found murdered in 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



339 



Big Ravine, near Auburn, the supposed cause being 
robbery. 

July 30th. — An Indian was hanged on Bear River, 
northeast of Auburn, by order of a lynch court, for 
killing a Chinaman. Previous to his execution he 
confessed to the murder of five Chinamen and one 
American. 

November 7th. — A man named Jennings was 
killed by — Morrison, at Whisky Bar. Aloi-rison 
was examined and discharged. 

1854. 
June 26th. — James Ryan was killed in an aflFray at 
Iowa Hill by Patrick Vance. 

1855. 

May 12th. — The Indians in the neighborhood of 
Gold Hill were performing the funeral rites upon a 
deceased member of their tribe, when a quarrel 
ensued between a squaw and one of the males, which 
resulted in a brutal murder. The man took the 
woman's child and deliberately cut its head off 
throwing the body on the tire which was consuming 
the body of the dead squaw. The woman in 
revenge took the child of her opponent and threw 
it on the fire, but it was rescued from the flames by 
some of the spectators. The Indian was arrested, 
but subsequently discharged on a nolle prosequi. 

March 19lh. — M. J. Van was stabbed and killed 
by John Roberts, at Iowa Hill. They were propri- 
etors of the Crescent City Hotel. The trouble grew 
out of a settlement. Roberts was convicted of 
murder and sentenced to be hanged, but the sentence 
was commuted by the Govei'nor to imprisonment for 
life. 

March 20th.— I. P. Beatty was killed at Rector's 
Bar by E. Lockwood, who was convicted of man- 
slaughter for the crime, and sentenced to two years 
in State Prison, and fined $1.00. 

April lOlh. — Wm. Durham was shot and tilled, at 
Auburn, by Hank Marsh. Durham was supposed to 
be insane, and attacked Marsh. 

April 11th. Smith was shot and killed by 

Woodward, in a negro dance-house in Dutch 

Ravine. Both men were gamblers, and the trouble 
grew out of the favors shown Smith by one of the 
negro women. 

June 2d. — Townseud was shot and mor- 
tally wounded by W. L. Carpenter. 

September 22d. — A Chinaman was killed by an 
Illinoistown Indian, called Tubbs, on the trail lead- 
ing from Christian Valley to the North Fork of the 
American River. The citizens of Christian Valley 
secured Tubbs and hung him to the limb of a tree. 

September 30th. — A. B. Hall was fatally stabbed 
by Wm. Redmund, alias " Pike," in a quarrel caused 
by whisky. 

1856. 

February 10th. — Samuel Hillman was shot by 
John Ualagher, at Iowa Hill, in the Alta Saloon. 
March 5th. — Aaron Bracy, a colored man, killed a 



Chinaman who was in the act of robbing his house. 

June 3d.— Phineas A. Longley, toll-keeper at the 
Whisky Bar Bridge, over the American River, was 
brutally murdered by a party of Indians. 

September 13th. — John O'Connor was shot by 
Patrick Mahoney, at the Rock Spring House; cause, 
jealousy. 

September 28th. — Ned. Conway, a robber, was 
shot and killed by the Sheriff and his posse. He was 
a member of the notorious Tom Bell gang. 

November 22d. Potts found guilty of mur- 
der in the second degree, and sentenced to State 
Prison for life. 

1857. 

January 2d. — Thomas Stevens was shot and killed 
by Benjamin Petrie, at the saloon of E. W. Bennett, 
on Roach Hill. 

February 5th. — William Gilley, a man living on 
Bear River, about twelve miles from Auburn, com- 
mitted suicide by cutting his throat. 

March 2l8t.— Jos. Lester, an Englishman, living 
at Secret Diggings, shot his wife, killing her 
instantly, and then committed suicide by shooting 
himself through the head. He was intoxicated at 
the time. 

March 2l8t. — Mr. A. A. Mason was brutally 
assaulted, at Michigan Bluff, by Foot, Roberts, and 
Bass. He died the week following. 

June 11th. — The Grand Jury found eight indict- 
ments for murder: Against Marion T. Whithurst, 
alias Foots, Wm. Roberts and Charles Bass, for the 
murder of A. A. Mason; and against five Chinese for 
the murder of one of their countrymen. There were 
in jail at that time ten prisoners indicted for murder 
in the first degree, and one for assault to do bodily 
injury. 

June 13th. — Antonio Soso was shot and killed by 
Sabriano Robles, at Dutch Ravine. They were both 
Mexicans. 

June 13th. — Philip Gar}' was stabbed to death by 
two Chilenos, Francisco Acosta and Jemasio, at 
Dutch Ravine. 

December 12th.— A. B. Johnson, owner of a valua- 
ble claim on Doty's Ravine, several miles from Gold 
Hill, shot a woman by the name of '• Frenchy," or 
Florisdine, and in attempting to escape was thrown 
from his horse and killed. 

December 20th. — Andrew HoUenberg, a Swede, 
was shot and killed by Martin Rodriguez; caused by 
HoUenberg refusing him admittance to his house. 

December 2Gth.--The cabin of Mr. Fordyce was 
robbed at Rose Springs, by two men, who succeeded 
in getting $300 in coin, and papei's to the value of 
four or five thousand dollars. 
1858. 

February 6th. — Sigsby, alias '■ Buckskin Joe," was 
shot by Irish George, at Todd's Valley, during a 
melee at a dance-house. 

February 29Lh. — William Snow was stabbed three 



§40 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



times in the abdomen by. Peter Miwiy, at Forest- 
Hill. The ditiijulty ocoari-el abjiit same mone}'. 

June 11th. — Jlartiii Rodrlt^'uez, who was convicted 
of the murder of Andrew llollenberg the iSwede, at 
Blue (Jafion, was hung. 

JuDe 25th. — The body of Andrew J. Hoselbaum, 
toll-keeper at the Caiion Creek Bridge, was found 
near " Murderer's Bar," on the American River, with 
his head crushed in and other marks of violence on 
his person. 

July 5th. — The Alta Express office in Iowa Hill 
was robbed of S7,-110. 

July ISth. — John Naven was stabbed and killed 
by J. Smith at Auburn. A grudge had existed 
between them for a long time. Smith acted in self- 
defense. 

July 25th.— Michael Cochran and P. Ward, broth- 
ers-in-law, got into a difficulty with each other, which 
resulted in the death of the latter — Cochran fled. 

August 29th. — During a celebration at Forest Hill 
a desperado named Domingo had a dispute with one 
of the party, and stabbed him in the breast, cutting 
his heart completely in twain. Domingo fled and 
made good his escape. 

October 30th. — The bodies of three Chinese labor- 
ers were found in Shirt-tail Caiion, about six miles 
from Yankee Jim's, with knife wounds on their per- 
sons, and every indication of having been murdered. 
No clue to the perpetrators. 

1859. 

January 11th. — The stage between Forest Hill and 
Todd's Vallej- was stopped by eight men, and the 
express box, containing 100 ounces of gold, taken. 
Several shots were tired. The robbers escaped. 

March 8th. — Mr. Wilson, the keeper of the boai-d- 
ing-house at Dutch Plat, was murdered by a Swede 
named Joseph Napoleon Moir.s. 

June lOth. — A man by the name of £ 1 wards was 
shot dead by John Niimen when trying to get away 
with some ti>nber that the latter claimed^ 

July 2d. — John Ryynolds, the keeper of a' disrepu- 
table house at Michigan Bluff, was murdered by a 
Mexican for not being permitted to help himself at 
the bar. 

July 1-tth. — Archibald McBride was stabbed and 
mortally wounded at Deadwood, by a man named 
John Daly. 

August 6th. — Mr. Cole, the keeper of the toll-house 
on the Yankee Jim's and Wisconsin Hill Turnpike, 
was found in the toll-house brutally murdered. 
There were twenty lour knife wounds upon the 
body. No traces of the fiends who committed the 
deed could be found. 

August 14th. — ^John M. Fordyce was stabbed by a 
Chinaman near Rose Spring, dying from the wound 
five days after. Mr. Fordyce was a ditch tender and 
gold-dust buyer. The Chinaman entered the office 
and offei-od a small quantity of dust for sale. This 
Fordyce weighed, and turning and opening the safe 



to procure the coin to pay for the dust, was stabbed 
in the back. Quickly shutting the safe, and crying 
out, the murderer was foiled in his attempt at rob- 
bery and fled. A reward of S750 was offered for 
his arrest by Governor Weller, and a large force of 
men turned out in pursuit, but he was never appre- 
hended. 

September 10th.— DriscoU and Williams, each con- 
victed of stage robbery, were sentenced to ten years 
in the State Prison. 

November 7th. — An attempt was made by four 
highwaymen to rob the Forest Hill stage of Wells, 
Fargo & Co.'s treasure-box, and two of them were 
killed. 

It seems the design of the robbers became known 
to Daniel C. Gay, a detective of Sacramento, who, in 
connection with officer O'Neil of thatcity, proceeded 
to Forest Hill, and after acquainting Wells, Fargo 
<fe Co.'s agent with the particulars, they took pas 
sage on the stage for the purpose of giving the rob- 
bers a w.irm reception. Upon arriving at Todd's 
Valley the treasure-box and passengers were left 
behind, and the stage started for Smith's Ranch, the 
only persons aboard being the officers and the driver. 
.After ascending the hill, between Todd's Valley and 
Auburn, four men stepped out from behind the trees, 
one caught the horses by the head, one approached 
the driver to demand the treasure-box, and the 
remaining two stood one on each side of the coach, 
with revolvers levelled. It being too dark to take 
sure aim in the coach the officers stopped out and 
fired, each at his man, bringing them to the ground 
together. O'Neil's man was instantly killed. Ho 
was an American. The man Officer Gay shot was 
a Spaniard, named Francisco Lunez, a well-known 
desperado, and almost a second Joaquin. The 
name of the American was White, lately out of the 
State Prison. The bodies of White and Lunez were 
taken to*Todd's Valley and buried. 

December 29th. — John Dickinson was shot and 
severely wounded by — Sikesy, a saloon-keeper in 
Todd's Valley. 

December Slst. — A teamster named I. S. Baker, 
while driving quietly from Todd's Valley, was 
assaulted by two highwaymen — a Spaniard and an 
Irishman — who attempted to rob him. A scuffle 
ensued in which knives were used. The Irishman 
was fatally stabbed, whereupon the Spaniard placed 
him upon one of the horses and mounting behind 
him escaped. Baker fought desperately, and 
received several cuts, none of which were serious. 

ISGO. 

January 29th. — Mr. F;d. Richardson, while on his 
way from Michigan Bluff to Wisconsin Hill, was 
overpowered by four highwaymen and robbed of 
81,000. 

May 4th. — During a fight with pistols between 
two men, named Britton and Dewitt, at Michigan 
Bluff, Dr. W^illitts, a miner who happened to be in 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



341 



close proximity, was shot and instantly killed by a 
stray bullet. 

May 25th. — The stage from Iowa Hill to Illinois- 
town was stopped within a mile and a half of the 
former place, before daylight, and the treasure-box 
of Wells, Fargo & Co. was robbed of $11,000 by a 
party of five or six highwaymen. After the stage 
had been stopped one of them held the horses while 
the others brought their pistols to bear upon the 
driver and passengers, and one mounted the boot 
and took out the treasure-box. At the time of the 
robbery there were six passengers in the stage, not 
one of whom was armed. 

June '23d.— Under Sheriff Stewart and Deputy 
Kennedy, hearing that there was a camp of Iowa 
Hill robbers below Forest Hill, in a canon, went 
there and surprised them. One attempted to escape 
and was shot dead by Kennedy; they arrested two 
others and lodged them in jail. 

July 17th. — Simmons and Crozier, two of the 
Mountain Spring robbers, were captured and placed 
in the Auburn jail. 

July 2-lth. — Mr. Schnabel's store, at Doty's Flat, 
was robbed of §300 in gold coin. 

August 15th. — Augustus Melius was shot dead by 

Lo)^d, at Michigan Bluff, for improper intimacy 

with the latter's wife. 

Sept. 21st. —Joseph N. Maes and Gunaro Quintano 
were executed for murder — Maes for killing Joseph 
Thomas, of Dutch Flat, on the 8th of March, 1859, 
and Quintano for the murder of Joseph Reynolds, at 
Michigan Bluff, on the 3d of July, 1859. 

1861. 

April 11th. — A man named James Hall was 
killed by one Owens, in the vicinity of Gold Hill. 
Owens was tried, but was discharged, as from all the 
circumstances he appeared to have acted in self- 
defense. 

November 2d. — Lewis Fogle, a respectable German, 
was murdered at Dutch Flat, by parties unknown. 

1862. 

March 1st. — Wm. O'Brien was shot and killed by 
J. M. Gaunt, at the Bank Exchange in Auburn. 
Gaunt was sent to State Prison for the homicide, but 
was pardoned by the Governor. 

May 24th. — John Stanton and David Orr, partners 
in the stage lines between Auburn, Forest Hill, 
Michigan Bluff, etc., had a serious affray at Forest 
Hill — the result of a misunderstanding in business 
affairs — in which both were badly wounded. 

July 12th. — The wife of S. S. Greenwood, residing 
two miles south of Auburn, while laboring under 
depression of mind caused by illness, hung herself. 

July 24th. — George Leavick was shot and killed 
by Joseph B. Todd, on a ranch between Rose Springs 
and the Gait House. 

September 6th. — A difficulty occurred at Lincoln 
between Austin Henderson and Eoss H. Meacham, 
in which the latter was killed. 



November 30th. — Andrew Smith committed suicide 
by cutting his throat with a razor. It was thought 
he was laboring under a fit of insanity. 

1863. 

January 10th. — A party of robbers entered the 
store of Mr. Sehnabel, at Doty's Flat, five miles west 
of Auburn, and after tying the proprietor and four 
other men present, robbed the phwie of §40.00 and a 
revolver. 

February 2d. — Charles Hopkins, an old resident of 
Secret Ravine, was killed near Ryan's store by a man 
named Smith. 

May 12th. — -A quarrel in relation to challenging a 
voter arose between Jacob Lindsey and John Larkin, 
in which Larkin was killed. Lindsey was examined 
by Justice Sexton, of Auburn, and discharged. 

August 24th. — In a shooting affair between Wra. 
Horn and Wm. Gwj-nn, at Virginia, Horn accident- 
ally shot a Mr. Morehouse, who died from the effects 
of his wound. 

September 6th. — A difficulty occurred at Knoxville 
between a man by the name of Moore and P. S. 
Tracj-, in which Moore was shot dead by Tracy. 
The latter is said to have been justified in the act. 

December 2d. — Henry Mo'ehler, who shot George 
Maye at Forest Hill, was examined before Justice 
Jamison, at Yankee Jim's, and was held under bonds 
in the amount of §10,000 double sui'oty. 

1864. 

February 12th. — The community of Auburn was 
startled by the announcement that Samuel McDon- 
ald, the night-watchman, had been found dead, hav- 
ing been shot through the heart with a pistol-ball 
sometime during the night. The deceased was Ibund 
lying in the rear of Steiner's brick store, and upon 
examination, it was found that an attempt had been 
made to break into the store by forcing away the 
brick wall next to one of the iron doors. He was 
shot through the upper part of the heart, the ball 
ranging from the left side in a direction slightly 
downward — showing that he must have been shot bj' 
some person standing in the street above, on the 
ascending ground. Mr. McDonald had resided in 
Auburn for many years, and was regarded as a quiet 
and inoffensive man. He was a native of New 
Hampshire, and was thirty-four years of age. The 
citizens of Auburn offered a reward of SI, 400 for the 
apprehension of the person or persons who com- 
mitted the deed. 

October 23th. — Austin Henderson killed James 
Drew, at Lincoln, by stabbing him in the lower ribs 
with a dirk-knife. 

December 22d. — Mr. Stevens, a cattle-dealer from 
Yolo County, was I'obbed by a highwayman between 
Auburu and Yankee Jim's, and relieved of §550 in 
coin. 

1865. 

February 12th. — George L. Merrill was shot dead 



342 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



by A. G. Creed at Rocklin Station, on the Central 
Pacific Railroad. 

March 6th. — A Mexican, known as Antoine, was 
stabbed at Michigan Bluff, and died in less than half 
an hour. He had been in company, drinking with 
several other Mexicans. Ned Lopez was arrested on 
suspicion of committing the act. 
1866. 

November 5th. — Frank Steinmann, a drunken 
railroad hand, killed Philip Heisner, a restaurant- 
keeper at Cisco. 

November 17th. — Drew was shot and killed by 
Blair, who acted in self-defense. 
1867. 

January 9th. — Wm. McDaniel was foully murdered 
in his store at Auburn. He was a respected citizen, 
and his untimely end caused groat excitement in the 
community. 

April 23d. — Deputy Constable Rogers, of Cisco, 
with a posse, went in search of James Sexton, to 
arrest him for some offense he had committed daring 
the day. On the way Sexton saw Rogers and his 
posse, who ordered him to stop and give himself up; 
this he refused to do. Rogers then fired, and Sexton 
closed with him, cutting him in a fearful manner 
with a large Chinese dagger. While Sexton was 
stabbing Rogers, some of the posse fired upon the 
former, wounding him in several places. Sexton 
died the next day, and the remains were taken to 
Auburn for burial, by his brother, sheriff Sexton. 

October 8th. — An affray occurred at Colfax between 
Thomas Way and a man named Noble. There seems 
to have been little cause for the diflSculty, both parties 
being intoxicated by strychnine whisky. They first 
engaged in a fist fight, in which Way had the advan- 
tage. They soon made up, but in the course of an 
hour the difficulty was renewed, and Noble threw a 
stone at Way, striking him on the head and knock- 
ing him down. Both parties were then arrested and 
taken to the Justice's ofiBce, where the prisoners 
amused themselves by throwing ink bottles, etc., at 
each other. Soon after this Way went out to wash, 
and after washing laid down on the ground uncon- 
scious. He was then carried to the Pioneer House, 
where he had been boarding, and died in a short 
time. 

1868. 

May 7th. — Ferdinand Helbs was instantly killed 
by a man known as "Dutch Charley," at Newcastle. 

June 23d. — Ah Fon, a Chinaman, was disembow- 
eled by Robert S. Alderson, at Auburn. 

September 19th. — Solomon Grover was killed at 
Rattlesnake by " French Charley." They had been 
in town together during the day, and were appar- 
ently the best of friends. They left town about eight 
o'clock in the evening, and the next morning Grover 
was found under a tree, terribly wounded and beaten 
about the head. He died two days afterward. 
French Charley was arrested. 



October 3d. — C. Hoffman, better known as " Sebas- 
topol," was accidentallj' shot dead at Dutch Flat, by 
a boy who was playing with a loaded pistol. Ho 
was a German, aged about thirty-seven. 

In a drunken quarrel at Todd's Valley, M. Malone 
killed James Trainor with a knife. 

July 13th. — A ranch owner named Freeman was 
shot by a sheep-herder named Smith, near Lincoln. 
Smith was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced 
to State Prison for ten years. 

1869. 

March 2l8t. — Martin Dickinson Bayes, Deputy 
Tax -Collector in the Fii-st Revenue District, was 
assassinated at Newcastle, under the following 
circumstances: Bayes had left Rocklin for Auburn, 
and had stopped at Newcastle, and had gone to a 
house tosee his wife and child, who were there visiting 
friends. After being there about twentj' minutes, 
and when about to start for the cars, having bidden 
good-bye to his wife, who was standing in the door, 
and while in the act of rising up from kissing his 
child, he was shot. He lived about twenty-two 
hours after being shot. The shot was fired from a 
barn or hay-yard on the opposite side of the street, 
and was believed to have been the delibei'ate act of 
a murderer. There was much excitement in the 
community over the murder, which extended to 
Lincoln, Auburn and Rocklin. 

April 11th. — David Holiday was shot and instantly 
killed at Real's Bar, by L. Seffer, who went imme- 
diately to Auburn and gave himself up. There had 
been a disagreement between the parties about land 
matters. Seffer was examined before Judge Poland, 
of Auburn, and discharged. 

May 21st. — Charles Dental, found guilty of murder 
in the second degree, for the killing of a man on 
Rattlesnake Bar, was sentenced by Judge McFarland 
to imprisonment for life. 

August 16th. — A man, supposed to be named E. 
A. Sule, committed suicide at the Junction House, 
Auburn, by taking laudanum. He had been a laborer 
on the railroad, but was removed with many others 
to make room for Chinamen; and being out of 
employment, with no means of sustaining himself, 
he spent his last quarter for laudanum to kill himself. 

December 7lh. — A. B. Glascock shot and killed 
Thomas Teaff at Dutch Flat. The parties had been 
engaged in playing cards; an altercation arose about 
some point in the game, when Teaff went and armed 
himself with a navy revolver, as is supposed, 
with the intention of killing Glascock. Subse- 
quently the quarrel was settled, and they resumed 
their game of cards. After playing a short time, 
another discussion arose, when Teaff' drew his pistol 
and attempted to kill Glascock. A struggle ensued, 
in which Glascock secured the pistol. Teaff then 
gathered up a couple of bottles, and was advancing 
towards Glascock in a threatening attitude, when the 
latter shot Teaff, who survived but a short time. 



THE CRIMINAL RECORD. 



343 



After the shooting, Glascock surrendered himself to 
the authorities. Both were old residents of Dutch 

Flat. 

1870. 

July 7th. — As Thomas Brown was returning home 
from Auburn to his farm about two miles out of 
town, and when near home, he was shot twice by 
some one concealed behind a stone wall. Some of 
the shot entered the hip and thigh, causing a painful 
wound. No clue to the perpetrators. 

July 19th. — A fatal aflfray occurred at Auburn, 
in which James Costello was suddenlj^ killed by John 
Leach. They had a disagreement about a partner- 
ship in a mining claim. 

July 28th. — A Frenchman named Thiebeau com- 
mitted suicide by blowing his brains out, at a cabin 
on Spanish Ravine, one-half mile from Auburn. 

December 19th. — A fiendish, heathenish murder 
and robbery was committed at Stewart's Flat, below 
Newcastle. Booker Chambers, one of the oldest 
miners on the Flat, and a quiet and estimable gen- 
tleman, was the victim. A Chinaman had called at 
Chambers' cabin once or twice, trying to buy a min- 
ing claim, and it seems that he had gone there again, 
and that Chambers had ceased mixing bread (as the 
dough was still on his fingers when found), and taken 
his pick and pan and gone to show him how rich the 
claim would prospect. Chambers' position when 
found would show that he was on his right kneC; 
bending over, and had struck one or two blows 
under the bank of the claim, when he was struck a 
heavy blow on the back of the head with a sharp 
hatchet, cutting through the coat-collar and par- 
tially severing the spinal bone; a second blow 
struck on the side of the neck, severing the jugular 
vein. He then fell or was pulled over backwards, 
and again struck on the right forehead, burying the 
bit of the hatchet in the brain, and a fourth just 
above the right ear, and a fifth below the right eyo 
and ear. Chambei's was known to have about $200 
in gold coin on his person, and about the same or a 
greater amount of gold-dust, and a gold hunting- 
case Watch. The watch-guard was cut and the 
watch taken, and his pockets were turned inside out, 
and empty. Chambers was the fourth or fifth victim 
of these brutal, heathenish man-butchers within a 
few years in the county, and the weapons and 
mode of slaughter and stealthy acts were almost 
identical in each case. 

1871. 

January 8th. — The lifeless body of A. G. Miller, 
better known as "Spring Vallej^ Milller," was found 
on a bar at the foot of a hole of water in the 
North Fork of the American River, below Rattle- 
snake Bar. He is supposed to have committed sui- 
cide. 

August 11th. — Michael O'Hara, a farmer on Pleas- 
ant Grove Creek, was shot and seriously wounded 
by a neighbor named Thomas Carroll. They had 
a misunderstanding about some stock. 



November 28th. — ^The stage from Placerville for 
Auburn was stopped between Georgetown and Green- 
wood, and robbed of 810,047.50 in dust and coin, 
the contents of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s treasure-box. 
The robber — only one man — had a fence across the 
road, a six-shooter slung in view, and pointed a Mis- 
sissippi yager at the driver's (Wm. H. Hills) head, 
and said: " Hand out Wells, Fargo & Co.'s box, or 
I'll blow your head off." Hills obeyed, and the rob- 
ber, who was masked, made tracks with the box. 
There was a white man and a Chinaman in the 
stage, but were not molested. 

1872. 

March 30th. — A. S. Rose was shot in his own 
house at Lincoln, between 11 and 12 o'clock, p. m. 
The general opinion is that the shots were not 
intended to kill the man, but as a scare to drive the 
family out of the town on account of the behavior of 
Mrs. Rose, his wife. Several men were arrested, 
also the woman, but all were discharged. The men 
who did the shooting wore masks. 

April 5th. — Frank Steinmann, who was sentenced 
to State Prison for twenty -five years, for murder in 
this county in 1867, was pardoned out by Governor 
Booth. 

May 22d. — Paul Grable, an old man sixty years of 
age, was found murdered at Shady Run. He was 
shot twice and stabbed, and was supposed to have 
considerable money. 

September 7th. Ballenger was shot and 

killed by Wright, at Dutch Flat, it was said in 

self-defense. 

November 30th. — B. F. Gilson was stopped by 
two masked men, about one mile east of Lincoln, 
and robbed of $540. 

1873. 

May 24th. — Chas. S. Strobel, an old and esteemed 
citizen of Michigan Bluff, was brutally murdered 
and robbed in his own house. The murderers 
worked their way into his room, and with a hatchet 
chopped the victim's head in a terrible manner, 
besides stabbing him in the breast. They then 
rolled his safe away from the house and broke it 
open. The amount obtained therefrom could not be 
ascertained, but was at least $600 or $800. A 
reward of $1,000 was offered for the arrest of the 
murderers. Two Chinamen were, one year after- 
wards, convicted of the murder and executed. 

July 27th. — The stage from Colfax to Grass Valley 
was robbed by four masked men. Seven thousand 
seventy-eight dollars was the amount taken from 
Wells, Fargo & Co., who offered a reward of $2,500 
for the recovery of the money and conviction of 
the robbers. 

September 12th. — The Auburn and Forest Hill 
Stage was stopped by three masked men. There 
were two passengers, from whom the •' agents " got 
$300 and $80, respectively. Wells, Fargo & Co.'s 
box was about empty, containing only about $60. 



344 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



November. Norman was ridden on a rail 

by the citizens of Sheridan for running away with a 
shoemaker's wife. 

1874. 

February.— Edward Schoeler, known as '' Butch," 
was found murdered in front of his cabin at Indian 
Ravine, near Lincoln. Robbery the cause. 

March Itith. — Daniel Ellis was shot and killed by 
J. Douglass, at Rocklin. An old grudge the cause. 
Ellis threatened to whip Douglass, and was shot 
in self-defense. 

March IGth. — John Hays and John Clark, found 
guilty of robbing the Forest Hill stage, were sen- 
tenced by Judge J. Ives Fitch to a term of ten 
years each in State Prison. 

November 1st. — James Stewart was shot and 

killed by Scott, at Tahoe City. Stewart was 

a well-known desperado, and was killed by Scott in 
self-defense. 

1875. 

May 12th. — Bernard O'Riley was shot and killed 
by Thomas Campbell, at Wisconsin Hill. The parties 
had been drinking together, and O'Riley called 
Campbell some hard names. The latter went away 
and returned with a loaded musket, and demanded 
a I'eti-action of the words. Upon getting a refusal 
he shot him dead, the charge entering G'Riley's 
breast. Campbell was tried, convicted, and sentenced 
to State Prison for life. 

Septeinb(!r 19th. — Chas. Anderson was shot by 
Gustave Fustell, at Ophir. The trouble grew out of 
a dog, which Anderson asked Fustell to watch while 
he went somewhere. When Anderson came back 
both man and dog were gone, and he, t'ollowing 
them, raised a row, with the above result. Both 
were old residents of Ophir. Anderson died four 
days after the shooting. Fustell was examined and 
discharged. 

December 22d. — -Four noted robbers, among whom 
were " Red Autone," Isador Padillo, and Trinidad 
Rodrigues, were captured at the Spanish settlement 
in Doty's Ravine, by Sheriff McCormick, assisted 
by Sheriff Daniels, of • Butte; Sheriff Cunningham, 
of San Joaquin; Chief of Police Myers, of Stockton, 
and a large posse made up of deputies and citizens. 
These i-obbers were known to be participants in 
many of the stage robberies committed in different 
sections of the county. Creat caution was necessary 
for their capture, etc. 

1876. 

January 18th.— S. R. Ridder, a ])rominent mine 
owner of Iowa Hill, was shot and almost instantly 
killed. He bad employed a man to watch his 
sluices, and becoming suspicious that his watchman 
was not doing his duty, ho set out to watch for 
himself, and was mistaken for a robber and shot. 
He had given his watchman orders to shoot any one 
he found about the mine. 

Fcbruarv 4th. — The Forest Hill slaire was robbed 



of $10, that being the total amount contained in 
Wells, Fargo & Co.'s box. This was within a mile 
of Auburn. 

Fcbruarj' 5th. — Forest Hill and Aubui-n stage 
again robbed. This time the robbers got §1,300 from 
Wells, Fargo & Co.'s box. 

April. — Henry Miller was stabbed and killed 
near Lincoln, by Alexander Fox. Hot words the 
cause. The men were wood-choppers. The Coi'o- 
ner's jury gave a verdict of unjustifiable homicide. 

1877. 

October 23d. —August Behlty was shot and killed 
by his brother, Albert Behlty, at Iowa Hill. 

November 4th. — N. V. Waggoner was shot and 
killed by Paschal Varnum, at Gold Bar, about six 
miles above Auburn. The shooting grew out of a 
business difficulty. 

1878. 

Jul}' 5th. — George Granger was shot and instantly 
killed by J. R. Tracy, at Dutch Flat. The shoot- 
ing was about a trifling money matter. 

1879. 
November 27th. — Theodore Wilson was instantly 
killed by Herman Gallagher, at Penryn. The trouble 
grew out of land matters. 

1880. 

January 4th. — The Georgetown and Auburn stage 
was stopped and robbed by two masked men. They 
got about §200. 

May 15th. — The stage from Michigan Bluff to 
Forest Hill was robbed again on this date, when 
about one and one-half miles from Auburn. The 
robbers got $88, two silver and one gold watch 
from the passengers. 

May 22d. — A serious diflSoulty occurred on the old 
McDonald Ranch, about seven miles east of Sheri- 
dan, which resulted in the killing of Daniel Haley, 
a young man of about nineteen j-ears of age, by 
W. K. Fenton. Fenton was examined and found 
to have acted in self-defense. 

August 6th. — The stage from Auburn to Forest 
Hill was stopped near the Grizzly Bear House, 
about ten miles above Auburn, by two masked men. 
There were two passengers in the stage — one a 
Catholic priest named Cassidy, and a Mr. McAlice, 
of Oakland. They got §80 and a S250 gold watch 
from Mr. Cassidy and §100 in coin from Mr. McAlice. 
They were provided with chisels and hammers, and 
proceeded to undo Wells, Fargo & Co.'s box, from 
which they got $1,530. 

September 30th. — J. P. Bullard, an old gentleman, 
was shot and killed by C. N. Adams, Deputy Sheriff, 
who was acting as guard on the Forest Hill stage. 
The aft'air was very unfortunate. Mr. Bullard, for a 
few evenings previous, had been meeting the stage 
at the lower watering trough on the North Fork 
Hill, and going With it a few miles as a guard. 
Adams did not know this. The evening in ques- 




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MILITARY. 



.34o 



tion Mr. BuUard and his son were together. Mr. 
Adams, supposing them to be robbers, shot and 
killed the old gentleman and fired at the son. 
When the horses were stopped it was discovered 
that an innocent man had been shot. The Coro- 
ner's jury found that Mr. Ballard came to his death 
through misapprehension, being mistaken for a 
robber by Mr. Adams. 

November 1st. — The Georgetown and Auburn 
stage was stopped and robbed of $2,44-1.30 while 
coming up the North Pork grade, about a mile above 
Auburn. 

December 7th. — The residence of J. T. Ashlej', in 
Auburn, was robbed in broad daylight of valuables, 
etc., to the amount of •S200. 

1881. 

May 25th. — The stage running between the town 
of Dutch Flat and Dutch Flat Sfation was stopped 
by two masked men, and Wells, Fargo & Co.'s bo.K 
was robbed of about •'?25. 

July 27th. — George McClintock, Joseph Sprout, 
James Scanlan, and George Green, who were con- 
victed of breaking into a railroad car at Rocklin and 
stealing goods to the amount of 8250 in value, were 
sentenced to the State Prison, the first three for a 
term of fifteen years each, and Green for five years. 
These were boys all under fifteen yeai-s of age. The 
first three had been previously convicted of crime. 



CHAPTER XLII. 



MILITARY. 

First Military Organization— The Miners' Guard — State Militia 
—Placer Eifles— The War of the Rebellion— "I Wish I 
Was in Dixie's Land " — First Comp my for the War — Camp 
Sigel — Defending Colonel Forman — Movements of the Vol- 
untCTS — Murders by Secessionists — End of the War — 
Grand Army of the Republic. 

In the history of such a ]iolitical division of the 
earth or of a nation as a county, the recoi-d of its 
wars, military organizations, military operations, its 
battle-fields, the engagements thereon, the causes 
and cifects, and the roster of its soldiers, under ordi- 
nary circumstances, must be brief Generally, his- 
tory is but the record of battles and revolutions, the 
strife of ambitious and selfish men to rule and profit 
by the distress of the people; but, happily, in this 
pleasant State by the peaceful sea few have been 
the battles to ensanguine the historic page. " Happy 
are the people," says Montesquieau, " whose annals 
are brief in the history books." That philosopher 
referred to such a period when only the great 
deeds of kings and generals upon the field, the 
grandeur of royalty, and the proud movements of 
mighty armies were deemed worthy of notice. 
Under such a view there would be but little to say of 
Placer County, or of California, but since the era of 
Louis XV, through blood and battle and revolution, 
governments have arisen among men that are con- 



trolled by the people, and their annals present many 
a pleasant and interesting i)age. 

FIRST MILITARY ORGANIZATION. 

The first military organization in Placer County 
was at Illinoistown, in December, 1849, of a com- 
jianj- called the " California Blades," for a cani])aign 
against the Indians, who had committed many dar- 
ing robberies, and were suspected of some murders. 
This company was not recruited under the form of 
law, and its roster will not be found in the archives 
of the State; nor was it armed and equipped in the 
manner of armies of a great government. Even the 
names of its officers are lost to history by their title 
and rank, and, what is a singular exception, their 
bills for salary, arms, ammunition, forage, transpor- 
tation, and damages, swell no list of " war claims" 
for annual pi-esentment, and subject of demagogic 
appeals on the floor.s of Congress. Nevertheless, the 
California Blades was a stalwart companj-, armed 
with long rifles, yagers, and shotguns, dragoon and 
pepper-box pistols, butcher and Bowie-knives; and 
with powder-horn and bullet-pouches, blankets, and 
'■hard-tack" and bacon — made several marches 
against the Indians, killed and laid waste, and, after 
the manner of larger armies, struck such terror to 
the foe that lasting peace followed their victory. 
No outrages were committed against the savages 
not justified by the occasion, and as soon as the 
ladians ceased their depredations hostilities ended, 
and from that day they were kindly treated. In 
the chapter entitled " Reminiscences of Illinois- 
town," are given the causes which led to the retalia- 
tory movement. 

California was acquired hy the Americans as the 
result of a successful war, the most brilliant on 
record, and among the early settlers were many 
who had served in the conquei-ing armies. Others 
of the pioneers emulated the soldierly spirit, gener- 
ally they were accustomed to the use of arms, many 
had crossed the plains, and had been in contests 
with the savages, and the whole population 
was like an unorganized body of soldiers 
depending upon might to maintain their rights, 
rather than civil law. National soldiers or a State 
militia would have found but little consideration 
among the strong and indeiiendent men who first 
peopled the State. These men invaded the fiist- 
nesses of the Sierra with a rush, stopping not to ask 
permission of the Indian nor offering beads, trinkets, 
and tobacco for a treaty of cession of the territor}-; 
but always doing that justice to the native occupant 
that men should. By this means the country was 
oceujiied without serious war, and without the scan- 
dal that has attended the treaty-making, the Indian 
wars, a7id the reservation system of other new 
States and Territories. 

THE miners' guards. 

Society in 1853 was in a very incohato condition, 
the chief organizing clement — woman— being not 



34(1 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Bufficiently numerous as to exercise a commanding 
influence. Anything, therefore, to make up a social 
body was encouraged. Such was the principal object 
in forming the Miners' Guards. There were no 
Indians to punish in western Placer, no insurrection 
to suppress, no Court House and jail to guard, or 
prisoners to defend from an infuriated mob, no inva- 
sion to fear; but the miners of Secret Diggings, 
wishing to have a reason for social gatherings, and to 
make life more pleasant by having means of regulat- 
ing their meetings by united efforts, in July, 1853, 
formed the military company which they styled the 
'• Miners' Guards," with William L. Carpenter, as 
Captain. The company contained between thirty 
and forty members, and celebrated its organization 
by a parade, oration, dinner, and toasts, on the 4th of 
July of that year. Among those participating in 
the celebration were: Esquire Crary, who was iMar- 
shal of the day; Philip Lynch, President; John Har- 
rison and VV. P. Vanderbilt, Yice-presidents; E. A. 
Andrews read the Declaration of Independence; 
Lansing Stout delivered an oration; Rev. Thomas 
Parker was Chaplain; J. S. Jordan and W. R. Smith 
were Secretaries, and Mrs. Williams prepared the 
dinner. The company was entirely voluntary, and 
self-sup]iorling, the State not then having prepared 
for military organizations, 

STATE MILITI.4^. 

The Legislature of 1854 passed an Act providing 
for the formation of a State Militia, and, in March, 
1854, steps were taken by the young men of Auburn 
to organize a militarj' company. The military 
spirit, however, was not very great at the time, and 
the project was ineffectual. 

The Legislature of 1855 divided the State into six 
military divisions and twelve brigades. The coun- 
ties of Placer, El Dorado, S:icramento, Nevada, and 
Sierra comprised the Fourth Division, and, on the 
29th of September, 1855, B. F. Myres, of Auburn, 
was appointed bj' the Governor, Brigadier-General of 
the Second Brigade. 

PLACER RIFLES. 

In March, 185G, Brigadier-General B. F. Mj-res 
was authorized by the County Judge to organize a 
rifle company in Auburn, and a meeting was called 
on April 5th for the purpose. A company was 
formed, called the " Placer Rifles," and the following 
were elected its officers; Captain, James Anderson; 
First Lieutenant, Alfred Mason; Second Lieutenant, 
Ezra Kinsey; Junior Second Lieutenant, Benj. Stin- 
son; First Sergeant, S. C. Astin; Second Sergeant, 
A. S. Grant; Third Sergeant, S. C. Huntress; Fourth 
Sergeant, J. T. Reed; First Corporal, Samuel Hyne- 
man; Second Corporal, Dr. Woody; Third Corporal, 
C. T. Palmer, and Fourth Corporal, Mr. Bartlett. 

The company did not receive its arms until late the 
following year. 



THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 

The secession of the Southei'n Confederacy in 
1860-61, in consequence of the election of Abraham 
Lincoln as President of the United States, and the 
arming of the rebels, aroused the martial spirit of 
the North. In 1861 attention began toward military 
affairs, and continued to increase until the country 
became a great camp of soldiers, and the waving 
flags a familiar sight, the " spirit-stirring drum and 
ear-piercing fife " familiar sounds, the movements of 
armies and the reports of great battles the chief 
news of the daily journals. Long years of peace 
and pro.spGrity bad made the hearts of the people 
tender and their feelings kind, and they were totally 
unused and unprepared for the violent death-dealing 
strife, or the destructive acts of war, and the first 
scenes of armed assault, and the shedding of blood, 
sent a thi'ill of horror throughout the land, creating 
an excitement rising to indignation, which nothing 
but retaliation could quell. From the most peaceful 
of peoples they became the most warlike, and from 
undisciplined volunteers were made the best and 
most formidable armies the world ever saw. 

" I WISH I WAS IN dixie's LAND." 

The song of " Dixie's Land " was the favorite of 
the Southerners and their sympathizers in the North, 
and the tune became the national air of the Confed- 
eracy. So dear did this seem to many, and so pop- 
ular did it become, that it is here given in full: — 

I wish I was in de land ob cotton ; 
Old times dar am not forgotten; 
Look away ! look away ! look away ! Dixie Land ! 
In Dixie Lnnd whar I was bom in, 
Early m one frosty mornin'. 

Chorus. 

Den I wish I was in Dixie, hooray ! hooray ! 
In Dixie Land I'll took my stand, 
To lib and die in Dixie ! away! away I 
Away down South in Dixie. 

Ole missus marry " Wdl de weaber;" 
William was a gay deoeaber; 

Look away ! &c. 
But when he put his arm around 'er, 
He smiled as fierce as a forty-pounder; 

Look away ! &c. (Chorus.) 

His face was as sharp as a butcher's cleaber; 
But dat did not seem to greab 'er; 

Look away ! &c. 
Ole missus acted de foolish part, 
An' died for a man dat broke her heart; 

Look a'way ! &c. 

Now here's a health to de next old missus, 
An' all de gals dat want to kiss us; 

Look away ! &c. 
But if you want to drive 'way sorrow. 
Come and hear dis song to-morrow; 

Look away ! cfec. 

Dar's buckwheat cakes and Ingen batfer, 
Makes you fat or a little fatter; 

L ok a%vay 1 &c. 
Den hoe it down and scratch your grabel. 
To Dixie Land I'm bound to trabe 

Look away ! &c. 

FIRST COMPANY FOR THE WAR. 

The war had really begun with the passage of 
the Ordinance of Secession by South Carolina on the 



MILITARY. 



347 



20th of December, 1860, but the earnestness of that 
movement was not appreciated until, on the 12th of 
April, 1861, when the Rebel army opened fire on 
Fort Sumter. A temporizing, timid, anti-coercion 
policy had continued up to that date, although a 
Eebel Government had been formed, a rebel army 
equipped, United States forts seized, and national 
ships fired upon. With the firing upon Fort Sumter 
the war is commonly said to have commenced. 
Then the North flew to arms. Companies were 
organized, without authority of the Government, in 
preparation of the call for service. 

The first to prepare for war in Placer County 
were the "Auburn Greys." Under this name a com- 
pany was formed June 20, 1861, and fifty-four vol- 
unteers signed the roll. An election was held for 
officers, choosing C. W. C. Eowell, for Captain; 
Edgar W. Hillyer, First Lieutenant; Henry Stone, 
Second Lieutenant; Thos. Cross, Third Lieutenant; 
A. S. Grant, Orderly Sergeant; John Gorman, Sec- 
ond Sergeant; John T. Reed, Third Sergeant; John 
C. Boggs, Fourth Sergeant; Wm. T. McGinnis, First 
Corporal; Thos. Jamison, Second Corporal; J. B. 
Langford, Third Corporal; Frank Miller, Fourth 
Corporal; S. B. Woodin, drummer, and W. A. Sel- 
kirk, fifer. 

The company immediately proceeded to drill and 
prepai-e itself for active duties in the field. Recruits 
continued to add to its numbers, coming Irom 
Auburn and vicinity, Ophir, lUinoistown, Pine 
Grove, and Secret Ravine. There was, as yet, no 
call for troops from California. The first call was 
made late in July for a regiment of infantry and 
battalion of cavalrj' to protect the overland mail 
route through Southern California and Arizona. 
This I'egiment was organized in San Francisco, but 
had many companies and recruits from the interior, 
two, Peter Hoin and J. W. Van Mater, being from 
Auburn. 

Late in August, 1861, a call was made on Califor- 
nia for 5,000 more volunteers, and all independent 
companies were invited to offer their services. 
This was the opportunity for the " Auburn Greys," 
and the company was readily accepted as part of the 
California contingent. The company then reorgan- 
ized, as some of its members were not ready to go 
to war. 

Early in September this company received orders 
to report at the camp of the Fourth Regiment, at 
Placerville, and on the 13th of the month marched 
from Auburn. In the meantime a company of 
Home Guards had been formed, containing some of 
the members of the "Greys." The ofiicers of the 
Guards were: A. S. Grant, Captain; J. L. Brown, 
First Lieutenant; Thos. Cross, Second Lieutenant; 
Henry Stone, Third Lieutenant, and C. J. Hillyer, 
Orderly Sergeant. 

Previous to the march the ladies of Auburn pre- 
sented the company with a beautiful flag of blue silk 
trimmed with silver-bullion lace. On one side was 



the coat of arms of California, on the other " Pre- 
sented by the Ladies of Auburn," and upon a gilt 
ground the motto, " W^hen duty calls 'tis ours to 
obey." The presentation was made by Mrs. C. A. 
Tuttle, in a neat speech, and responded toby Captain 
Row ell. 

The Home Guards escorted the company to the 
outskirts of the town, gave them a salute, and 
cheered them on their way, the first to march from 
home in the service of their country. The Home 
Guards now assumed the name and place of the 
" Auburn Greys." 

Early in September, Captain Thomas A. Young, of 
Forest Hill, reported to the Governor with a com- 
pany, recruited on the " Divide," which was accepted, 
and went to Arizona. 

Captain J. Ives Fitch also raised a company in the 
same region, called the "Mountain Volunteers," and 
joined the camp at Placerville. 

Captain William Pitcher recruited a company of 
cavalry, making, as early as September, four com- 
panies raised in Placer County. 

CAMP SIGEL. 

The headquarters of the Fourth Regiment, early 
in October, was changed to Auburn, where a camp of 
instruction was established, and called " Camp 
Sigel." The following were the officers of the regi- 
ment: Colonel, H. M. Judah; Lieutenant-Colonel, 
Harvey Lee; Major, Henry Hancock; Adjutant, 
William Forry; Regimental Quartermaster, and 
Acting Commissary of Subsistence, David J. Wil- 
liamson; Sutler, James L. Trask. 

The following are the names of the officers and 
men of the Placer County companies in camp, Octo- 
ber 12, 1861:— 

COMPANY A, AUBURN. 

C. W. C Rowell, Captain; Edgar W. Hillyer, First 
Lieutenant;' Edward D. Tuttle, Second Lieutenant; 
Joseph W. Scoboy, First Sergeant; M. A. Gerke, 
Second Sergeant; D. S. Leebendelfer, Third Ser- 
geant; Brown Rawles, Fourth Sergeant; Frank 
Kaiser, Fifth Sergeant; Thomas Smith, Sixth Ser- 
geant; S. R. Barr, Seventh Sergeant; P. W. Good- 
man, Eighth Sergeant; R. B. Stanley, Bugler; Dan- 
iel Phelps, Drummer; J. M. Jenkins, Wagoner. 
Pi-ivates: — 
Hugh Agan, Wm. Lossee, 

David Armstrong, J. Mohan, 

J. Ashburn, J. McCred, 

John Ballif, H. C. McCoy, 

Wm.Baraford, J. W. McKinley, 

J. Bartlett, M. S. McKinney, 

J. M. L. Beam, P. C. Molloy, 

Chas. Baer, H. Morgan, 

J. Bedford, Edwin Naylor, 

J. G. Blake, J. S. Newman, 

G. Boyle, J. O'Brien, 

F. A. Carr, A. M. Patterson, 

Edwin Clapp, D. H. Pepper, 



348 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, 



J. CoateB, 

H. Cohl, 

H. Christman, 

VV^m. Corrifjcan 

Jas. Cunningham, 

Wm. Doherty, 

Martin V. Davis, 

E. Ferrell, 
Amos Fithian, 

F. J. Frank, 
James F. Frye, 
S. Gardner, 
Samuel Gibson, 
H. W. Gelty, 

G. H. Gladding, 
Asa Harden, 
Benj. S. Higgins, 
A. Hubbard, 

F. Ilbreght, 
J. Johnson. 
F. Keating, 
i). S. Kerr, 
F. M. Kirk, 
A. S. Longle}-, 

J B. 



E. M. Phillips, 
W. Ramsey, 
M. Rawles, 
I. F. Reavis, 
Chas. Reeves, 
J. G. Robbins, 
E. Ross, 
R. H. Russell, 
J. H. Russell, 
J. B. Saltmarsh, 
J. M. Sanders, 
R. K. Sargeant, 
M. Shimer, 
J. Shrontz, 
Thomas Smith, 
J. Swarm, 
J. W. W. Stewart, 
T. M. Sharji, 
Uriah Thompson 
O. F. Warren, 
C. M. Wager, 
John Way, 
B. R. Wells, 
William Wilson, 
Loutzenhiser. 



COMPANY B, FOREST HILL. 

J. Ives Fitch, Captain; A. W. Copley, First Lieu- 
tenant; * A. C. Haskell, Second Lieutenant; John 
Pearson, First Sergeant; C. C. Nason, Second Ser- 
geant; Smith Miner, Third SergeantyW. L. Haskell, 
Fourth Sergeant; C. H. Godfrey, Fifth Sergeant; 
D. W. G:ize, First Corporal; Charles White, Second 
Corporal; Wm. Sheriu, Third Corporal; S. J. Kings- 
ley, Fourth Corporal; George Sterling, Fifth Cor- 
poral; J. P. Raynes, Sixth Corporal; H. S. Allen, 
Seventh Corporal; J. Maculey, Eigath Corporal; 
Samuel D.iggett. W;igon Master. 

Privates: — 



Francis Abrams. 
Jonathan Adams, 
G. Austin, 
J. Austin, 

E. Baldwin, 

A. J. Bartholemew, 
J. Beardsley, 

F. Becker, 
J. Bother, 
E. Breed, 

C. Brown, 
W. Bryant, 
E. Clow, 

H. M. Crampton, 

O. Bay, 

J. Davis, 

U. E. Doolittle, 

W. Drake, 

R. H. Dodge, 

D. Fisher, 
J. H. Good, 



J. Murraj', 
J. McMikel, 
G. Noyes, 
J. M. Ormsby, 
J. Paul, 
G. Pearce, 
J. T. Robinson, 
S. T. Rolson, 
James Russell, 
W. A. Raywood, 
L. W. Scott, 
S. Smith, 
Sylvanus Smith, 
W. Sprinkles, 
S. Streeter, 
W. R. Stoles, 
W. B. Swan, 
W. Taylor, 
P. T. Thornton, 
J. Tierney, 
W. E. Towle, 



H. P. Hale, 
J. H. P. Hall, 
W. Hammond, 
S. Hoffner, 

F. Hoffner, 
L. M. House, 
W. Hartshorn, 
C. W. Johnson, 
W. R. Kincannon, 
Pat. King, 

L. A. Loring, 

G. P. Lund, 

J. W. McDowell, 
W. M. Miller, 
A. Miller, 

Chai'les 



George G. Tryon, 

W. Tyler, 

A. B. Vanalstine, 

0. Walker, 

J. White, 

H. Whiting, 

C. S. Wright, 

D. H. Woods, 
Wm. Yarrington, 
David J. Williams, 
Michael Long, 
Daniel Davis, 
James Houger, 

J. Hyler, 

Monier, 

Stewart. 



The companies comprising the Fourth Regiment 
in camp at Auburn were; Company A, Captain 
Rowell; Company B, Captain Fitch— both of Placer 
County; Company C, Captain West, of Shasta; Com- 
pany D, Captain Scott, of Amador; Company E, 
Captain Crowninshield, of Trinity; Company F, 
Captain CuUum, of El Dorado; Company G, Captain 
Grant, of Piaeer. This last company was organized 
out of the Home Guards, Captain, A. S. Grant; 
F^rst Lieutenant, Matthew Sherman. Company H, 
Cafitain Brooks, of Trinity; Company I, Captain 
Nugent, of El Dorado. 

COMPANY G, AUBURN. 

The following is a list of the officers and privates 
of Company G, Fourth Infantry, raised in Placer 
County in 1S6I, as it was constituted in 1865: A. S. 
Grant, Captain; Geo. Haycock, First Lieutenant; 
Frederick J. Franks, Second Lieutenant; James F. 
Chapin, First Sergeant; Rankin McMullen, Sergeant; 
Walter R. Towle, Sergeant; Benoni Stinson, Ser- 
geant; Alexander H. Bown, Corporal; Nicholas H. 
Campbell, Coi'poral; John H. Fox, Corporal; John 
Hill, Corporal; David B. McKee, Corporal; Elmer 
(-rranger. Musician. 



Privates: — 

Andrew Areola, 
Wm. H. H. Ackors, 
Charles Brown, 
John Berk, 
James Berry, 
N. C. Bos worth 
Samuel S. Bolton, 
Peter N. Beck, 
James Boyles, 
Charles Caldwell, 
Charles P. Chapman, 
Thomas .Donley, 
August Dupins, 
Arthur C. Erwin, 
Elijah B. Fitzgerald. 
James Francis, 
Louis A. Fouquet, 
George W, Fiko, 



John F. Maurice, 
John McMichael, 
Charles Morris, 
John E. Murray, 
Amos P. Myres, 
George McConihe, 
James J. Moriarty, 
Michael J. Nelson, 
James Ogden, 
William O'Donnell, 
Richmond W. Pease 
Rudolph Podhir, 
Samuel Reynolds, 
Gustave L. Ruthsturni 
Kaziner Rozinoski, 
William A. Raywood, 
John Rozell, 
Thomas C. Stephens, 



MILITARY. 



349 



Alexander Graham, 
Jacob Grinn, 
Wm. C. Guirey, 
George VV. Harris, 
Henry B. Hooker, 
Louis A. Johnson, 
Timothy Keiley, 
Eobert Lynn, 
John Landsbury, 
Leonard B. Lawes, 
James Leary, 
Samuel M. Murray, 
Oliver S. Mabrey, 
Dennis Murphy, 
David VV. Maikens, 
Wm. Malson, 



B. H. Schumaker, 
Charles W. Smith, 
William L. States, 
William Sprinkles, 
Sylvester Smith, 
Wm. H. Thompson, 
Frank Trunk, 
Rosewell Trask, 
Thomas J. Tramel, 
Lorrin Tisdale, 
Eeuben Tinker, 
William J. Tolan, 
William Voorhees, 
Wm. fl. Waterman, 
James Wilson, 
Barzilla D. Wright. 



In October, 1861, several of the companies of the 
Fourth Regiment were ordered to Oregon and Wash- 
ington to occupy and garrison the various posts in 
that quarter, and marched from Auburn. Before 
their departure. Colonel Judah was ordered East, he 
being of the regular army, and Colonel Ferris Fore- 
man, a veteran of the Mexican War, was appointed 
to the command. 

The companies going to Oregon were stationed at 
various posts; Company A, at Walla Walla; Com- 
pany B, at Fort Vancouver in Washington Territory; 
and Companies D and E, at Fort Yamhill Oregon; 
Companies A and B subsequently went to Arizona. 
The others remained in Camp Sigel, under the com- 
mand of Colonel Forman. 

The various promotions and changes of officers, 
companies, stations, and regiments occurring during 
the four and a half years service are not traced, but 
the organizations were very different when dis- 
charged in the spring of 1866. Captain Ttiomas A. 
Young was in command of Company D, First Battalion 
of Native Cavalry, and died in Arizona. Patrick 
Munday of Placer was Captain of Company K, Fourth 
Infantry and in 1863 '64 and '65 was stationed at 
Los Angeles. He afterwards was member of the 
Assembly, and died at Cisco, October 14, 1872, from 
an accident. 

DEFENDING COLONEL FORMAN. 

Some objections were expressed to the appoint- 
ment of Colonel Forman, as his loyalty was doubted, 
and the following card was published: — 

Camp Sigel, Placer Co., Nov. 4, 1861. 
We, the undersigned, commanding officers of the 
Fourth Regiment, California Volunteers, having seen 
several articles criticising the appointment of Ferris 
Forman to the Colonelcy of our regiment, and insin- 
uating doubts of his loyalty, feel called upon to 
publicly state that we have full confidence in his 
loyalty, military ability, and experience, and his 
determination to do all in his power to aid the 
Government in prosecuting the war to a successful 



issue. Of his bravery, none can doubt who are 
familiar with the history of the Mexican War. 
A. VV. CuLLUM, Captain Company F, 
James Evans, First Lieutenant Company F, 
J. A. Hale, Second Lieutenant Company F, 
A. S. Grant, Captain Company G, 
M. Sherman, First Lieutenant Company G, 
G. Haycock, Second Lieutenant Companj- G, 
J. M. Cass, First Lieutenant Company H, 
Chas. Atcuison, Captain Company I, 
W. P. Nason, First Lieutenant Company I. 

During the Mexican War, Colonel Forman was 
in command of the Third Regiment of Illinois Volun- 
teers, and obtained high commendation for his 



movements of the volunteers. 

Lieutenant B. W. Hillyer, stationed with his com- 
pany at Walla Walla, in Washington Territory, was 
elected by the people of Placer County to the Assem- 
bly, and in December obtained leave of absence and 
returned to California, where he served his term in 
the Legislative session of 1862, after which he 
returned to his duties in the military service. In 
March, 1866, he was mustered out with the rank of 
Lieutenant-Colonel, and received the thanks of 
General McDowell for his faithfulness and efficiency. 

In January, Company G, Captain Grant, left Camp 
Sigel for Camp Union, at Suttervillo, near Sacramento, 
and subsequently was sent to the southern part of 
the State, the headquarters of the Company being at 
San Diego. 

Other companies were formed in the county, ready 
for maintaining order at home or joining other 
regiments if called upon. Of these were the Forest 
Hill Guards, the Placer Cadets, the Yankee Jim 
Rifles, and the Auburn Greys. In November, 1863, 
a military company was organized at Lincoln, with 
the following officers: F. A. Sprague, Captain; J. A. 
Hale, First Lieutenant; G. W. Taylor, Second Lieu- 
tenant; W. Myers, Third Lieutenant. These com- 
panies did not join the Volunteers, but remained as 
part of the National Guard of California, the modern 
term for militia, until 1868, when they surrendered 
their arms, etc., and were mustered out of service. 

murders by secessionists. 

Company A, under Captain Rowell, stationed at 
Walla Walla, though far from the armies of the 
Confederacy, was surrounded by a hostile element, 
many of the citizens being sympathizers with the 
rebels, and more dangerous traitors, as claiming the 
protection of civil law, jury trial, and the processes 
of sympathetic courts, than the enemies in the field. 
On the 10th of April, 1862, a party of the volunteers 
went to the theater in Walla Walla, and after the 
performance, expressed joy over the news then 
received of the fall of Newborn, North Carolina. 
This aroused the ire of a number of secessionists 
present, and a melee ensued, during which John B. 



3.50 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Loutzenhiser, who had joined the comjjany, from 
lllinoistown, was shot through the heart, killing him 
instantly, and Ansil Hubbard, from Dutch Flat, was 
mortally wounded. Sergeant J. W. Seobey, after- 
wards Lieutenant Seobey, writing to a friend of the 
matter, says: — 

The affray was premeditated, commenced, and 
tragically consummated by a gang of rowdies and 
gamblers, who boldly and exultingly proclaim them- 
selves secessionists; who have persistently annoyed 
and insulted the soldiers whenever opportunity 
offered; who look upon the volunteers with feelings 
of hate, and really entertain a sort of contempt for 
their courage — the first, born of their ti'eason, the 
latter, of their ignorance. They have occasioned a' 
great deal of annoyance to the garrison during the 
entire winter. In all this they have had the moral (?) 
support of the citizens of the Valley, a large majority 
of whom are disunionists in sentiment, manifesting 
it both by word and action. 

This was a severe charge to make against the 
people of Walla Walla, as at this day it seems impos- 
sible that disunionists could exist who were not 
citizens of the " Confederate States," but the charge 
was undoubtedly true, and shows the embarrassing 
position in which the California Volunteers were 
placed in the various quarters where they were 
stationed. 

END OF THE WAR. 

The Placer County Volunteers performed efiicient 
service in various parts of the Pacific Coast States 
and Territories, although not participants in the 
struggles and glory of the great battles for the Union, 
which were fought east of the Rocky Mountains. 
Exposure, hardship, disease, and assassination caused 
the loss of many lives, and their graves are scattered 
through California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, 
and Washington. Some fell in Indian battles, and 
some by the hands of rebels. The service was 
arduous and unthankful, but in after years each and 
all, of whatever rank, from the humblest private to 
the field ofBcers in command, are proud of the high 
duty performed, and of the record that they volun- 
teered to enter the field for the preservation of the 
integrity and glory of their country. 

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC. 

The California Volunteers were mustered out of 
service in 1866. Some returned to their homes, and 
others remained in the region where last stationed. 
After the close of the war an association of ex-soldiers 
was formed, styled the " Grand Army of the Repub- 
lic." All were entitled to membership who had 
ever taken the oath of service, and had been honor- 
ably discharged. In March, 1868, a Post of the 
Grand Array of the Republic was established at 
Auburn with the following ofBcers: Capt. J. Ives 
Fitch, P. C;''Capt. M. H. Calderwood, V. P. C; B. 
R.Wells, Jr., V. C; W. H. Hubbard, Q. M.; W. H. 
H. Fellows, Adjt.; T. A. Wright, Surgeon; B. F. 
Wellington, P. C. 



The object of the association is cementing the 
friendships formed in the field, social pleasures, 
preservation of the records, tales and history of the 
war, and the care and due respect to deceased com- 
rades. Annually, on the 30th of May, the Comrades 
of the G. A. R. strew flowers on the graves of those 
who have gone before, and from this custom the 
day is styled •' Decoration Day," and is made a legal 
holiday. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 
DESTROYED BY FIRE. 



Ophir Burned— .Sundry Fires — Great Fire in Auburn — Iowa Hill 
Burned — Michigan Bluff Destroyed — Fires again in Auburn 
— Iowa Hill again Burned — Dwelling Burned — Fire at 
Rattlesnake — Destructive Conflagrations in Auburn — Flour- 
ing-mill Burned — Buildings Burned — Hotels Burned at 
Eocklin — Fire at Auburn Depot — More Fires — Empire Mill 
Burned — Incendiary Fire in Auburn — Dwellings Burned — 
Hoisting Works Burned — .Saw-mill and Luniljer Destroyed 
— Fire at Forest Hill — Destructive Fire at Dutch Flat — 
Bound House and Locomotives Burned— Colfax in Ashes — 
Residence of J. C. Boggs Burned — Hotel Burned — Incendi- 
arism — Burning at Lincoln — Barn and Horses Burned — 
.Serious Loss at Lincoln — Residence Destroyed — The Aggre- 
gate Losses — Later fires in Auburn. 

The record of the destruction of px-operty by fire 
in California since the discovery of gold is one that 
will appal the statistician. The great cities, where 
fii-e-proof brick and stone buildings were constructed, 
an abundant supply of water at hand, and an efficient 
fire department ready to combat the destructive 
element, as well as the humble raining towns, built of 
pine and without protection, have over and over 
again been swept by the flames. During the first 
ten or twelve years these destructive fires were most 
frequent, the calamity of repeated losses teaching 
care in construction of buildings, and in the manage- 
ment of fire. The first buildings were constructed 
of pine and cloth, and stove-pipes were thrust through 
the tinder in the most thoughtless and reckless 
manner. The long, dry summers i-endered all com- 
bustibles almost to the point of explosion when 
touched by flame, and when a fire once caught on 
the substance of a building, it would rise into the 
sky a column of blaze, bow before the wind and lap 
the neighboring buildings with a flash, while any 
stood within its reach. A few minutes from the 
alai'm, and the handsome village would be a smoul- 
dering ruin; wealthy merchants and prosperous 
landlords would be impoverished, and pleasant homes 
would be made desolate. The combustible nature 
of the buildings and liability to conflagration ren- 
dered insurance impossible, leaving the loss a total 
one to the owner. To this cause many of the most 
industrious, frugal, and worthy of the early settlers 
owe their loss of fortune, and to many the recurrence 
of such losses have brought despair, and abandon- 
ment of hope and energy. Fortunately, however, 
the spirit of the mass of pioneers could not be thus 
subdued, and often while the embers of a store and 



DESTROYED BY FIRE. 



351 



fortune were still smouldering, the work of rebuild- 
ing would commence, and business would soon be 
resumed as if nothing had happened. The indom- 
itable courage of Californians was seldom overcome 
by the destructive element. In later years greater 
care has been taken in the construction of chimne3's, 
and fewer conflagrations have been the result. 

OPHIR BURNED. 

On the 12th of July, 1853, the town of Opbir was 
almost totally destroyed. The flames were first seen 
bursting out of the kitchen of the Union Hotel, and 
spread with great rapidity. In the whole length of 
Main Street there were but two buildings left stand- 
ing, the brewery at the upper, and the bowling 
saloon at the lower end of the street. The number 
of buildings destroyed was between fifty and sixty, 
and the total loss as estimated at the time was 
between $80,000 and 890,000. 

SUNDRY FIRES. 

October 14, 1853 — A saw-mill belonging to Messrs. 
May & Miller, on the lUinoistown road, about six 
miles from Auburn, was totally destroyed by fire. 
The loss was estimated at several thousand dollars. 

March 28, 1854 — A fire at Newcastle destroyed 
Pellet's Hotel and the Young America Saloon. Loss 
about $6,000. The fire was supposed to have been 
the work of an incendiarj'. 

April 12, 1854— The dwelling of Mr. S. W. Lovell, 
five miles above Auburn, was consumed by fire. The 
family barely escaped from the burning building. 
The loss was estimated at 810,000. 

GREAT FIRE IN AUBURN. 

At two o'clock on the afternoon of June 4, 1855, a 
fire broke out in Auburn, in one of the China-houses 
on the hill-side below the Methodist Church, which 
spread with fearful rapidity. The flames soon cros.sed 
the street to Dr. Rinzie's drug store, thence to the 
Diana Bowling Saloon, Keehner's Bakery, George H. 
Stephens' livery stable; the Empire and Orleans 
Hotels soon followed in quick succession. Before 
the flames had spread this far, every citizen and 
visitor in towt) who could be spared from the fire, 
was at work carrying to the adjacent hills and 
ravines, such valuables as could be seized hold of. 
The time occupied in the burning was one hour and 
twenty minutes, and eighty buildings were consumed. 
The total loss was estimated at 8215,100. The list 
of losers comprised 100 names, besides the county. 
Odd Fellows, and incorporated companies. 

January 12, 1857 — A fire broke out in Auburn in 
the Pioneer Livery Stable, owned and occupied by 
Matthew Crow. Alongside of it was the stable of 
Mr. Clark. Both buildings wore consumed. Crow's 
losses were about $3,000, and Clark's about 12,000. 

IOWA HILL BURNED. 

February 12, 1857 — The business portion of the 
town of Iowa Hill was almost entirely consumed. 



The fire originated in the City Bakery and was sup- 
posed to be the work of an incendiary. Upwards of 
sixty buildings were burned, with a loss of about 
6160,000. 

.MICHIGAN BLUFF DESTROYED. 

The flourishing village of Michigan Bluff was 
almost wholly destroyed on the 22d of July, 1857. 
The fire originated in the United States Bakeiy, on 
the west side of Main Street, immediately connected 
with the adjoining buildings, and sweeping on with 
an irresistible force, laid the principal part of the 
town in ashes. There were 150 buildings burned, 
and the loss was about $150,000. This was a heavy 
blow to the Bluffs. The accumulation of years of 
industry and toil had been swept away in an hour. 

FIRES AG.4.IN IN AUBURN. 

September 18, 1858— The residence of Mr. C. J. 
Hillyer, in Auburn, was totally destroyed. The fire 
was caused by a defective chimney. This was one 
of the finest places in the vicinity of Auburn. 

One year passed without a visitation of the dreaded 
scourge, but on the morning of October 9, 1859, the 
citizens of Auburn were startled by the dreadful cry 
of fire, which, unfortunately, was the warning note 
of sad disaster Many had not risen from their beds 
at the time, but the alarm soon brought out the 
whole population, who went to work with almost 
superhuman energy to combat the fierce element, 
and to remove valuables to places of security. The 
fire originated in a small frame building (two doors 
south of the American Hotel) occupied by some 
colored men as a restaurant. The time of the fire 
occupied about three-quarters of an hour; the num- 
ber of houses destroyed were fiftj^-eight, exclusive of 
stables and out-buildings. The loss, as cai-efully 
taken, amounted to over $119,000. This was a sad 
disaster to a prosperous town, and a loss that fell 
heavily upon many of the citizens; but with an 
energy only known to Californians, they at once 
commenced to re-build, and in less than a week 
thirty new structures were seen to rise from the 
blackened foundations of the old. 

June 16, 1860 — The store of Davidson & Jones, of 
Auburn, was burned, together with their entii-e stock 
of goods. There was an insurance on the goods and 
building of 87,500. 

June 8, 1861— A destructive fire occurred at 
Wisconsin Hill, in which a dozen buildings wei-e 
destroyed. Loss about 830,000. 

IOWA HILL AGAIN BURNED. 

The town of Iowa Hill was again devastated by 
fire on the 27th of March, 1862, it having originated 
in the Star Bakery,' situated on the north side of 
Main Street, and before anj' assistance of an effectual 
nature could be rendered, the flames had attained 
such headway as to utterly defy every exertion to 
save the town. Every business house, together 
with the theater, which had been purchased for 



355 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



public school purposes, was destroyed. The total 
loss was about 665,000. Most of the business houses 
were insured. 

DWELLING BURNED. 

October 1, 1863— The dwelling-house of Mr. F. A. 
Redwine, situated near Dry Creek, four miles north 
of Auburn, was entirely destroyed by fire, together 
with the furniture. The loss was $1..500. It was 
believed that some vagrant Indians robbed the 
house and then set fire to it. 

FIRE AT RATTLESNAKE. 

October 7, 186.3— A tire broke out in Rattlesnake, 
and before its progress could be stayed, seven build- 
ings were destroyed. The town was not compactlj' 
built, else the whole village would have been 
destroyed. 

DESTRtTCTIVE CONFLAGRATIONS IN AUBURN. 

October 14, 1864— Auburn was again visited by 
a destructive conflagration, which laid in ashes a 
considerable portion of the town, and inflicted serious 
loss upon its inhabitants. The fire broke out in a 
house occupied by Chinese, and thirty-five houses 
were destroyed, with a loss of over $33,000. 

October 11, 1865 — The town of Auburn was 
again visited with a conflagration, destroying thirteen 
houses; the loss was about 68,000. A Chinese child, 
seven yeai-s of age, perished in the flames. 

On the 16th of July, 1866, Auburn had its annual 
visit — a fire. The dwelling of Mr. L. Hauser was 
burned with most of its contents, inflicting a loss of 
$400. By great eiforts the fire was confined to the 
place where it originated, and there being no wind, 
the town was saved. After this fire the people 
went to work to build tanks for water in different 
parts of tho town, to be better prepared to combat 
the " devouring element." 

FLOURING-MILL BURNED. 

October 18, 1867— The flouring-mill of Messrs. 
Zeigenbeiii, Heff'ner &Co., at Lincoln, was consumed 
by fire. The mill was built but a j^oar previous, at 
a cost of $29,000; thobuilding was insured for $15,000. 

BUILDINGS BURNED. 

July 23, 1868 — The residence of Mr. Jacob Steiner, 
abouttwelve miles from Auburn, was burned, together 
with all the contents. 

September 1, 1868 — A fire originated inthcunoceu- 
piod store of A. Lipsett, in Auburn, which spread to 
the building formerly used by J. Nolan, then to the 
Roussin House, and then to the residence of P. W. 
Thomas. Lipsett was insured for $1,500; George 
Wilment, $400 on the Roussin -property, and J. N. 
Dickerson, $1,000 on the Thomas House. 

October 2, 1868— The residence of Mr. John 
Pogarty, in Auburn, was entirely consumed by fire, 
with all the furniture and household effects. This 
was one of the finest dwellings in the town, built on 
a large lot. and hard-finished throughout. The 



family consisted of parents and five children, who 
lost their property and their home. 

August 11, 1869— The residence of Dennis O'SuUi- 
van, about three miles from Auburn, was completely 
destroyed by fire. No insurance. 

October 6, 1869— The large barn at the Mountain- 
eer House, about nine miles from Auburn, was 
burned with all its contents, consisting of sixty tons 
of hay, four fine milch cows, two fine, young horses, 
and a large collection of improved farming machinery. 

HOTELS BURNED AT ROCKLIN. 

November 5, 1869 — The large hotel, owned and 
kept by Sam. Trott, atRocklin, was totally destroyed 
by fire. The light of the burning building shone so 
bright and ascended so high, it being a calm night, 
that an alarm of fire was sounded, and the engine 
brought out in Sacramento, twenty-two miles dis- 
tant. A man by the name of Schmidt became suffo- 
cated with smoke, and was burned to death. The 
house was filled with boarders, who barely escaped 
with their lives, losing all their clothing, jewelry, 
etc. The loss was about $5,000, and the building 
was insured for $3,000. 

June 27, 1870 — A fire was discovered in the Van 
Trees Hotel, at Rocklin, and in defiance of all efforts 
to stay the progress of the flames, the entire property, 
including barns, stabling, and out-buildings, were 
consumed. A strong gale was blowing at the time, 
and it was with the greatest exertion of the whole 
population that the main portion of the town was 
saved. The property was insured for $2,000. 

FIRE AT AUBURN DEPOT. 

August 29, 1870 — -A fire was discovered in the 
wood-shed of the C. P. R. R. Co., and in the passen- 
ger depot and saloon of Curley & Mahon, at Auburn 
depot. The flames had enveloped such an extensive 
portion of the wood-shedding, omnibus line shedding, 
and passenger depot buildings, at the time of dis- 
covery, that it was impossible to staj' the devouring 
element. All those, together with the freight depot 
on the opposite side of the track, as well as the fine, 
large, new hotel of John J. Smith, his barn, stabling, 
hay and feed; Crosby's blacksmith shop, two lime- 
houses, and the stabling, shedding, etc., attached to 
Wilson's Hotel, were swept, with their contents, 
clear from the face of the earth. Total known losses, 
$19,555; insurance, $8,200; leaving a net known loss, 
over insurance, of $11,355. 

MORE FIRES. 

October 3, 1870 — The school house at Rattlesnake 
District was totally destroyed by fire. Supposed to 
be the work of an incendiaiy. 

November 10, 1870 — The two-stor}' boarding- 
house of J. Lindsay, at Rocklin, was burned down 
with most of its contents. The morning was clear 
and calm, and though there were some other build- 
ings near it, all were saved. The property was 
insured for $2,000. 




Mr.T. E.STEPHENS 




Mrs.T. E.STEPHENS 




Residence, OF T. E.STEPHENS, Auburn, Placer Co.Cal. 



dp:str()yed by fire. 



S.-)3 



November 20, 1870 — The slaughter-house of 
DodBworth i*c Co., near Auburn, was totally destroyed 
by fire. All the tools, fixtures, dressed carcasses, 
hides and tallow, etc., were consumed. Loss, about 
$700. 

.March 27, 1871 — The large two-story dwelling- 
house of Fred. Burkhaltcr, at Dutch Flat, was 
burned to the ground. The fire originated from the 
Btove-pipc. 

EMPIRE MILL BURNED. 

About 1 o'clock on the morning of September 29, 
1871, when all nature was at rest, there was sud- 
denly heard at Empire City, near Ophir, an agoniz- 
ing cry of " Fire ! " when all, who were within 
hearing distance, were disturbed from their slumbers 
only to behold the destruction of the Empire Mill, a 
most magnificent structure, complete in workman- 
ship, and made ready for the start. When the fire 
was first discovered it was no bigger than a man's 
hand, but for the want of water it soon spread itself 
into a mighty blaze. In a few minutes the whole 
building was enveloped in flames, the light from 
which illuminated the most distant skies, and the 
eff'ect, as seen from the surrounding hills, was grand. 
All that possibly could be done by man was done in 
this case, in order to save the machinery, but to no 
avail. The fire continued for about half an hour, 
when the work of destruction was complete, and all 
that was left was a heap of ruins. Loss, $20,000. 

INCENDIARY FIRE IN AUBURN. 

On the evening of August 21, 1872, the people of 
Auburn were startled by the cry of fire, and it was 
Boon discovered that the hay loft of Predonis' liv- 
ery stable was in flames. The rapidity with which 
the fire spread was frightful. The stable, carriage- 
house, blacksmith and wagon-shop, together with 
the tools, were entirely consumed. Loss, about 
$7,000; insured for Sl.'iOO. The flames leaped across 
the road to the residence of Mr. John Worsley, con- 
suming the entire building and contents. Mr. 
Worsley's loss was about $2,500, insured for $600. 
The Herald office was insured to the extent of about 
$1,000. How the fire originated was not fully 
known, but it is supposed to have been the work of 
an incendiary. 

DWELLINGS BURNED. 

November 17, 1872— The residence of M. McNeal, 
about a mile from Auburn, was totally destroyed by 
fire, with all its contents. The building and con- 
tents were insured for $1,000. 

April 13, 1873— The residence of J. W. Blanchard, 
at Dutch Plat, was discovered to bo on fire, and, 
though a hard finished house and burned slowly, 
all efforts to save it were in vain. The house was a 
new one, and cost between three and five thousand 
dollars. 

May 1, 1873 — The residence of Mr. Shannon, near 
the Auburn depot, was wholly destroyed by fire 
with most of its contents. 



HOISTING WORKS BURNED. 

July 3<l, 1873 — A fire originated in the Auburn 
mine, in the roof of the blacksmith shop, which was 
connected with the store-house and building which 
covered the hoisting works. In a short time these 
buildings were all ablaze. There were two meti at 
work in the shaft, and before they could be signaled 
to come up, the fire was burning immediately over 
the mouth of the shaft. The blaze ascended high 
over what seemed their deep grave, and from the 
cracking ruins came in rapid succession the explosion 
of nineteen kegs of blasting powder and six car- 
tridges of giant powder, which, added to the thought 
of the two men below, made the scene awful in the 
extreme. The first the men knew of their danger- 
ous condition was when the rope fell, it having been 
burned off at the top. The)' were beginning to feel sen - 
sation.s of suffocation, when a large stream of water 
came thundering down the .shaft, turned in by those 
above in hopes of affording relief to the suft'erers 
should they still be alive. To escape the force of the 
falling stream they stepped into the mouth of a drift, 
and, from the reviving effects of the cool water, 
were, by the time the fire had burned out above, able 
to climb bravely to the surface. The damage by the 
fire, including buildings, tools, and supplies, was 
about *1, 000. 

SAW-MILL AND LUMBER DESTROYED. 

July 30, 1873— Bragg & Fulsoms' saw-mill, in the 
eastern part of the county, at what is known as 
Camp 18, was entirely destroyed by fire, besides 
about 1,500,000 feet of lumber. The total loss was 
about $50,000. The fire originated by a spai'k from 
the smoke-stack, and, though discovered before 
doing much damage, could not be suppressed with 
the means at hand, as a high wind prevailed at the 
time, which carried the fire fiend on in its work of 
destruction in spite of all opposition. 

THE VILLAGE OF CLIPPER GAP BURNED. 

August 7, 1873 — Nearly the entire town of Clip- 
per Gap was destroyed bj^ fire, entailing heavy 
losses upon the citizens. 

FIRE AT FOREST HILL. 

September 10, 1873 — A fire broke out in Forest 
Hill, in a small unoccupied building adjoining 
Schwalenburg's store, and, though the alarm was 
instantly given, the flames spread so fast that all 
efforts to check them wore in vain, until nearly one- 
half of the town was in ashes. Besides the serious 
loss of individuals, it was a heavy blow on the whole 
town. Among those who lost heavily were Schwal- 
enburg, Ranlet, Eddy, Morohead, Dilts, Smith and 
Remler. The Union Hotel, and other valuable 
buildings were burned. The fire was the work of an 
incendiarj'. 

Another fire occurred on the 20th of the same 
month, in the fire-proof brick store of Charles Fett, 



354 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



but was ostiiii:;ui8hed lieforc anj^ Horious damage had 
boon done. 

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN DUTCH PLAT. 

November 5, 1873 — The town of Dutch Fhii was 
visited by the firey demon, and most of the town 
was reduced to ashes. Nearly the whole of China- 
town, where the fire originated, consisting of forty 
or fifty buildings, was destroyed. The residences of 
Messrs. Farr and Nichols were also burned. 

ROUND-riOLTSE AND LOCOMOTIVES BURNED. 

November 26, 1873^The roundhouse at Kocklin 
was destroyed by fire, with the entire property, con- 
sisting of ten locomotives and tenders, which were 
built at a cost of about $30,000. 

COLFAX IN ASHES. 

April 22, 1874 — A fire broke out in Colfax, in a 
barber-shop north of the railroad, and in twenty- 
five minutes the main busino.ss part of the town and 
several family residences were in ashes. The wind 
was blowing quite strong at the time from the north- 
east, virhich carried the flames rapidly from one house 
to another. All the buildings on the north side of 
the railroad were burned up to Grass Valley Street. 
Very little of the property destroyed was insured. 
Many families were left homeless by the fire, and 
very few residing in the burnt district had time to 
save even their clothing. 

RESIDENCE OF .JOHN C. BOfiOS BURNED. 

May 30, 1874— The residence of J. C. Boggs, 
situated on his ranch two and a half miles below 
Newcastle, was completely destroyed by fire, together 
with all its contents. 

HOTEL nUKNED. 

September 23. 1.S74— Tlic hotel near Ophir, the 
property of Madame Kittler, was, with nearly all 
its contents, completely destroyed by fire. The 
total value of pr.)perty destroyed was about .$5,000. 

INCENDIARISM. 

September 26, 1874 — The school house at Ophir 
was completely destroyed by fire, and the old Poland 
Building and shed, formerly a hotel, on the turnpike 
between Auburn and Ophir, was, on the same night, 
burned to the ground. Both were set on fire. The 
loss on the school house was 11,500; insured forSSOO. 

September 28, 1875 — Jonathan Norris, whose 
place is situated on Dry (!reek, about seven miles 
northeast of Auburn, lost his barns, horses, harness, 
and between twenty and thirty tons of hay by fire. 
The amount of ]>ropcrty destroyed was between 
$1,500 and *1 SOO, on which there was no insurance. 
All the circumstances indicate that the fire was the 
work of an incendiary. 

BURNINd OF LINCOLN. 

October 14, 1875 — A fire broke out in Lincoln on 
the south side of Main Street. Everything being 
dry, and the facilities for fighting fire limited, it 



spread rapidly, and for awhile it was greatly feared 
that the principal part of the town would be 
destroyed. VVastier's butcher shop was first 
destroyed; from this the flames connected with 
Haenny's blacksmith shop and with Wastier's 
stable. Wastier lost, besides his buildings and 
horses, considerable hay and grain, three wagons, 
harness, all his tools and stock, his account books, 
and a portion of $500 in coin, which was in the shop 
at the time of the fire. His entire loss was about 
$3,000. Haenny's loss, which included a fine, large 
blacksmith and wagon shop, and all tools therein, 
was about $2,500. None of the property was 
insured. 

BARN AND HORSES BURNED. 

November 1, 1875 — A fire occured at P. Maher's 
place, about two and a half miles from Auburn, on 
the Rattlesnake Road, resulting in the destruction of 
his barn, two horses, several sets of harness, all his 
farming utensils, and other things of value, including 
his winter supply of hay. 

SERIOUS LOSS AT LINCOLN. 

.March 30, 1876 — The Logan Livory Stable at 
Lincoln, the property of T. J. Waldron, was, with 
all its contents, consisting of eleven horses, all the 
buggies and carriages used in the business, the har- 
ness and saddles, the stock of feed on hand, the 
books and other things appertaining to tha busi- 
ness, completely destroyed by fire. The fire was 
first discovered about two o'clock in the morning, 
but the building was so completely wrapped in flames 
that all attempts to save any of its contents proved 
futile. The loss was estimated at $4,000; insured 
for $1,000. 

RESIDENCE DESTROYED. 

April 5, 1876 — The residence of Mr. Brod at 
Auburn, including everything it contained, even to 
the little mementoes so dear to memory, and which 
money cannot I'eplace, was totally destroyed by fire. 
Insured for $900. 

LATER FIRES IN AUBURN. 

December 5, 1877 — Another large fire occurred 
in Auburn, which destroyed property to the value of 
about $18,000. 

On the 9th of .January, 1881, the fine hotel of Mr. 
Samuel Putnam, at Auburn depot, was burned to 
the ground, involving a loss of about $13,000, of 
which $5,000 was recovered by insurance. Mr. 
Putnam w.is a pioneer of '49, and of the blood of 
Gen. Israel Putnam, and in less than six months had 
reconstructed his hotel on a larger scale than before. 

THE AGGREGATE LOSSES. 

No serious fire has occurred for several years. 
From the list given, with known and estimated 
losses, the aggregate may be stated to exceed 
$1,350,000, being almost a total loss to the people of 
Placer, as but a very small portion was covered by 
insurance. 



REMINISCENCES OF ILLINOISTOWN. 



355 



C H A P T P: R X L I V. 

REMINISCENCES OF ILLINOISTOWN. 

Site of Illiuoistowu — Alder Grove — Mining on the River— The 
Pioneer .Settlers — Landing at Sacramento — First Prospect- 
ing Experience — The Mining Lesson Learned — Generosity 
and Gratitude — Seeking Shelter — Indians — Dastardly Rob- 
bery and Bloodless Battle — Pursuit of the Indians — First 
Military Company Organized — Campaign against the Sav- 
ages — A Frontier Picture — The Camp Receives its Name — 
The Pioneer Family — First Fruit Culture — Chivalrous Pio- 
neers — Houses of Entertainment — Rescued from the Snow 
— An Exhausted Traveler — In the Spring of 1850 — Wing 
Dams in the River —Result of Mining — Early Physical Fea- 
tures — Pike County Represented. 

Let vagrant memory plume her pinions and take 
flight backward over time's unending course, to 
linger for a while where lie the embers of a neglected 
past, buried by the rubbish of more than three 
decades; let truant thought unloose to wander as it 
lists, and call up the scenes and transactions of a 
thirdpartof a century gone; letthe grave be invaded 
and those who have long lain dead be awakened, 
brought forth and rehabilitated with life once more; 
let the thin, gray locks of wrinkled old men with 
piping voice assume the gloss, and color, and luxu- 
riance of that which is wont to adorn the form of 
fresh, hopeful, and noisj' adolescence; let grown men 
and matrons, as in that long ago, be turned over 
again, "infants mewling and puking in the nurse's 
arms;" clothe the landscape again in primal garb of 
park-like forest glade instead of maturer fields of 
orchard, vine, and grain; and let narrow bridle-paths, 
trodden by men with blankets on their backs, be 
reinstated for the usurping steel-lain grade, over 
which flies the shrieking locomotive and the rumbling 
palace car. Slowly memory brushes off the accretions 
of years gone by, and at first naught but a gloomy- 
looking pile is seen. But rummaging thought invades, 
digs up the heap, and now and then drops a scintillat- 
ing spark which at length kindles into a flame of 
recollecting light; and lo! the charred and blackened 
mass is all aglow and beams with ruddy warmth, 
obliterating all the ravages made by time's progress- 
ing strides! 

SITE OF ILLINOISTOWN. 

The site of Illinoistown is a little valley which lies 
just below Colfax, on the southern side of the Central 
Pacific Railroad. People began to rendezvous there 
early in 1849, and as it was the uppermost point 
upon the dividing ridge between Bear River and the 
North Fork of the American that wagons reached, 
it became the distributing point of supplies for all of 
the mining camps at the north, south, and east of it. 
Manj' of the first inhabitants who went to the Deer 
Creek (now Nevada City) mines, either bought'their 
provisions for the trip there or had then brought to 
the place from Sacramento by wagon. As a business 
locality it ranked the Dry Diggings (Auburn) until 
late in the fall of 1849, when the emigration, and 
people who supposed they could not exist in the 
river canons during the winter, congregated in great 



numbers at the latter place, attracted by its more 
genial, winter climate, as well as the shallow surface 
])lacers where an occasional large lump of gold could 
be found, making it at once the business center of 
the predestined County of Placer, as well as its 
future shire town. 

ALDER GROVE. 

At a bend in the valley about half a mile below 
Colfax, in a narrow place, a fine large spring flowed 
to the surface; and about a quarter of a mile below 
that was another, which had caused the formation of 
quite a plat of boggy meadow land, on the lower 
side of which grew many thrifty alder trees, which 
became a favorite camping place. At that time — 
the early part of '49 — the North b'ork of the Amer- 
ican was thronged with men from Kelley's Bar to 
the Giant's Gap, mainly from Oregon. They at first 
called the place Alder Grove. Subse(|Uently, when 
wagons reached there, a corral was built in the 
upper portion of the valley, and some of the Oregon- 
ians designated it as the Upper Corral. Early that 
summer three log buildings were erected for trading- 
posts, one by Sears & Miller at the extreme lower 
end of the valley; one by John W. Piersons at the 
spring at the narrows, and another about a quarter 
of a mile above, upon the eastern side of the valley, 
by a Mr. Neall. 

MINING ON THE RIVER. 

The rush to the river had been too earlj- — in April 
and May — at a time when the water was high, and 
therefore all the gold that could be got, came either 
from the higher bars or from pits, to work which 
required bailing of water. The consequence was 
that before the water iu the river became low enough 
to work advantageously, most of the men left in 
search of other diggings, leaving along the stream on 
the bars, in their abandoned camps, everything they 
had taken in there but the clothing they wore 
(generally of buckskin), and their blankets. August 
1, 1849, there were not more than twenty white men 
from Barnes' Bar to Green Valley working upon 
the North Fork, and six of these were former Hudson 
Bay Company emplojees, at work in the bed of the 
stream just above the Giant's Gap. Some very fair 
stocks of goods had been put in store at Alder 
Grove about the time the exodus of the miners from 
the river began, and the traders were disappointed 
at the turn that aft'airs had taken. Sears & Millei-, 
who had a large assortment of goods suited only for 
the Indian trade, immediately began to hire them to 
work, and from about July 1st to the middle of 
September employed an average of filly Indians a 
day, whom they kei)t j)aiming out upon the river 
bars, and in this way accumulated a great deal of 
gold. 

THE PIONEER SETTLERS. 

Among the Oregonians who came to Alder Grove 
in May, 1849, was E. T. Mendenhall, who had left a 



§56 



HISTORY (_)F PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



young wife and babe encamped among the sand dunes 
of Happy Valley, San Francisco, while he went 
mountainward to spy out a home for himself and 
them. He learned from experience that the minep 
upon the North Fork were good, and at the same 
time looked with very favorable eyes upon the 
pristine beauties of the valley in which were located 
Alder Grove and the Upper Corral. Here he deter- 
mined to set up his altar, gather around him his 
household gods, and establish a home in the wilder- 
ness of California. With this laudable intention, 
about the middle of the summer he proceeded to 
San Francisco, and soon thereafter had his wife, 
infant, and what few articles of indispensable house- 
hold material were at hand en route for the mount- 
ains. 

Thus, on the 28th of July, 1849, on the deck of 
the little schooner Sea Witch, in the harbor of San 
Francisco, did the writer first encounter them. With 
the other passengers were two more Oregonians, 
a Mr. McLeod (an old-time Hudson Bay employee) 
and a Mr. Atwood, both of whom were " old miners," 
having worked on the Stanislaus in 1848, and having 
been back to Oregon, were now just on their return 
to remain during the season of '49. How natural it 
was for the young novice to listen to the tales of 
these '' old miners," and become captivated to ingra- 
tiate himself into their esteem, to that extent that 
they would allow him to accompany them to the 
diggings, where, profiting by their large experience, 
fortune might soon be accumulated. 

L.\ND1N0 AT SACR.\MENTO. 

The Sea Witch made her landing under a big 
sycamore tree in front of the future city of Sacra- 
mento, on the moi-ning of July 29th, having bad a 
remarkubly quick passage, and preparations were im- 
mediately made for transportation to the mines. An 
Oregon man owning a team was finally found, who 
would, for thirtj'-five cents a pound, deliver the outfit 
at Alder Grove, and he was speedilj' eng.iged. With- 
out remarkable incident the place was reached on 
the 3d of August, and Mr. Mendenhall at once 
entered into possession of what proved to be for 
many years his future home. Immediately setting 
to work be put up his little tent, built a booth of 
poles with cross pieces covered with brush, and forth- 
with the first hotel of the place was established, 
where, for one dollar and a half, the wayfarer would 
be served with bacon and beans, bread, and pie made 
of dried fruit — all the delieacies then obtainable — 
from the hand of the pioneer white woman of that 
whole region, Mrs. Mendenhall. 

FIRST PROSPECTING EXPERIENCE. 

Atwood and McLeod, with their protege, mean- 
while prospected every bar upon the North Fork, 
from Barnes to the forks of the river above Green 
Valley. The two first-named, during the previous 
summer, had luckily been possessed of big diggings, 



from which, inexperienced as they were they had 
realized $20,000 to !$25, 000 each. Consequently their 
ideas were quite exalted, and no common diggings 
would suit them. 

The river banks were almost untouched and were 
rich everywhere, but with the heavy, deep tin pans 
supplied by the Hudson Bay Company, these men 
would pan out in the presence of their companion, 
and obtaining no more than twenty-five cents to one 
dollar and a half a pan, would invariably say " wake 
kloshe, kultus," hit the bottom of the vessel a kick 
with their toe and consign the gold again to the 
stream. They didn't want the fine dust; they were 
seeking chunks which were doubtless higher up in 
the mountains. In this manner was that rich stream 
condemned by these two " old miners " clear up to 
the forks, near which point the sis old mountaineers 
were at work, and who told the little party it would 
be unsafe to go farther, for they believed from what 
they had seen that there were fully a thousand 
Indians scattered upon the streams but a short 
distance above, and as quite a party of them had 
been met at Cold Springs in coming up, who were 
impudent and saucy, McLeod and Atwood concluded 
they would go over to Feather River, which they 
did. 

THE MINING LESSON LEARNED. 

The novice who had thus far followed the fortunes 
of the two "old miners," concluded that he had 
learned all they had to impart; he was footsore and 
fagged out by much travel, after having been long 
penned up on ship-board, and bethought him of a 
shady spot away down in the gorge bj' the water, 
where, in a shallow hole the gravel yielded what 
they called a dollar and a half a pan. He would not 
go to Feather; nor did he. On the contrary he 
would revisit his ideal spot to mine, and there 
attempt his virgin effort at digging for gold. 

The place was on the North Fork of the Ameri- 
can, nearly opposite Cold (now Mountain) Spring, 
upon the southern side of the river. There he picked 
up a rocker dug out of a log, with no apron, and 
with a riddle made of rawhide, and some other rude 
tools that had been left by the earlier Oregon men, 
and with these wrought until the rain of the 9th of 
October of that year admonished him of the liability 
of being cut off from the lower world, and a repeti- 
tion of the storm a few days later determined him 
in hurrying his departure to some point further 
down the stream. For a month past there had been 
other men on the bar — two brothers named Higgins, 
and a man named Friek, all from Mt. Pleasant, 
Iowa. The last work done at this place with the old 
dugout rocker, by the original locator, yielded a 
little over three ounces in three hours. The whole 
plant was then presented to the Higgins' brothers 
andFrick, who were partners, and the former owner 
turned his footsteps from the place forever, and 
climbed the hill with no little load of blankets and 
gold-dust. 



t. 



REMINISCENCES OF ILLINOISTOWN. 



357 



GENEROSITY AND GRATITUDE. 

The new owners worked the bar with great suc- 
cess until the rains in November compelled them 
to leave it. They then went to Deer Creek, and 
were among the first locators of claims on Gold 
Run (not the Gold Run of Placer County), a little 
stream overlain then with deep muck and grass- 
covered soil, which emptied into Deer Creek oppo- 
site the present town of Nevada City, from the 
south. In making locations there they did not 
forget the one who had given them their start 
upon the North Fork, but located ground for him 
also, and sent word of their action; but not being 
able to get to it in time, and the great rush there a 
little later, which rendered it impossible for the 
locators to hold it without representation, made it 
unavailable. 

The following spring, in witnessing its working, 
the one for whom the Higgins boys located the 
ground frequently saw a "panikin,' holding about 
a pint, full of gold as a half day's work of two men 
with a rocker — the top dirt having boon stripped 
off previously. 

SEEKING SHELTER. 

As the winter of 1849 approached, men began to 
leave the rivor, as at other points, and gather at 
the settlements on the ridges, and Alder Grove 
became quite populous. Before the rains had fairly 
set in, Mr. Mendenhall had completed a double 
log house— he occapying one part as a hotel and 
Charles L. King and Horatio Hoskins the other 
portion as a store. In September John D. Egbert, 
Robert S. Egbert, and Oliver Egbert had arrived and 
located in the vicinity, the two latter settling down to 
mining, making shakes, and doing all sorts of work, 
while the former, having a commercial turn, devoted 
his time to teaming and trading. It was not long 
before the Egbert Brothers had a cabin filled with 
miners' supplies, and were ready to trade in those 
or any other article going. Pierson, meantime, 
had been busy laying in stores, and had several ox- 
teams running over the road freighting from Sac- 
ramento. Sears & Miller sold their store in Novem- 
ber to David Pairchild and M. D. Pairchild, father 
and son, and the little community, with all of 
these sources of supply to draw upon, seemed to be 
well-prepared for the winter before them. 

INDIANS. 

As there were many beautiful little valleys upon 
the divide between Auburn and Illinoistown, and 
as the locality reached the altitude where grew the 
sugar-pine, as well as being the home of the black 
oak, and there being an abundance of game, it 
was a favorite abiding-place of the Indians, and 
scores of littlo knolls overlooking the small valleys 
spoken of were covered with the circular-shaped 
huts, constructed mainly of bark. Cords of the 
long cones of the sugar-pine were stacked up near 
these villages, with the seed, or nut, still in thorn, 



which were only shelled when required — their 
natural cell affording better protection from the 
effects of rain by the closing up of the scales of 
the bur by dampness upon the outside, than any 
method the Indians had adopted for their preserva- 
tion. Immense ca<:hes of manzanita were also made. 
Largo cribs were built of small-sized logs, filled with 
acorns and covered with bark. These were the 
main winter stores of the aborigines, and were then 
an adjunct to every cluster of wigwams, and the 
quantities gathei-ed and stored were astonishing. 

Toward the end of November the Indians began 
to get impudent and saucy. They were more numer- 
ous than the whites; they were, of right, no doubt, 
the natural lords of the heritage; the country had 
been occupied by their ancestors away back to a 
time beyond the memory of the oldest among them, 
and they soon began to look upon the interloping 
gold-diggers aslegitimatesubjectsof plunder. Aslight 
castigation for a few instances of palpable theft made 
them avoid the settlement. When any would come, 
it would only be an old man or two, accompanied, 
perhaps, by several urchins of the tribe, but "signs" 
of a great many could be seen at any time just at 
the outskirts of the place, which circumstance was 
looked upon as an unfavorable indication of their 
good feeling and intentions. 

DASTARDLY ROBBERY AND BLOODLESS BATTLE. 

Finally, about the second week of December, dur- 
ing the temporary absence of the proprietors, who 
had gone to Auburn, the Indians broke into the 
store, at the lower end of the valley, and carried oft' 
or destroyed nearly everything that was portable, 
except liquors, which at that time they never drank. 
For several nights they continued these visits, and 
no one came to make them afraid. But just at dusk 
on the evening of the 15th of December, 1849, during 
the prevalence of a heavy storm, which had been 
incessant during the day, the proprietors of the 
store approached the place with five pack-animals 
laden with additional supplies. A smoke issuing 
from a hole in the shake roof, instead of coming 
through the chimney, first attracted their attention. 
A bar was spiked to the logs on the outside, across 
the door, as they had left it six days before. 

Listening for a moment, suppressed sounds of 
merriment were heard in the Indian dialect. It was 
no time for parleying, but one for action. The 
howling storm without, and the darkening pall of 
night had more terrors to the fatigued and hungrj' 
white men than the arrow points of the exuberant 
savages within. The barricade was wrenched from 
ofi' the door, which was suddenly thrown open, and 
two drenched and storm-chilled angry white men 
confronted more than a score of comfortably condi- 
tioned Indians, surprised at their feast. The fire 
they had made under the place they had entered 
prevented escape in that way, and their only oppor- 
tunity was to flee through the door. 



358 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



A rifle barrel was poised before them, its aim 
directed at the most prominent one, and the trigger 
sprung. The hammer struck a cap rendered harm- 
less by the dampness, and a savage lite was pro- 
longed. A pistol was then jerked from a scabbard un- 
derneath the outer garments, levelled and attempted 
to be fired, but the damp had penetrated to the per- 
cussion upon that, too, and made ineffective. The 
fist was next tried, and several fleeing Indians 
rolled upon the sleet-covered ground as they came 
in a body over the threshhold of the door. Their 
bows were all unstrung, and the suddenness and 
fierceness of the attack had frightened the Indians 
so that they were glad to escape, without attempt- 
ing their use, not knowing the number of their 
assailants. 

The mules were unpacked and tethered for the 
night, the fire removed to the ample hearth, and the 
hole in the roof patched up. Supper got and eaten, 
and clothing dried, the two occupants of the cabin 
sought the repose of their blankets. Not long after 
that the noise of men tramping around them, and 
the voices of white men, re-assured them. It was a 
a party from the upper end of the valley, who, having 
noticed the depredations during the day, and know- 
ing the owners to be absent, had come down armed 
intending to chastise the intruders, but upon learn- 
ing of the state of affairs returned to their homes 
after an hour or two. 

PURSUIT OP THE INDIANS. 

Morning came, and not a mule was found where 
the previous night they had been securely fastened, 
and the tell-tale tracks showed but too plainly where 
they had gone. The Indians had taken them. Fol- 
lowing up their trail, a couple of miles brought the 
pursuer to a place where one of them had been 
killed, though not a particle of the animal remained, 
only the offal emptied from the entrails. Returning 
to the town, the citizens were informed, and several 
men volunteered to follow up the trail and attempt 
the recovery of those yet alive. 

Of this party Mr. Pierson was one, and the trail 
had not been long followed before it became appai'- 
ent that the Indians had taken some oxen as well as 
mules, and if so they were cattle belonging to Pier- 
son. Though the animals at first had been driven, 
or led, singly and circuitously, upon nearing the 
strongholds of the Indians the tracks augmented 
and the trail became more marked. Places were 
found where other animals had been slaughtered, 
and the flesh packed away on the bucks of Indians. 
Pierson was furious over his loss. 

FIRST MILITARY COMPANY ORGANIZED. 

It was unsafe for the small party in pursuit to go 
further. They therefore decided to return to Illi- 
noistown, report the situation to the inhabitants, 
and obtain reinforcements. This was done. A 
public meeting was called and held at Pierson's 



store, which resulted in th^formation of the pioneer 
militarj- organization of Placer County, under the 
euphoneous title of " California Blades." Twenty- 
one members enisled, and elected J. W. Gish, Captain. 

CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE SAVAGES. 

Arming themselves, not " as the law directs," but 
as each member best could — some with United 
States j^agers, others with old-fashioned muzzle- 
loading rifles, swords of curious pattern, conceived 
by some fertile brain in the far East and fashioned 
for the use of some mining company that came 
across the plains, old cutlasses, single- barreled cav- 
alry pistols glittering with much brass, Allen's "pep- 
per-boxes," and such other incongruous weapons. 

The day following the organization this company- 
went upon the war-path. Some four or five miles 
westerly from Illinoistown — the evidences of Indian 
depredations accumulating as they traveled — while 
following up a trail, the company came suddenly 
ujDon a ridge and surprised and captured an Indian 
who was evidentlj' there as an outlook to warn the 
tribe of any approaching enemy. Silently the 
whites pi'oceeded, and not long after, unheralded, 
they entered the Indian village, but fired no shots. 
Alarmed, the Indians vanished in a moment — all but 
the prisoner and several decrepit ones unable to 
escape. 

Here were undoubted evidences of their thefts; 
mules and cattle hides fresh from the animals were 
used to cover the bark huts; the meat and bones 
were found; manj' goods stolen from the store were 
in the wigwams, and there were even other articles 
seen which gave rise to suspicions that they had not 
been obtained without the murder of their original 
owner. Besides these were large cribs of acorns, 
piles of pine cones, and supplies of manzanita. The 
capture having been eftected, the question was then 
mooted as to what disposition should be made of the 
captured material. Some argued that there would 
be no security from Indian raids until they were all 
driven across Bear River, and to do this their huts 
and stores must be destroyed; while others, who 
had lost nothing, and who had never made fast time 
over a rough course to the twanging bowstring as 
it sped a glass-headed shaft in pursuit, thought it 
would be too inhuman to deprive the savages of 
their huts so cunningly- contrived, and their food 
so carefullj- garnered. But the evidences of their 
raids were palpable; men out alone in the woods had 
been shot at with arrows, and if not punished, the 
Indians might construe an act of clemencj- into 
cowardice. 

The advocates pro and con. seemed to be about 
evenly divided in the ranks of the ■' Blades," and 
they would put the question to vote. The destruc- 
tionists won by a single vote; and an hour or two 
later all that remained about that Indian village 
besides piles of ashes and glowing embers were the 
stone mortars and pestles used by the squaws in 



REMINISCENCES OF ILLINOISTOWN. 



359 



pounding into flour the aoorns and manzanita, or 
something equally incombustible — the stolen plunder 
found there as well as the Indian property. 

The same day another camp was attacked, two 
men killed, several children taken prisoners, and the 
village and stores destroyed. From that time on 
until the following June it was not safe for an Indian 
to be seen upon that divide. One after another did 
the " Blades" seek out these villages, destroy them 
as found, and drive the Indians across Bear Eiver; 
and the Boar River Indians were rated as the most 
fierce of all the Digger Tribe. 

During the month of January a party of them 
wentdown to Auburn, and just about daylight one 
morning stampeded and drove away over fifty head 
of oxen from a place in sight of the village, and they 
were never recovered. About fifty men organized 
for the pursuit, but dared not attempt it without 
the co-operation of the " Blades," and therefore came 
up to Illinoistown and the two companies went out 
together. 

The result was fruitless, for the Auburn Company 
had fully half its members disabled by sore feet from 
traveling in snow, and the number being so great 
that the Indians were forewarned and got out of 
reach long before the party in pursuit could get at 
them. Several villages, however, were destroyed, 
the huts of which were covered with the hides of the 
stolen cattle. But a single Indian was seen on the 
whole scout, and he out of reach of gunshot, whoop- 
ing derisively at the whites. 

Not long after this time a party of Indians made 
a raid from the north side of Bear River into Illi- 
noistown in the night, and going to Fairchild'.s place 
stole apother mule, and leading it to the upper end 
of the valley where the Egbert Brothers had a store- 
house filled with provisions, broke into it, loaded the 
animal and themselves with all sorts of goods and 
made their escape over the trail to Bear River. Upon 
reaching the stream, not being able to get the mule 
across, they shot it, but got away with the balance 
of the plunder. In April they stole more horses 
from Fairchild, and in pursuing them he and a com- 
panion forced them to reti'eat to Bear River, upon 
the banks of which they killed two animals that 
they were unable to get into the water — one belong- 
ing to Piersou (a valuable one) and one to Fairchild. 

Returning to Illinoistown, Pienson was informed 
of his loss, when he called together the " Blades," 
with others who volunteered, and went into the last 
scout of the campaign. Some twenty or more Indi- 
ans were killed and scalped, and a month later at 
nearly all of the wayside houses on the road from 
Illinoistown were scalps on exhibition. Several men 
(one named James Doane) and quite a number of 
team animals were shot by the Indians about that 
time on the wagon road between Auburn and Illi- 
noistown; but practically the trouble was by this 
time ended. 



A FRONTIER PICTURE. 

The foot-hill Indians at that time were a peculiar 
people. But few of them had ever visited the Mis- 
sions, though many of the male adults had been to 
Sutter's Fort. While the females were but sparingly 
robed, many of the males in summer time went 
entirely naked. 

A few weeks after Mendenhall established his place 
at Alder Grove, there being nothing more than a 
tent where his wife and child slept and the booth 
under which the table was spread, and while Mrs. M. 
happened to be alone, there suddenly appeared before 
her six stalwart savages in jniris nnluralibus demand- 
ing "bishkit," and thinking her unprotected were 
quite impertinent. Becoming a little alarmed she 
approached the tent, looked in and began talking to 
an imaginary person therein. Upon this the Indi- 
ans desired to look in also, but she, thinking her 
only salvation from harm depended upon their not 
being allowed to do so, seized an old rifle which stood 
there unloaded and presenting it, drove them off. 

At another time there came a big buck well calcu- 
lated to create a sensation. At this time there had 
another woman arrived at the place, Mrs. Rachael 
Griffith, also a young Oregonian. They and two 
young men were sitting under the booth discussing 
apple pies and the general news, when in marched 
the gentleman alluded to. He had, from the cast- 
away outfit of some gentleman pioneer, procured a 
plug hat; and from some deserting soldier either 
stolen or bought a cavalryman's jacket — all blue with 
gorgeous stripes of red and yellow. These he had 
donned — and nothing more — and now appeared for 
the first time in his life before a civilized assemblage 
in civilized costume, sans shirt, sans pants, sans 
everything, save and except the tall plug hat and 
the short jacket of a U. S. dragoon. It was a 
frontier scene which no artist could correctly trans- 
fer upon canvas with the expectation of having his 
picture adorn the modern drawing-room. It was 
decidedly comical. There was no escape for 
either the young men or women. Stoically and with 
statue-like rigidity stood the Indian, no doubt sup- 
posing himself the admired of all beholders. 

This was too much for human risibilities. A 
glance from one white man to the other caused a 
spasmodic relaxation of the facial muscles, which let 
escape a half-suppressed titter, which was the cause 
of opening the safety-valves of the entire quartette 
of throats, and a loud guff"-haw broke forth as the 
women scampered laughing with all their might to 
the friendly seclusion of the little tent. The noble 
red man, divining that his appearance had brought 
him ridicule rather than admiration, without even 
saying a word or changing his immobile features, 
contemptuously turned upon his heel and sought the 
cover of the adjacent forest. 

The diet of the primitive Indian, besides the food 
enumerated in the foregoing pages, was spiced by 



360 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



the larva of various insects, and the tender young 
clover of spring was devoured by them with 
immense gusto. The eggs of ants tliej- gathered by 
bushels; and the maggots found in wasp's nests were 
an apparent delicacy. To find these they sometimes 
caught a yellow-jacket and attached to it a spider's 
web two or three feet long to the loose end of which 
was fastened a piece of down. This done, the insect 
would be chased and driven by a troop of yelping 
urchins until it sought the nest, generally in the 
ground, whereupon it was dug out and the coveted 
morsel roasted and eaten. 

THE CAMP EECEIVES ITS NAME. 

How the name lUinoistown stuck to the little set- 
tlement is past comprehension. Any of the other 
names which it bore were more euphoneous. Pier- 
son's store was the place where the "boys" most 
did congregate and where "speculation" in cards was 
a predominating feature. Here a meeting was held 
in December, 1849, and the name fastened upon the 
locality, though there were probably not to exceed 
a half-dozen emigrant residents from the State of 
Illinois. Fully fifty men claimed it as their winter 
home, and with the opening spring of 1850, came 
hundreds of men seeking for diggings upon the adja- 
cent streams and the ridges both upon that and the 
Iowa Hill divides, and it assumed a business import- 
ance second only to Auburn, which it maintained 
for fully fifteen years, or until the completion of the 
Central Pacific Railroad to Colfax, which place has 
now completely absorbed it in a commercial point of 
view. 

THE PIONEER FAMILY. 

Mrs. Mendenhall was the only lady who spent the 
memorable winter of 1849 at Illinoistown, and she 
still resides at Colfax, almost in sight of the scene of 
those early experiences. She is an honored pioneer 
mother of Placer Countj-, and it is with pleasant 
memories that the historian commemorates her 
name upon the pages of this book. Elvira Ellen, 
her eldest daughter, now wife of Mr. Angwin, of 
Lajot Ranch, Howell Mountain, Napa County, was 
the infant in her arms, about four months old, when 
she reached Alder Grove in August, 1849. George 
W. Mendenhall, her eldest son, was the first white 
child born in Illinoistown, which event happened 
in 1851. 

Following these the living children born at Illi- 
noistown are Jennie, wife of A. D. Bowley of Iowa 
Hill; Sylvester Jacob; Silvinia, now Mrs. Benvie of 
Reading, Shasta County; Thomas Dick Mendenhall, 
now a conductor on the Nevada County Narrow- 
Gaugo Railroad, who was born while the family 
were temporarily I'esiding at Sacramento, and Lydia 
Ann, born at Illinoistown. 

The old jnoneer, K. T. Mendenhall, and the eldest 
son have large landed interests in San Diego County, 
and remain there, while the others of the family, as 
a rule, linger near the old birthplace in Placer. 



Of the other old-timers of Illinoistown David Fair- 
child rests in his last sleep at Georgetown, El Dorado 
County; the three Egbert brothers are all living — 
one, Robert S., in Oakland, Alameda County; Oliver, 
at Rio Vista, Solano County, and John B., at his old 
home east of the Rocky Mountains; Horatio Hos- 
kins and M. D. Fairchild, are yet in California. The 
old store at the lower end of the valley passed from 
the jjossession of the Messrs. Fairchild in the spring 
of 1850, having been purchased by Messrs. Furst & 
Morris, who later the same year sold it to Ed. Brickell. 
Mr. B. soon had his wife and sister-in-law with him; 
Mrs. Keck came there the same summer (and is still 
living on the old Mendenhall place), and Illinoistown 
began to boast of its superior society. 

FIRST FRUIT CULTURE. 

E. T. Mendenhall was the pioneer mountain fruit 
culturist of Placer County, if not the Slate. Follow- 
ing closely after him. Col. Wm. McClure, of Yankee 
Jim's, came next; then the Applegates and others. 
Had not the old Sigard Ranch, belonging to Claude 
Chana, been floated by change of boundaries into 
Placer County, doubtless to Mendenhall would have 
belonged the honor of having set out the first orchard 
of fruit trees in the present limits of the county. 
At that early period it was thought that the black 
and mucky soil, always wet, of the little mountain 
valleys was the kind, if any, most suited for fruit 
trees, as well as all other kinds of vegetation, and it 
was upon one of those — the old Alder Grove — where 
the maiden efforts of the pioneer were made. A 
thrifty orchard to-day marks the spot where Men- 
denhall set out his young trees, brought with great 
exp'ense from the nursery of Lewellyn, of Oregon. 

CHIVALROUS PIONEERS. 

The erroneous impression to some extent obtains 
that the majority of men who pursued the vocation 
of mining in 1849 were a rough and dangerous class. 
During a residence now of thirtj'-three years in a 
mining region, it is the evidence of Mrs. Mendenhall 
that the men of the earlier years of California's 
settlement were less rude and more cultured than 
those of a later period; for in all her experience of 
pioneer life, she asserts that the only white man she 
feared was Jack Allen, when drunk, who is spoken of 
in another page. He never offered insult to her, and 
would doubtless have been her bravest defender in 
case of necessity; it was his manner while in an 
intoxicated condition that appalled. 

HOUSES OF ENTERTAINMENT. 

Every bouse, nearly, at Illinoistown became a 
public stopping-place for wandering minors at the 
approach of spring, and from the middle of February 
there were but few nights when they were not all 
crowded to the utmost capacity. One dollar and a 
half a meal was cheerfully paid for the pork, beans 
and bread set before the wayfarer, and at times a 
dollar would be given for the privilege of spreading 











O 

u 

z 

o 

h- 

o 



REMINISCENCES OF ILLINOISTOWN. 



3f)I 



blankets down upon the floor and sleeping for a night. 
The floor of every house was generally thus occupied 
until the rains were over and the ground dried out, 
and men of all conditions would be stowed thickly, 
side by side, thus seeking the repose of sleep. The 
unavoidable result of such promiscuous contact was 
the generation of enormons quantities of parasitic 
pests, from which for a time there seemed to be no 
permanent escape. 

Three men by this time were permanent occupants 
of the lower store, and that being the first halting- 
place upon reaching the valley, was certain to be 
thronged each night. A mysterious disease attacked 
these men; they itched, and scratching, itched and 
scratched and itched again. Some times at night, 
while in their bunks, they would fancy they felt 
some creeping thing upon them, which they would 
ever fail to catch. 

This peculiar condition existed for several weeks; 
when a discovery was made. One of the trio, an old 
man and pious — a godly Presbyterian — in making 
his Sabbath toilet, was the astonished discoverer, and 
with tears in his eyes, came rushing into the pres- 
sence of the other two, exclaiming: " By George ! I 
know now what's given us the itch; we're lousy ! — 
lousy, by George ! " And he piloted his companions 
to the spot where he had pitched his discarded gar- 
ments, and there pointed out and exhibited in the 
seams of the cast off clothing innumerable bodj^-lice, 
the first that either of them had ever beheld. 
Examinations speedily made disclosed that all under- 
garments were alike, and what was the proper thing 
to do ? The fat and nasty-looking parasites were 
under the cover of every seam, while nits were strung 
upon everj' thread more thicklj' than scales upon a 
fish. There was but one road out of such a difficultj', 
and that was by the crematory route. A bonfire 
was soon blazing; good honest flannels, made in the 
far-off East with the greatest care, especially for the 
California trip, were stripped from off the wearer 
and foolishly consigned to the flames, and with them 
countless parasites — victims immolated upon the 
altar of man's fastidiousness. 

RESCUED FROM THE SNOW. 

Deeper snow prevailed in the winter of 1849-50 at 
Illinoistown than there has been at any time since, 
and several men came near losing their lives by 
attempting to travel in it, owing to inexperience. 

Two men — Sharp and Murrey — remained during 
the winter at Barnes' Bar, being the only residents 
there. Prom time to time thej- came to Illinoistown 
for supplies, which was not a formidable trip when 
the ground was bare of snow. A prolonged storm 
in January, which at the Bar was rain, deposited 
upon the ridge from two to four feet of snow. 

At this time, their provisions being exhausted, 
these two men started up the hill for Illinoistown 
earlj^ one morning. Before reaching the top of the 
hill they got into snow which, upon arriving at the 



crest of the divide, was four feet deep, soft and wet. 
There was nothing then to mark the road to be trav- 
eled; all being covered with a white pall, looking 
similar, thoy could only guess the route from the 
general course traveled by them often before. 
Floundering on in this, first one man in advance for 
a few rods until well blown, and then the other, thej- 
were soon wet to the skin from the waist down. 
This severe exercise made them pL-rspire'freely, and 
they therefore would not sufter from cold unless 
compelled to lie out through the long and prospect- 
ively clear, cold night before them. 

The distance to be made, all told, was not more 
than eight miles, but often they wished they had 
braved the pangs of hunger and delayed starting, or 
taken the way toward Auburn. Noontime found 
them in still deeper snow, and but little over half 
way to the coveted goal. Wearily thej- floundered 
on, becoming more and more exhausted as the 
moments lengthened into hours, and the sun sank 
out of sight below the western horizon. 

One, who had a single-barreled pistol, struggled 
onward in advance of his companion, who had suc- 
cumbed to drowsiness and fatigue, and, disheartened, 
was prone upon the snow. The avant courier at 
length reached a point in advance of his companion, 
a distance of perhaps a quarter of a mile, when he, too, 
gave up and fell limp and completely blown into the 
yielding snow, and gazed upward to the glittering 
stai's, which now were fast appearing in the blue sky 
overhead. He was a tough old whaleman, and many 
a cruise had he made in the Arctic seas, and would 
make one final effort to extricate himself and friend 
from the certain fate which must follow further 
apathy. Raising himself, he yet continued the strug- 
gle for life, but exhausted nature could do but little; 
only a few yards were gained. Then it was that he 
bethought of the pistol in his belt. By firing it off, 
the echoing sounds might reach the ears of some one 
who would come to his relief Lucky thought ! 

The sharp report of the weapon rang out upon the 
chilling air of fast gathering night, and the weary 
man who fired it again fell fainting upon the fleecy 
snow ! A young man who happened to be out of 
the door of the lower cabin at Illinoistown, prepar- 
ing wood for the night, heard the unusual sound and 
divined its meaning. Fresh, impulsive, and athletic, 
he started down the valley in the direction whence 
the sound had come. The progress was slow, and 
the work tedious, as there was no track, but finally 
Murrey was reached, and bj- encouragement and 
assistance was dragged nearly dead into the house. 

Aid was then procured and Sharpe was sought, 
and with difficulty at length got in. Before the huge 
fire upon the ample hearth, with hot punch and 
mulled wine, did the two men soon recover, and 
years afterward, when the shifting scenes of life 
casually brought them in contact with their rescuer, 
would they recall the event with tear-beglistened 
eyes. 



S62 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



AN EXHAUSTED TRAVELER. 

Upon another occasion during that historic winter 
were the inmates of the lower cabin in the valley 
aroused in the night by a knocking upon the door. 
The first thought on being awakened was the " Indi- 
ans ! " but to the question of " ^Vho'8 there ? " came 
the response of " Me," from the lips of a white man. 
Recognizing the voice of a young man named White, 
the door was speedily unbarred and he was admitted. 
A brisk storm had raged all the day, and now the 
snow twirled in thickly falling flakes, and the wind 
soughed with ominous portent through the surround- 
ing forest trees. Snow lay at a depth of two feet, 
and was fast augmenting; it was a night in which he 
with shelter might thank his lucky star that no com- 
pulsory incident could send him forth to breast its 
dire inclemencies. 

White, who was usually bright and jovial, seemed 
now somewhat dazed, and evasively answered ques 
tions asked him. That he had been out in the storm 
some hours was evidenced by his drenched clothing 
and his wearied air. The ruddj' fire, a hot brand}- 
punch, and a bottle of mulled wine, with other good 
cheer tendered him, brought revival to his waning 
mind, and he told how he and a companion had that 
day left Auburn, and that the latter had been left on 
the way in the snow ! 

It was fully an hour after the arrival of White at 
the cabin before this fact became apparent from his 
incoherent utterances. Something must be done to 
rescue the man. The same young man who had 
brought in Murrey and Sharpe immediately set out 
after aid, the two companions in the cabin being both 
advanced in years. Going to King & Hoskins' store, 
he there found a person about his own age, named 
Henry Close, who unhesitatingly agreed to start out 
with him when the situation was explained. At 
Pierson's place was a powerful horse, which subse- 
quently fell into the hands of the Indians, and was 
killed. Pierson loaned the horse to the young men, 
who, about 12 o'clock, got started upon White's back 
trail. The tracks were well nigh obliterated"by fall- 
ing snow; the little streams running in the canons 
were all full; the snow was slumpy and wet, and a 
person in walking would sink down into it fully a 
foot at every step. Alternately riding the horse and 
walking, the two young men searched out the way 
by following the tracks. 

About five miles below Illinoistown, lying beside a 
prostrate tree, the lost man was found, groaning 
piteously, chilled to the marrow, foot-sore and 
exhausted. Had he lain there a few hours longer, 
most likely he would have been done for. A stiff 
horn of brandy from a flask brought by the rescuers 
for the purpose, and the presence of those who would 
save him, aroused him to eft'ort. He was placed upon 
the animal, plied with another horn from the flagot, 
the horse's head turned homeward, and he given 
instructions to not direct the animal's course, when 



off they were started, leaving tne two men oy them- 
selves. Anxious to reach shelter, the horse, within 
[WO hours from the time of leaving the place where 
the perishing man was found, reached the house with 
him in safety. Close and his companion did not get 
in until 11 o'clock the following day. The man 
rescued was from Kentucky, then aged about twenty- 
eight years. 

IN THE SPRING OF 1850. 

The influx of gold-seekers to the neighborhood of 
Illinoistown in the spring of 1850, created a demand 
for gold-saving appliances there. On the south side 
of the valle}^, just across the way fi-om the lower 
store, stood a magnificent sugar-pine tree, probably 
seven feet in diameter. A man named Frasier 
agreed to fell it for a half-ounce of gold-dust, which 
was given him. It proved to be a good-splitting 
tree, and an old gentleman named Barnard, from 
White Plains, New York, was allowed the privilege 
of using the timber for making rockers, and drove a 
thriving business at the price of six ounces per 
rocker. In the spring, after the water in the dry 
diggings about Auburn had failed, several men who 
had been working there came up and explained to 
Barnard how there had been a new gold-washing 
machine invented and used, which was called the 
"Long Tom," and gave him an idea of their con- 
struction; whereupon ho began making them also, 
at the price of nine ounces each. Shakes and punch- 
eons were made from this tree, hewed logs were 
prepared, and, in April, the old Sears & Miller store 
was used only as a lodging-place, while a pretentious 
hewn log house a few yai'ds to the east of it was 
erected and used for the store and hotel. 

WING DAMS IN THE RIVER 

"Were, in the early days, much resorted to in aiding 
to drain rich gravel beds, on account of their extreme 
simplicity of construction. Beginning, generally, 
at the head of some rapid and extending down to 
the next pool, or deep hole below, they were made 
simply by laying up two parallel walls of cobbles 
and grouting between them, which process would 
turn the water at the head and cause it to run in 
one-half the usual space upon one side of the bed of 
the stream. 

This necessitated the cutting of no race, nor the 
setting back of the water to any material height 
above the usual level, and, at the same time, enabled 
the operating miners to extend their labors on the 
lower bars to the center of the stream. The gravel 
upon these ripples was generally shallow and rich. 

RESULT OF MINING. 

The following, transcribed from memoranda noted 
at the time, is given to show what was done at that 
time upon the low bars. It represents the sums made 
daily by two men with one rocker — one person dig- 
ging and carrying the gravel, and the other wash- 
ing it — upon the North Fork of the American, a 



REMINISCENCES OF ILLINOISTOWN. 



363 



short distance above Kelley's Bar, the gold calculated 
to be worth $16.00 per ounce, the usual price then 
given: — 



1850. 

October 16 $368 00 

17 . . . 347 00 

18 138 00 

19 38 40 

22. 274 00 

23 150 00 

24 77 00 

25 85 50 

26 17 50 

29. . . 109 00 

" 30 77 50 

" 31.. _. 38 00 

November 1 . . . 65 00 

2.... 79 50 

4 78 00 

5 30 50 

13.:. 224 50 

14... . 53 00 



Total !iS3947 



1850. 
September 18-19..$ 84 GO 

20_ ... 133 00 

21 60 38 

23 55 00 

26 38 40 

27 48 50 

28 22 40 

30 7 75 

October 1 37 75 

2 18 50 

3 34 70 

4 100 20 

5 94 50 

7 60 20 

8 62 00 

9 55 25 

10 154 30 

11 120 25 

12 110 40 

14 200 00 

15 200 00 

The rain about the middle of November raised 
the water and prevented further working upon the 
low bar that fall, but a small wing dam the following 
season enabled the same parties to obtain near 
$25,000 from the bed of the stream by the simple 
process of working then in vogue. 

EARLY PHYSICAL FEATURES. 

There is a marked difference lietween the appear- 
ance of the face of the country of to-day and the 
time preceding settlement. Then, in spring time, 
native grasses, alfillerie, indiginous flowers of various 
kinds and hues thickly covered the entire surface of 
the great valleys; and the elk, antelope, grizzly, 
coyote, and minor animals made the great plains 
their home. Approaching the foot-hills, the white 
oaks were encountered, in pristine form, standing 
amid the tall growth of wild oats, resembling some 
old orchard long ago planted by civilized hand. 

And then when the pine lands were reached, 
what a park -like picture they presented. But little 
undergrowth was seen— the annual fires kindled by 
Indians, either for the capture of game or from 
sheer carelessness, having kept it down. The red 
earth was untrodden save by the wild animals and 
aborigines, and no roads nor ugly scars from miners' 
work rent abrasions to roil the limpid waters of the 
streams. 

So porous was the soil that the great rain-fall of 
each succeeding winter scarcely ever was sufficient 
to cause the water to run over the surface at any 
place outside the natural depressions of river and 
ravine in the foot-hill region between the valley and 
the snowy zone. Spongy, it absorbed it as it fell, 
and caused it to seek drainage upon the bed-rock 
underneath. 

By this cause was travel rendered extremely diffi- 
cult in the rainy season of the first few years of 



settlement. The unpacked earth retained the mois- 
ture until drainage and evaporation relieved it, and 
was not as now impacted by civilization's giant tread. 
So soft would the ground become that outside a 
beaten path, even upon the hill-sides where bed- 
rock did not protrude, a domestic animal, unloaded, 
would sink down to a depth of from six to eight 
inches. Wagons upon roads, once cutting through 
the surfiice crust, would sink to the hub in quagmire 
underneath. These conditions caused high freights, 
the price from Sacramento to Illinoistown, in Novem- 
ber, 1849, being sixty cents a pound. 

PIKE COUNTY REPRESENTED. 

Of the immigrants who thronged the mountains 
in 1849-50, were large numbers from Missouri, who 
very positively made known their presence, were 
very assertive of their rights, proud of their State, 
and of their lineage through the first families of 
Kentucky and Old Virginia, and quite clannish. 
People usually, when asked their former residence, 
promptly gave the State or county whence they 
came, but the Missourian's reply was the county 
only; as, from "Pike County," "Jackson County," 
"Chariton County," "Howard county," and the 
like. So many answered " from Pike," that all .Mis- 
sourians were given the name of " Pikes." 

A story is related of the early settlers of the 
region, which was often repeated and helped to fix 
the appellation. Society, of course, was made up of 
all the elements that could be gathered, and the few 
ladies were glad to assemble with members of their 
sex without the discrimination used in older commu- 
nities. 

At a party of ladies where the representatives of 
several vStates were assembled, the conversation 
quite naturally flowed with reminiscences of the 
past. The triumph of their handiwork in the dear 
and distant homes of the East, where the means and 
methods of housekeeping were more convenient than 
could be hoped for soon in the wilds of the Sierra 
Nevada, were the themes upon which each loved to 
dwell. One related of the excellent cheese she used 
to make in Ohio; another of such rich butter as she 
made in the green hills of Vermont; another of the 
luscious tarts and jellies that graced her well-ppread 
table in Maine; another of the handsome quilts and 
the merry quilting parties that were so pleasant in 
old-time Indiana; another of the fine flannels she 
had woven and the garments made in Iowa, until 
one 3'oung lady, who had remained quite unnoticed, 
broke in with a bitter sneer: — 

" Wall, I don't keer a dog-gone f'er yer old 
cheese, and tarts, and quilts, and sich sort o' Y'ankee 
fixin's, I kem from Pike County, Missoura, and I kin 
cut, shoot, and play keerds." 

The supremacy of Pike County could no longer be 
ignored, and "Pike" became the synonym of Missouri. 



§64 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XLV. 

TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 

Alta — Antelope — Applegate — Auburn — Great Fires — List of 
Ijosses — Incorporation of Auburn — A Kail*oa<l Town — Fare 
Ueduoed — A Business View — Old Settlers — Water Supply- 
Great Freshet — William Ambrose — A. F. Boardman — James 
Borland — Dr. J. R. Crandall — C. C. Crosby — Alexander 
Lipsett— D. W. Lubeck— T. M. Todd, M. D.— Antoine 
Canon — Barnes Bar — A Glimmer of the Great Rebellion — 
Barrett's Store — A Death Struggle — Bath. 

In the general history of the county, the early 
discovery, the movements of individuals, the inci- 
dents of settlement, the success of miners, and in 
other I'eferences, nearly every town, river bar, and 
mining camp, of old and of modern times, have been 
mentioned, and in some instances quite full histories 
given. Thei'e are many localities vphose history is 
full of interest, and upon which memory loves to 
linger in commune with the recollection of scenes 
of those bright and hopeful days when time seemed 
so laggard and the future at command. Then con- 
ventionalities and classes were unknown. Equality 
reigned supreme, and toil had no terrors, so that 
hope spread the inaccessible bed-rock with gold oV 
directed the impracticable tunnel to the auriferous 
channel. These recollections may be preserved in 
the legends of the pioneers; aborted and exaggerated 
in the stories of the magazine and novel writers; or 
found in occasional sketches in the newspapers. 
Their aggregate would burst the volume covers. 
Here space and other questions forbid, and brief 
must be the mention of many. Placer County is 
divided into eleven townships, which are designated 
by numbers. Township No. 1 includes Antelope and 
Roseville, in the extreme southwest; No. 2 includes 
Ophir, Gold Hill, Virginiatown, Mount Pleasant; No. 
3, Auburn and Clipper Gap, extending from the 
American to Bear River; No. 4, Applegate, Colfax, 
Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Alta, Emigrant Gap, and 
others; No. 5, Forest Hill, Yankee Jim's, Todd's 
Valley, Batcher Ranch; No. 6, Michigan Bluff, Bath; 
No. 7, Iowa Hill, Sunny South, Damascus, Wisconsin 
Hill, Humbug Canon, Grizzly Flat, Bird's Flat, 
Monona Flat, Sucker Flat; No. 8, Canada Hill, Tahoe 
City, Deadman, Last Chance, Long Caiion, and the 
high region of the Sierra forming the southeast part 
of the county; No. 9 is in the foot-hills, embracing 
Rocklin, Penryn, Newcastle and others; No. 10 is in 
the valley, embracing a large area of farming land 
and the villages of Lincoln and Sheridan, and No. 
11, on the line of the railroad, embracing Cisco, Hot 
Springs, Summit, Truckee River, Lake Valle}', etc. 



Is a creation of the Central Pacific Railroad, dating 
its existence as a town from the time the road was 
constructed. The place received its name in the 
spring of 186G, and on the 15th of July I'ollowing 
the completion of the railroad to that point, and the 
establishing of a station, was celebrated by an excur- 



sion from Sacramento. The locality is two miles 
from Dutch Flat, and, via the railroad, thirty - 
three miles northeast of Auburn, at an altitude ot' 
3,607 feet above the sea. With the completion '■; 
the road to this point, Alta became the depot foi' 
freight and passengers for Dutch Flat and all points 
beyond, making it a brisk business point during 
the year 1866. The region surrounding was covereii 
with a dense forest of pines, and was the seat of 
several large saw-mills. Although much of this 
grand forest has been utilized in lumber, a large 
business is still carried on. Near Alta are the large 
lumber yard, store-houses, and box factory of Towle 
Brothers, who carry on the most extensive lumber 
business in the county. They have several mills, 
the largest having a capacity of 50,000 feet of lum- 
ber everj' twenty-four hours. From the lumber 
depot a narrow-gauge railroad leads to the mills, ten 
miles distant, passing by inclined planes over a ridge 
rising 1,300 feet on one side and falling 2,400 feet on 
the other, a stationary engine raising and lowering 
the cars. 

At Alta is a fine hotel, kept by E. M. Banvard, 
and the usual stores, saloons, and residences of a 
flourishing village. Population, 120. Population of 
Towles' Mills, 225. 



Is a station on the Central Pacific Railroad, in 
Township No. 1, near the line separating Placer and 
Sacramento Counties, twenty-one miles southwest of 
Auburn, having an elevation of 154 feet above 
sea level. In the rainy season a small stream flows 
past, called Antelope Creek, the name being sug- 
gested by the large bands of antelope once so plen- 
tiful throughout the valley. 

APPLEGATE. 

The region including Applegate was first settled 
upon in 1849 by Lisbon Applegate, and a vil- 
j lage grew which bore the name of Lisbon, in 
honor of the pioneer settler. The localitj' was on 
the road from Auburn to Illinoistown. The pre- 
cinct was fii'st designated as the Bear River House, 
; but in 1855 received the name of Lisbon, a post- 
: ofBce being then established under that name, with 
i G. W. Applegate as postmaster. The voting popula- 
tion numbered from twenty -five to fifty, through a 
series ofj^ears, the majority being auti-Democratic-- 
Whig, Know Nothing, and Republican, in their 
order — until the abolishing of the precinct, in 1871. 
Here is one of the finest fruit regions of the State, 
as has been demonstrated by the success of Mr. Geo. 
i W. Applegate and others of the locality. At an 
early day Mr. Applegate planted a nursery, and also 
; cultivated hay and grain, fencing in upwards of 1,100 
acres of mountain land. From his nursery he has 
extended his vine3'ards and orchards until his trees 
are numbered in thousands and his grapevines in 
hundred thousands. Apple, pear, plum, peach, 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



365 



quince, fig, orange, aud almond, are the principal 
trees; grapes of every variety, and berry bushes and 
vines in great number. In connection with this 
extensive vineyard are cider-mills, wine-presses and 
tanks, stills for brandy-making, wine collar and 
store-houses, and all the appurtenances necessary to 
so extensive a business. Such is one of the mount- 
ain ranches and vineyards. The land lies in United 
States survey, townships 13 and 14 north, range 9 
east. Mount Diablo base and meridian. 

Applegate is the station on the Central Pacific 
Eailroad contiguous to this region. It is ten miles 
northeast of Auburn, at an elevetion of 2,014 feet 
above the sea, and is in Township No. 4, of the 
political divisions of Placer County. 

AUBURN. 

Auburn, the county seat and principal town of 
Placer County, is on the line of the Central Pacific 
Eailroad, thirty-six miles northeast of Sacramento, 
the depot having an elevation of 1,360 feet above 
tide water, the principal portion of the village being 
forty or fifty feet lower. 

The history of Placer County is so much the his- 
tory of Auburn that a special reference may appear 
superfluous. The town antedates the county some 
years, the gold-digger having sought its hidden 
wealth as early as 1848. The first, however, that it 
bore a habitation and a name was early in 1849, 
when it was called the " North Fork Dry Diggings," 
the name of Auburn being given in the fall, as 
shown from an old diary quoted on page 79 of this 
book. Some have referred to Auburn as formerly 
bearing the name of " Wood's Dry Diggings," but 
of this we have no i-ecollection nor contemporaneous 
record, and conclude that such appellation was not 
generally applied. 

The locality is a concentration of small gulches, 
or ravines, constituting a larger one, flowing almost 
due west into the Sacramento Valley, where the 
water is lost in the plain. These ravines were rich 
in gold, and upon the site of Auburn many miners, 
in the summer of 1849, pitched their tents, and with 
pans, crevicing knives and spoons, and i-ockers, dug 
for the precious metal. Cabins were constructed as 
pleased the builders' fancy, and when pack-animals 
and wagons subsequently came they sought their 
passage way as most convenient, and thus marked 
out the streets of the future town, resulting in a 
picturesque irregularity. 

The existence of gold in the ravines had been 
proven in 1848, and the centrality of Auburn, its 
accessibility, and its proximity to the North Fork, 
pointed it out as a good trading-point and a good 
place to pass the winter. Several stores wore opened 
in the summer of 1849, and then stores comprised 
all business houses in the mines, being saloon, eating, 
gambling, and lodging-house. For cooking and lodg- 
ing, the miner or traveler usually depended on his 
own resources, seldom troubling any store or other 



house for accommodation. The first of these stores 
were established about the middle of July, 1849, by 
\Vm. (iwynn and H. M. House. Shortly after, Julius 
Wetzler, in company with Capt. John A. Sutter 
started a trading-post under the firm name of Wetz 
ler & Co. George Willment and VV. B. Disbrow, Jo 
seph Walkup and Samuel B. Wyman, Wm. H. Parkin 
son and Wm. Leet, Bailey & Kerr, and Post & Kipley 
were also store-keepers in 1849. Quite a largo com 
munity gathered there in the fall to pass the winter 
among them a number from Otsego County, New 
York, who had come by sea around (^ape Horn and 
brought quite a large amount of goods, which they 
sold from their cabins without calling them stores; 
one of these was Wm. M. Gates, afterwards a prom- 
inent lawyer in the State of Nevada. Many others 
spent their first California winter in that compara- 
tively pleasant locality, who in the spring rushed off" 
to the rivers and to other mining regions. But 
Auburn was then fixed as a trading center, and has 
so continued. As a town of 18-19 it was composed 
of tents, cloth-houses and log-cabins, with canvas 
roofs, and in a few instances were roofs made of 
shakes split from the pine trees which were abund- 
ant in the neighborhood. In the summer of 1850 
more pretentious buildings were constructed, and 
frames, and clapboards, and paint, and plank floors 
made their appearance. 

At present one cannot view the pleasant town, 
with its many fine public and business houses, its 
handsome dwellings embowered in fruit and shade 
trees, and its general air of thrift and comfort, with- 
out recurring to the beautiful lines of Goldsmith, 
descriptive of the happy days of another village, 
whose name is adopted in this: — 

" Sweet Auburn ! loveliest village of the plain, 
Where health and plenty cheer the laboring swain; 
Where smiling spring its earliest visit pays, 
And parting summer's lingering bloom delays — 
Dear, lovely bowers of innocence and e >se, 
Seats of my youth, where every spot can please — 
How oft do I loiter o'er thy green, 
Where humble happiness endears each scene; 
How often do I pause on every charm— r 
The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm, 
The never-failing stream, the busy mill, 
The decent church that crowns the neighboring hill, 
The willows green, with walks beneath the shade, 
For talking age and whispering lovers made." 

During its history Auburn has experienced many 
vicissitudes; business, in its first decade, fluctuating 
with the success and movements of the miners, but 
with the development of the varied resources of the 
count}^ greater stability marks its prosperity. In 
the division of the State into counties it was included 
in Sutter, of which it afterwards become the county 
seat, as is related in chapters XVIII and XIX of 
this work. 

GREAT FIRES. 

Several times fire has swept its streets of build- 
ings and hard-earned fortunes from its citizens, but 
" Besurgam " has been its motto, and a handsomer 
village than before has followed each conflagration. 



366 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The first and most desti-uctive occurred on June 

4, 1855. The fire originated in one of the Chinese 
houses on the side of the bill below the Methodist 

Church, spreading with fearful rapidity, and seeming 
fairly to lick up the buildings as it went. Those 

residing on the south side of the town were unable 
to secure much from the devouring element. The 
time occupied in the burning was one hour and 
twenty-five minutes. 

LIST OF LOSSES. 

Hawkins & Co. {Placer Press) § 4.000 

Hall & Hardy.. 600 

M. P. H. Love... _ 800 

Allen & Duncan 5,200 

Dr. S. P. Thomas 2,000 

M. E. Mills.- 800 

James Anderson . . . _ 800 

George Willmeut ._ 4,000 

Thomas Holden 3,000 

J. C. Baker & Co.... 8,000 

Wm. K.Parkinson 2,000 

L. Newman & Co . . 1,500 

Saml. Hyneman ... 5,500 

I. W. Credit. 2,000 

Theo. B. Hotchkiss 2,000 

B. Goodkind & Co . . 1,300 

James Mudsell •. 1,500 

Woddy & Barney 4,000 

Charles Palmer 3,000 

Robert Fisher 2,000 

Wm. Miller 2,000 

Ferrell & Brewster 8,000 

Robert Gordon 5,000 

W. F. Norcross 3,500 

Tupper's estate 500 

Adams & Co 500 

Foster & Burtis 500 

Placer County 13,000 

P. W. Thomas 1,500 

S. E. Roussin 5,000 

Echols & Lloyd... ... 10,000 

J. Myres ." 300 

Henson Hazell 600 

J. Q. Jackson . 2,000 

L. Sanders 2,500 

George Lans 300 

Tabb Mitchell {Placer HeraUI) 2,500 

H. T. Holmes 8,000 

Dr. \Vickes& Co... . 1,000 

M. Oberdeener 1,000 

Wm. Steven 1,500 

Charles Morrison 5,000 

H. M. House ... 20,000 

George H. Stephens 10,000 

Dr. kinsey 15,000 

Capt. 2,000 

A. Robbins 2,500 

Odd Fellows 1,500 

Wm. Murphy 800 

Eberly, Gove & Co. 3,500 

J. M. Van Mater 1,500 

Davidson & Marcs ... 1,500 

A. Davidson 9,000 

Jos. Hennian 2,000 

Mr. Fewing. 200 

Munsell & Rice 1,000 

Dr. Traphagen 500 

Palmer & Milwaine , 4,000 

Murray & Lofe 2,000 



James Walsh . 200 

T. H. Oliver 1,000 

W. D. Chapman 800 

Mr. Kitter 500 

Richard Sanders. 3,000 

Methodist Parsonage. .. 500 

Michael Jamison 300 

Sautena . _ . 650 

Anyo 6,000 

Ching Chang.. 6,000 

Lung W a .. 5,000 

E. Shing. 2,500 

Geo. H. Kehner 3,000 

California Stage Co. 1,500 

James H. Clark 1,000 

Total ..6215,100 

With characteristic energy the town was rebuilt 
larger and more substantial than before, only to 
meet a like fate on the 9th of October, 1859. The 
fire originated in a small frame building, two doors 
south of the American Hotel, occupied by some col- 
ored men as a restaurant. From. the place where 
first seen, the fire spread rapidly on all sides, envel- 
oping building after building in rapid succession, and 
driving their inmates forth in haste. But few min- 
utes elapsed before both sides of the street were 
in flames, which then ran north and south with a 
fury that seemed to threaten the total annihilation 
of the town, but fortunately the walls of the brick 
houses proved bulwarks that broke the force of the 
storm, and enabled the citizens to make a successful 
fight against further destruction. From the Amer- 
ican Hotel to Russel's orchard, on the west side of 
the street, and from the residence of Wm. McDaniel 
to the banking house of Hall & Allen, on the east 
side, all the houses were destroyed. Before the 
embers had cooled, busy prej^arations began for 
re-building, and, before dark, lumber was on the 
ground ready for re-building. The loss was about 
§119,000. 

Another fire occurred October 28, 18G3, in which 
nineteen buildings were destroyed, with a loss of 
about 860,000. These repeated losses had the effect 
of stimulating the erection of safer buildings, and 
those put up for business purposes in succeeding 
years have been mainly of brick and stone, and fire- 
proof in their construction. Other destructive fires 
are noticed under the proper heading in this book. 

INCORPORATION OF AUBLTIN. 

During 1855, and for some years, the subject of 
a town incorporation was persistently advocated by 
the Whig and Herald, the two papers then guarding 
the interests of the place. As presenting the condi- 
tion of the town, and reasons for the incorporation, 
an editorial upon the subject in the Herald of Janu- 
ary 9, 1856, is here inserted: — 

During the month of April last, the subject of 
petitioning the County Court for a town incorpora- 
tion, was somewhat discussed by our citizens, and a 
petition to that effect was put in circulation. For 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



367 



some reasons, the project was not carried into execu- 
tion. 

By reference to the files of the Auburn Whig, of 
the 18th of April and the 5th of May, 1855, we find 
the attention of our citizens called to the matter in 
two well-written articles, by the editor of that paper. 
The necessities of the move, the law upon the sub- 
ject, and the entire question is so ably treated 
therein, that we will extract from those articles such 
portions as our space will permit, but would recom- 
mend those interested, and who have the files of 
those dates, to read every word he has there written. 

In the article of the 28th of April, he says: " One 
great peril necessarily incurred in a thickly-built 
town or village, is that of conflagration, a danger to 
which, by reason of our numerous Chinese population, 
we are particularly liable. The extremelj' loose and 
careless customs of that people are too generally 
known and understood to require any comment 
from us, and it is for them in a great measure that 
we have reason for apprehension." 

The words in italic seem almost prophetic, where 
we recall the fact that on the J:th of June following, 
the fire which laid our village in ashes originated in 
one of the dens of that tribe. 

The Chinese portion of the town is much more 
extensive now than it was then. Manj' more of 
that people are here now than then, and although 
we have, in re-bnilding the town, erected some 
barriers calculated to stay an entire sweep of the 
town, in case of another fire, in the shape of some 
good fire-proof brick buildings, yet, we apprehend a 
fire in Chinatown would, in all likelihood, destroy as 
great an amount of property now as it did before, 
when the whole town was consumed. Perhaps if 
there had been a town coi-poration, the calamity 
might nevertheless have befallen us; certainly suffi- 
cient police arrangements can be instituted to lessen 
the danger fifty per cent. 

Further: " The condition of our streets and alleys 
is not at all times such as we could desire, j^et the 
obstruction existing, and the remedies required are 
not properly under the control of the Eoad Super- 
visor." 

We will just call attention to the streets in front 
of the Orleans, and Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express 
office, in verification of this extract, at the present 
time. Here, we are the center of an extensive stage 
travel, strangers visiting us daily; the county seat of 
a large county, the entertainers of our fellow-citizens 
from all parts of the county attending upon the 
Courts, and drawn here from their necessities in 
other matters connected with a county seat, and 
yet we have none but miry streets without crossings 
or a system of sidewalks for them to walk upon. 

The law provides that whenever the majority of 
the electors of any town or village shall petition the 
county court to that efl'ect, the court shall proceed 
to incorporate the town, and order an election of a 
Board of Trustees, Assessor, Treasurer, and Marshal; 
said officers to hold for one year, and their pay to be 
fixed b}' the Board of Trustees. The powers of the 
Trustees, as fixed bj^ law, are ' to prevent and remove 
nuisances; to provide for licensing public shows and 
lawful games; to prohibit disorderly conduct; to 
regulate and establish markets; to construct pumps, 
aqueducts, reservoirs, or other works for supplying 
the town with water; to keep in repair public wells; 
to lay out, alter and keep open and repair the streets 
and allej's of the town; to provide such means as 
they may deem necessary to protect the town from 
injuries by fire, and to pass such other laws and 



ordinances for the regulation and police of the town 
as they may deem necessary. 

Such, after an examination of the acts passed 
upon the subject, we find to be substantially the law 
in relation thereto, with this addition, that they may 
have a Recorder, with the powers of a Justice of the 
Peace in criminal and ordinance violations, within 
the limits of the corporations, if they desire it. It 
seems admirably adapted to our necessities; the 
expense of the administration can be gauged by the 
judgment of our citizens. Elect your Board of 
Trustees from among your property-holders, and 
they ai'e not likely to produce a necessity for taxing 
themselves. 

We are painfully sensible that the fire has crippled 
our citizens in their resources, and we incline to favor 
this move, from the fact that it will produce greater 
results, a more uniform improvement, and excellent 
police arrangements much cheaper than in any other 
way. The revenue from fines, the license from 
shows, etc., would of itself not be inconsiderable. 
Most of the officers, we have no doubt (as it would 
not require more than two hours a week), would 
serve gratis, and those it would be necessary to pay 
could draw it from the fees of office. 

Aside from all other considerations, it is something 
of a favor that this is the county seat of a large and 
populous county, where our citizens come and spend 
their money, and we owe them something in the 
way of keeping up a comfortable, pleasant, orderly 
town. 

We have been led to make these remarks at this 
time from the fiict that a petition is again in circula- 
tion to eff'ect this, as we think, desirable object. We 
hope it will not fall still-born again, but that our 
citizens will pursue the undertaking to the consum- 
mation so devoutly to be wished for. 

The town of Aubui-n was incorporated by an Act 
of the Legislature approved March 29, 1861. The 
area of the town was fixed by the Act at one and 
one-fourth miles square, having the Court House as 
the centre. On the 30th of March, 1868, the Act of 
incorporation was repealed, and since that time the 
citizens of Auburn have got along as best they could 
without any town government. 

A RAILROAD TOWN. 

From a very early date, Auburn aspired to be a 
railroad center, and lai-ge sums of money were 
expended in advocating and assisting such enter- 
prises. From 1852 to 1860, the subject was kept 
before the people. While incorporated, the town, 
June 4, 1860, voted a subsidy of 350,000 to the 
Sacramento, Placer and Nevada Raih'oad, and suc- 
ceeded in having a lino constructed to within five 
miles of the town, the history of which is elsewhere 
given. Auburn depot was established at the terminus, 
and several lines of stages connected the depot with 
the town by frequent trips. A large amount of 
freight and travel was thus brought through Auburn, 
giving it a lively appearance and a profitable busi- 
ness. But this, Auburn's railroad and hope, was of 
short life. A greater railroad, with a more direct 
and practicable route, approached from Sacramento 
and absorbed its business. This was the Central 
Pacific, which was completed to Auburn and com- 



368 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



menced running to the present depot, on the south- 
ern border of the village, on the 22d of May, 1865. 
The hope had been entertained that tiie railroad 
would pass through the center of the town, but this 
being impracticable, all became satisfied with the 
location, and Auburn congratulated itself upon being 
most happily situated. 

Among the institutions of Auburn was the Cali- 
fornia Stage Company, which, in September, 1855, 
published the following advertisement, which shows 
the rates of travel at that period; — 

FARE REDUCED. 

The coaches of the California Stage Company 
leave Auburn as follows: From Auburn to Sacra- 
mento, every daj' at 7, 10, and 12 a. m; from Auburn 
to Grass Vallej', Nevada, and Forest City, 12 and 
2 p. M.; from Auburn to Yankee Jim's, Todd's Val- 
ley, and Michigan Bluff, 2 r. m.; from Auburn to 
Illinoistown, Iowa Hill, and Cold Springs, 2 p.m.; 
from Aubuiii Lu Marysvilie, Tuesdays, Thursdays, 
and Saturdays, at 1 o'clock p. Ji. 

On and after Saturda3^ August 4, 1855, the rates 
of fare will be as foUws: — 

From Sacramento to Auburn S2 00 

'• '• '■ Illinoistown .3 00 

'^ Grass Valley. . . 3 00 

■ Nevada 3 00 

Returning from the above places, the rates of faro 
will be the same to Sacramento. 

Offices: Orleans Hotel, 2d Street, Sacramento. 
Empire Hotel, Auburn. 
Egbert's Hotel, Illinoistown. 
Beattie House, Grass Valley. 
Metropolis, Oriental, and United States 
Hotels, Nevada. 

This was a time of opposition, the usual fare from 
Sacramento to Auburn being .55.00. 

A BUSINESS VIEW. 

Auburn has a population of nearly 2,000 people. 
There is a good public school of four departments. 
There are several churches, and more projected. 
The benevolent institutions compi-ise lodges of 
Masons, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Ancient 
Order of United Workmen, Good Templars, and 
Sons of Temperance. 

The scenery in the vicinity of Auburn is grand, and 
the climate, though warmer in summer than that 
prevailing along the coast, is extremely healthful. 
Residences on the main streets arc surrounded with 
the prettiest of gardens, filled with shade and fruit 
trees and flowers of every hue, which make the 
atmosphere fragrant with their odors. There is no 
healthier spot in the State. The main portion of 
the town is about 1,300 feet above the sea-level — an 
elevation sufficient to lift it above the fogs of the 
valley, and yet not high enough to bring it within 
the storm-area of the Sierra. Snow is seldom seen, 
and then only remains for a few hours. At the 
present time it is the center of a large and increasing 
trade. The numerous mines located in the imme- 
diate vicinity furnish emploj'ment to a largo number 



of men. The towns and mining camps on the For- 
est Hill Divide also draw their supplies from this 
point. Considerable quantities of fruit and wine of 
excellent quality is produced by the farmers and 
fruit-growers of the slopes and fertile valleys; so 
that horticulture and wine-growing have become 
very important industries. Silkworms are raised 
to a limited extent, but sufficient to show that the 
industry, if properly managed, might be a remuner- 
ative one. Wood, coal, building-stone, and iron of 
fine quality are convenient, giving assurance of 
future importance as a manufacturing centre. The 
greatest period of depression appears to have been 
in 1873, as shown by statistics of business kept by 
the agencj' of Wells, Fargo & Co., since which time 
it has steadily increased. The total amount of gold- 
dust, coin, and currency shipped through Wells, 
Fargo & Co.'s Express from Auburn during the 
year 1881 was $434,63'4.65. Of the above amount 
$281,379 was gold-dust. 

OLD SETTLERS. 

We give below a list of very early settlers in 
Auburn, as furnished by Mr. Moses Andrews, one of 
the first who located there: — 



Andrews, Moses 

Anderson, 

Beaty, Abe 
Bailey, Major 
Bailey, James 
Cromwell, E. C. 
Crawford, J. B. 
Craig, J. L. 
Craig, Abram 
Culver, B. 
Dana, L. 
DuBois, James 
Dunn, Robt. 
Dobleman, John 
Disbrow, W. D. 
Ellard, Chas. 
East, Thos. 
Echols, H. 

FittejDlace, 

Fuller, Richard 
Fisher, Robt. 
Goodell, Richard 
Gwynn, Wm. 
Gould, John 
Hall, E. M. 
House, H. M. 
Holladay, S. W. 
Howell, Robt. 
Holmes, H. T. 
Hopkins, R. D. 
Hawkins, H. R. 

Kerr, 

Knight, Sam. 
Livingston, H. B. 



Leet, W. N. 
Love, H. P. M. 
McCormick, Mrs. 
Monroe, Wm. 
Miller, Wm. E. 
Neistram, Chas. 
Poland, R. C. 
Peltigrow, Wm. 

Phillips, 

Pole, John 

Post, 

Parkinson, Jas. 
Parkinson, Wm. H. 
Phinney, Dr. 
Ronnie, Nathaniel 

Ripley, 

Rogers, J. R. 
Reardon, I. B. 
Stafford, S. S. 
Smith, A. J. 
Smith, James 
Stratton, Dr. 
Thomas, P. W. 
Udell, J. C. 
Wheeler, Wm. 
Walkup, Jos. 
Wyman, S. B. 
Willment, Geo. 
Wainwright, Chas. L. 
Wordin, S. B. 
Wilson. Thos. 
Whitoley, Dr. 
Whiteloy, Thos. 
Whiteridffe, 



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S < 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



369 



The following prominent Placerites arc residents 
of San Francisco: Wm. T. Holmes, Wm. Gwj'nn, W. 
B. Lyon, Wm. Ilollis, I. N. Hoin, Jas. II. Gates, 
Leland Stanford, W^m. H. Martin, John Mannix, 
E. M. Hall, John M. Currier, Jas. K. Rogers, Wm. 
G. Graham, A. W. Poole. 

For bu.siness purposes Auburn is favorably located, 
having easy access to all the great mining districts 
of the State and Nevada, and being closely connected 
by rail with the principal parts of the State, so that 
with its many attractions, it cannot fail to become a 
place of general resort at no distant day. 

WATER SUPPLY. 

Auburn is very well supplied with water, both for 
domestic and other purposes. By a not very heavy 
outlay pipe could be laid from the ditch of the Bear 
River Canal Company, and fire plugs so located 
under sufficient pressure as to render nearly all the 
business portion of the town completely safe from 
danger of destruction by fire, and it is a wonder 
that this has not been done long ere this. Water of 
good quality is obtained from wells of not very great 
depth, and an occasional wind-mill is used in pump- 
ing for various purposes. Water-works were estab- 
lished, and pipes laid through the town, in 1857, by 
Messrs. Woodin & Smith. 

In 1864 the water-works system was purchased by 
Wm. M. Crutcher, and has yielded a net income of 
about S2,000 annually. The water is delivered into 
three reservoirs, so situated as to command the 
greater portion of the town. From the reservoirs 
the water is conveyed in iron pipes to the various 
places of consumption — dwellings, hotels, stables, 
shops, etc. — under a pressure of sixty or seventy feet. 

GREAT FRESHET. 

The night of December 23, 1867, was terrible for 
its storm all over the lower Sierra; was particularly 
80 to the people of Auburn. The heavy rain of the 
few preceding days was only as a slight shower 
compared with that which began at the close of that 
gloomy day. The water in the two branches of the 
ravine running through town rose to a height never 
before known. Buildings were lifted from their 
foundations and destroyed, some of the owners 
barely escaping from them, and saving nothing but 
the clothes they wore. But the destruction of prop- 
erty was not the most appalling feature of the occa- 
sion. Bordering the ravines were dwelling-houses, 
the flats upon which they were built being guarded 
along the frontage by stone walls, from the top of 
which to the opposite bank foot-bridges were con- 
structed for ingress and egress. About the time of 
the beginning of the flood, two little girls, daughters 
of W. A. Selkirk, impelled by childish curiosity, were 
out upon one of these bridges watching the surging 
torrent. Becoming giddy, no doubt, one of them 
fell off", but being near one edge of the water she 
caught some pi'ojecting shrub, and her little sister 



bravely leaped to her rescue, caught hold of her and 
cried out for assistance. Each moment the flood 
raged higher and more fierce, but its awful roarwas 
far louder than the imploring little voices crj'- 
ing out for help. No one capable of saving heard 
and came to the rescue; and though they nobly 
struggled to maintain their hold upon the fringing 
willows which lay between their young lives and 
certain destruction, their effbrts were unavailing, and 
together the remorseless waters overwhelmed and 
bore them off". Just at this time night spread its 
murky pall over the scene, rendering utterly hope- 
less all thought of ever finding the children alive, 
though men with lanterns hurried down the grade 
which ran along the ravine. Search that night was 
fruitless; but several days after one of the bodies, 
that of Emma, was found. Nearly one month 
elapsed before the other, Mary Bell, was discovei*ed, 
having been taken by the water about twelve miles 
below Auburn. 

WILLIAM AMBROSE 

Was born at Newport, Rhode Island, June 22, 1845. 
His father, Robert Ambrose, was also a native of 
Rhode Island, as was his mother, whose maiden 
name was Louisa Almay. The father was a sea- 
captain, and engaged in the Mediterranean fruit 
trade, until he died of the yellow fever in 1863. Mr. 
Ambrose was educated at the public schools of his 
native State, and afterwards learned the business of 
a jeweler. In this he was engaged for three years. 
Some years since he made California his home, and 
became engaged in mining. In 1876, he accepted 
the situation as agent of the Bear River Ditch, 
residing at Auburn, and this position he now fills. 
October 20, 1877, he was married to Marion W. 
Chipman. This lady is a native of Maine, having 
been born in Poland, Androscoggin County, April 
27, 1859. Mr. Ambrose is a member of the Repub- 
lican Party, to which he adheres with the faithful- 
ness born of conviction. 

A. F. BOARDMAN. 

The cai'eer of Mr. Boardman, whose pleasant 
home in Auburn is shown in this book, has been one 
of enterprise and adventure that could be elaborated 
into a thrilling romance. Adventures, travels, 
Indian fighting, disasters and successes are not con- 
fined to '49ers, and those of the great plains preced- 
ing that era, as here is a young man who has passed 
through as many varying scenes as the oldest pio- 
neer. Arthur Flandei-s Boardman was born at West 
Rutland, Rutland County, Vermont,' September 5, 
1846. His father was also born in West Rutland, 
August 31, 1820, and married October 13. 1845, to 
Grata M. Ashley, who was born at Fair Haven, Ver- 
mont, July 29, 1821. 

With an enterprise seldom witnessed in one so 
young, A. F. Boardman left his native home at the 
age of nineteen years for the West, as an importer 
and breeder of thoroughbred stock. This business 



S70 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



he followed some four years with good success, accu- 
mulating quite a fortune. Being of au adventurous 
nature, he undertook the exploration of northwest- 
ern iMinnesota in 1869, and spent a year in his 
travels through that and the Deadwood country, 
since become the famous and populous mining 
region of the Black Hills in Dakota. From this 
region he went to southwestern Kansas and Texas. 
After making this tour he became the agent of 
Terrle & Tisdle's Big Stage Line, until the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad took the business. 
Then he went to Texas and joined the Texas Land 
and Copper Exploring Company, which took him 
all over western Texas and into Mexico. For two 
years, vvhile engaged in this enterprise, through a 
dangerous and unexplored country, he was subject 
to extreme hardships, deprivations, and exposures; 
and was engaged in several conflicts with the 
Indians, the most wily, treacherous, and barbarous 
known, and he still boai-s ugly marks of the severe 
engagements with that implacable foe. From the 
extreme hardships and sufferings in the wilds of 
Texas his health became so impaired that he con- 
cluded to seek the more gonial climate and more 
quiet society of California, and hither he came in the 
winter of 1873, locating in upper Placer. In the 
fall of 1874, joining with Mi". Cameron, Mr. Powers, 
and others, they organized the Hidden Treasure 
Gold Mining Company, and commenced the long 
search for the gold-bearing channel in the Golden 
Gate Mountain. Eventually, on the 10th of Feb- 
ruary, 1876, the gold-bearing channel was struck. 
and the fortunes of all the owners was made. The 
famous Hidden Treasure 's now regarded as one of 
the best gravel mines in the State, and is estimated 
to be worth a half-million of dollars. Mr. Boardnian 
has continued to be an owner in this mine since the 
origin of the Hidden Treasure Company, although 
he at times has sold shares of his stock at big fig- 
urea, but he still retains enough to give him a fine 
income from the gold produced from the mine. 

Mr. Boardnian was married September 5, 1877, at 
Iowa Hill, to Miss Mary L. Armstrong, of that place. 
In 1880 he purchased his present home in Auburn, of 
which place he has since been a resident. He is a 
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
and is a man who makes his mark in every position 
in life in which accident or business places him. 

JA.MES BORLAND. 

The subject of the following notice is a native of 
the old world, having been born in the City of 
Glasgow, Scotland, October 27, 1825. He remained 
in his native country until ho reached his twenty- 
seventh year, and during that time became thor- 
oughly conversant with mining in a practical way. 
In 1852, he came to the United States, and located 
in Pennsylvania, where he engaged in his former 
occupation— that of mining, daring the succeeding 
four years. On the 14th of April, 1856, he landed in 



San Francisco, having made the journey by water. 
He made no stop in the city, but came at once to 
Placer County, and located at Forest Hill. In the 
latter place he engaged in mining, which he con- 
tinued until 1867. Desiring a change of business, 
he started in as a hotel-keeper at Forest Hill. This 
he continued until his removal to Auburn, March 1, 
1872. Having found the business for which he is so 
well fitted, he took charge of what is now known as 
the Borland House, in Auburn, and to his credit may 
it be said, he has by good management and a thor- 
ough knowledge of his duties built up a business of 
no mean proportions. The house, as we find it to-day, 
is a very different affair fi'om what he found in 1872. 
At that time it was a shabby one-story building, 
containing only four sleeping-rooms, with nine beds. 
The house at present is two stories high, 200 feet 
long, with verandahs above and below, extending 
around both fronts; has thirty-two well-furnished 
rooms, and is first-class in every respect. It is a 
popular resort for tourists, and is well patronized by 
the traveling public, Mr. Borland's fame as " mine 
host" having extended for miles in all directions. 
The building is situated convenient to the railroad 
depot, and has a large barn and corrals for the 
accommodation of teams and stock. In addition we 
can safely say, travelers will find in Mr. Borland 
"the right man in the right place." 

DR. J. R. CRANDALL. 

Few of the pioneers of 1849 are better or more 
favorably known than Dr. John Riggs Crandall, of 
Auburn, Placer County. This gentleman was born 
in Massachusetts, in 1809, and when in the prime of 
manhood moved to Illinois. He had arrived at 
mature years and become established in one of the 
noblest of professions when the discovery of gold in 
California announced the opening of a new era in 
the business and civilization of the world. At that 
time Dr. Crandall was a resident of the beautiful 
town of Peoria, Illinois, and there, in the winter of 
1848-49, was organized a large company, called the 
" Peoria Pioneers," for the overland journey to Cali- 
fornia, and the doctor joined the throng. The most 
of this companj" took the route by the Platte River 
and the South Pass, and arrived in California in 
August and September, while othei-s were led a 
■'wild goose chase " after gold on the head of the Rio 
Grande, and then to the Gila, arriving in California 
via Fort Yuma, late in the fall of 1849, and in the 
mining region in March, 1850. Dr. Crandall settled 
at an early day in Auburn, and from the first has 
taken an active part in all questions of high social 
and business enterprises. The construction of the 
Auburn and Bear River Ditch, one of the first great 
works of the State, was largely due to his energy 
and enterprise, he being one of the originators and 
first officers. To him is also due the encouragement 
of fruit culture in the county; although not the first 
to plant fruit trees, he was one of the first to esperi- 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



371 



ment on the different varieties of friiil, and to bring 
the results to public notice. 

In 1854 Dr. Crandall was elected County Treas- 
urer, on the Whig ticket, and, in 1857, was nomi- 
nated for State Treasurer, on the American or 
Know-Nothing ticket. At this election the Demo- 
crats won. In 1875 he was elected County Clerk, on 
the Republican ticket, the opposing party in Placer 
County then being a combination of Democrats and 
Eepublicans, and styled Independents. This position 
he held during the term of two years. 

In 1869 Dr. Crandall and wife joined the excur- 
sion party of California Pioneers, ci-ossing the plains 
on the newly constructed Pacific Eailroad, on the 
twentieth anniver.sary of their long and toilsome 
journey to the Pacific Coast. This was quite a his- 
torical expedition, and the pioneers received marked 
attention wherever they went. The long-hoped-for 
railroad was completed, and the immigrants of 1849, 
who had opened a new era by their opportunities, 
numbers, and achievements, now celebrated the 
second era, the completion of the iron road connec- 
ting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In November, 
the doctor and Mrs. Crandall returned to their 
Auburn home, exceedingly pleased with their jour- 
ney, and more than ever satisfied with their happy 
homo, and deeply impressed with the superior loveli- 
ness of California. 

In society, church, and social orders. Dr. Crandall 
has ever borne the highest part. He was one of the 
charter members of Eureka Lodge, No. 16, F. and 
A. M., in 18-51, and also of Delta Chapter, No. 27, of 
Royal Arch Masons. He also took an active part 
in the organization of various temperance orders, 
and has held neai'ly all the offices of honor in the 
several societies. He was Assistant Superintendent 
of the first Sundaj^-school ever established in the 
county, in 1852, and has been prominent in church 
matters during his life. In him is found an honora- 
ble representative of California's pioneers, an enter- 
prising and intelligent man of business, an exem- 
plary Christian, and a leading man in societj-. 

C. C. CROSBY. 

Charles Chase Crosby was born in Wisconsin, in 
1839. The place of his birth was then in the wilds 
of the far northwest, the region being marked on 
the map of that time as the " Northwest Territory." 
Years afterwards it became Wisconsin Territoiy, and 
then the Slate. Whileyoung he moved to California, 
and may bo classed as a pioneer of Placer County. 
In August, 1868, a vacancy occurred in the office of 
the Supei'intendent of Public Schools by the abscond- 
ing of S. R. Case, the incumbent of the office, and 
on the 2d of September following, Mr. Crosby was 
appointed by the Board of Supervisors to the posi- 
tion. Of this appointment, the Herald, of opposite 
politics, says: " We are happy to have it in our 
power to say for once that this Board has done a 
good thing in this appointment. Mr. Crosby is a 



young gentlemen whose demeanor heretofore gives 
assurance that he will discharge with credit to him- 
self, and to the interest of our public schools, the 
important duties which will devolve upon him." 

After performing the duties of this office to the 
satisfaction of the people, he was nominated in 1869 
by the Republicans for the office of County Recorder, 
and was elected, and re-elected in 1871, and again in 
1873, holding the office through three terms. In 
1877 he was again nominated for office by the 
Republicans — this time for Sheriff — and was elected, 
surrendering his office to his successor. John C. 
Boggs, in 1880. 

After closing his long and satisfactory official 
career, he entered into business in Auburn, a view of 
the Empire Lively Stable, of which he is proprietor, 
being given in this book. In 1870, August 9th, he 
was married at Bath, Placer County, to Caroline 
Green. 

Mr. Ci'osby is a worthy member of the Masonic 
Order, of Eureka Lodge, No. 16, of which he has 
filled several offices of trust and responsibility. 

ALEXANDER LIPSETT 

Is one of those original characters occasional!}' met 
with in the course of one's pilgrimage through this 
sinful world. He is a native of the '• Emerald Isle," 
and is brim full of the native wit peculiar to that 
class of people. He was born in the town of Ross- 
nowlegh, February 22, 1827. He remained in his 
native country until 1844, at which time he came to 
America, landing in the city of New York May 6th 
of that year. During his six years residence in the 
" great metropolis," he was agent for an extensive 
brewing establishment, and at that time laid the 
foundation for his future success. Like thousands 
of others he was inspired with a desire to behold the 
wonders of the Pacific Coast, and accordingly joined 
the rush for California. He landed in San Francisco 
Jul}' 2, 1850, having made the voyage by way of the 
Isthmus. Soon after his arrival he went to Mokel- 
umne Hill, in Calaveras County, thence to Sacra- 
mento, and finally located at Salmon Falls, in El 
Dorado County, where ho engaged in mining and 
the construction of water ditches for mining purposes. 
He was one of the projectors of the Natoma Ditch, 
and wealth flowed into his possession at an almost 
incredible rate. He remained there until 1855, when 
he returned to New York, and again crossed the 
water to visit his home in Ireland. The following 
year he returned to California and located at Carrol 
ton, in Placer County, a town of former Jays. He 
remained at that place, engaged in mining, until his 
removal to Auburn in 1859. Upon his arrival in the 
latter place he opened a clothing store in the build- 
ing now occupied by him as a hotel, and for about 
six years was a prominent merchant in his line. 
During the year 1865 he gave up the clothing busi- 
ness, and started in as proprietor of the now well- 
known Orleans Hotel. This house is a favorite 



:i72 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



resort, and is conducted on the true principle, ele- 
gance and ease being corabined to make the exist- 
ence of the weary traveler a pleasure. By a refer- 
ence to the illustration of the building, to be found 
in this volume, some idea of the outward surround- 
ings may bo gained. The building is fire-proof, and 
its accommodations are second to none in the upper 
country. During the many years of his life in Cali- 
fornia, Mr. Lipsett has gained much practical knowl- 
edge, which, combined with his natural good sense 
and remarkable memory, places him in the front 
rank in his line. 

D. W. LUBECK. 

For more than twenty years the handsome store 
and pleasant visage of this gentleman have been 
familiar to the people of Auburn and Placer County. 
David Waldemar Lubeck was born in Russia, in 
1836, but came to America in childhood, and through 
all his life since reaching man's estate has made 
Auburn his home. His ancestors were prominent 
people in the land of his nativity, and many relics of 
ancient times are still in the possession of Mr. Lubeck, 
which ho treasures with the care of an sesthetic 
antiquarian. In business he has been distinguished 
by a tine taste, excellent judgment, gi-eat enterprise, 
and liberality. For many years he has been a pi-om- 
inent member of the Oi-der of Free and Accepted 
Masons and of the Royal Arch Masons, having filled 
several offices in the Eureka Lodge, No. 16, of the 
former, and of Delta Chapter, No. 27, of the latter, 
at the present being Treasurer. Mr. Lubeck always 
beai's a prominent part in the organization of such 
societies as conduce to the well-being and social 
advancement of the community — those of pleasure, 
benevolence, and the church as well, ile has taken 
H prominent part in the organization of the Epis- 
copal Church of Auburn, and other denominations 
have found him a liberal patron. Mr. Lubeck was 
married August 1, 1868, in San Francisco, to Miss 
Julia M. Andrews, sister of M. Andrews, Esq., of 
Auburn. The store and residence of this gentleman 
are shown b}' an engraving in this book. 

JOHN JULIUS S.MITH 

Is a native of the State of New York; was born at 
Utiea, Oneida County, October, 1833. His early 
years were passed in his native State, until, in the 
year 1855, he came to the Pacific Coast. Mr. Smith, 
in his journey to the Golden State, has no thrilling 
adventures to relate of his experience among the 
Indians, for he took a mode of conveyance that is 
seldom troubled by them, a ship. Upon his arrival 
in this State he sought the mines as the proper 
avenue to wealth, and made his first location at 
Millertown, near Auburn, in Placer County. This 
business he followed for about one year, when he 
removed to ('Upper Gap and engaged in the lumber 
business, and for a space of one and one-half j'ears 
was prominent in that branch of industry. His next 
enterprise was as Superintendent of the Auburn toll- 



road, a position he held during the succeeding two 
years. In 1860, we find him in a new departure at 
Todd's Valley, that of the livery business. After 
one year's experience in this line, he was unfortu- 
nately visited by that ruthless destroyer, fire, and was 
obliged to see his hard-earned accumulations ascend 
heavenward in flames. After his misfortune he 
built and run the " Roadside House," on the Auburn 
and Michigan Bluff road, known to the traveling 
public as Smith's Station. He remained at this point 
until his removal to Auburn, in 1869, where he built 
a hotel near the railroad station, which was the first 
one erected at that point. Three years later he 
leased the property for one year, and returned to 
his old home in New York, on a visit of about nine 
months' duration. Upon his return to Auburn he 
built a fine hotel on the site of his present house. 
This was also destroyed by fire, after an occupancy 
of only six weeks. Two years later, he built the 
hotel of which he is at present the proprietor, known 
as the Auburn Hotel, a view of which will be found 
in this volume. 'I'he building is pleasantly situated, 
and the surroundings are fine. It is conveniently 
located, near the railroad station, and is superin- 
tended by a man who knows " how to keep a hotel." 
The house contains about forty well- ventilated and 
nicely-furnished rooms, and the landlord aims to 
make things pleasant for the traveling public. 

THOMAS E. STEPHENS, 

Son of John and Mary Stephens, was born on 
Staten Island, New York, August 31, 1835. The 
first seventeen years of his life were passed at home> 
and were varied between attending school, and other 
duties pertaining to boyhood's estate. In 1852, he 
removed to Wilmington, Clinton County, Ohio, and 
for four years was otigaged as clerk in a dry goods 
establishment. He then went to New Albany, 
Indiana, and in connection with Wm, J. Morgan, 
formed a partnership for the purpose of conducting 
the grocery trade. The firm of Morgan & Stephens 
was in operation until the spring of 1859, when Mr. 
Stephens sold his interest to his partner, and soon 
after sailed for the Pacific Coast. Ho arrived in San 
Francisco on the 16th of May that year, and came 
immediately to Auburn, Placer County, where he 
has since resided. In 1862, he engaged in the 
grocery trade in Auburn, which he still successfully 
carries on, having the largest general merchandise 
establishment in the town, and second to none in 
the county. His stock consists of groceries, crockery- 
ware, hardware, paints, oils, etc., and his trade 
reaches over the entire county. The residence of 
Mr. Stephens, which is one of the finest in the town, 
is illustrated in this volume, and will repaj^ scrutiny. 
He was married July 11, 1875, to Miss Addie Bab- 
cock, daughter of John and Louisa Babeock, who is 
a native of Scipio, Cayuga County, New York, being 
born May 7, 1845. She came to California with hci 
parents in ISG'i. settling in Sacramento. 





Mr. a BREECE. 



Mrs. a BREECE. 



#*t^k- 







^ 
1 




Residence of A. BREECE, Bath, Placer County, Cal^ 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



373 



JOHN B. BTARBUCK 

is the only son of Elisha and Winnifred Starbuek, 
both natives of Nantucket, Massachusetts. John B. 
is also a native of the same place, and veas born 
March 23, 1821. He called this his home during the 
succeeding twenty-eight years, though he passed 
much of his time on the " briny deep," after he was 
old enough to handle a rope. He remained a sailor 
until 1849, when ho came to the Pacific Coast in the 
schooner Ferdinand, from Baltimore, Maryland. 
He aiTived in San Francisco in September, 1849. Ho 
at that time quit a sea-faring life and sought his 
fortune in the mines. His first location was near 
what is now Auburn, in Placer County, where he re- 
mained, mostly engaged in mining, until 1854. Desir- 
ing a change of business, he went to what was then 
called "New England Mills," now a station on the 
Central Pacific Eailroad, and engaged in the lumber 
trade. Thisbusinesshe followed successfully untill874, 
when he retired from active business life, having by 
his strict application to business, and frugal habits, 
gained a competency, and can rest easy in his beauti- 
ful home during his declining years. A view of his 
residence and surroundings will be found in this 
volume. Mr. Starbuek was married in December, 
1879, to Lena Matthias. In Mr. Starbuek we find 
the real type of a '49er, one who has exercised the 
admonition to " make hay while the sun shines." 

T. M. TODD, SI. D. 

Dr. Thomas Milton Todd, now of Auburn, Placer 
County, California, was born in Wheeling, West 
Virginia, April 6, 1839. His parents were James 
and Mary E. (Byers) Todd. The education of the 
subject of our sketch was thorough and first-class. 
Ho graduated at Washington and Jefferson College, 
Washington, Pennsylvania, in the class of 1862, 
with the degree of A. B. Three years after, he took 
the degree of A. M. He also graduated at the Miami 
Medical College, Cincinnati, Ohio, in the year 1868, 
receiving the degree of M. D. After his graduation 
from the Washington and Jefferson College in 1862, 
he entered the Union army in the War of the Rebel- 
lion, and served throe j-ears. After this arduous and 
honorable service, Dr. Todd renewed his studies as 
before stated, perfecting himself in the noble profes- 
sion which he has since so faithfully and successfully 
practiced. In the spring of 1871, he moved to 
Auburn, and entered into practice. In 1875, he was 
appointed physician and surgeon to the County 
Hospital, which position he still holds. He is a 
member of the State Medical Society, also of the 
Masonic Fraternity, and is a Knight Templar. The 
doctor is fond ol' society, and among his accomplish- 
ments is that of being a fine musician, which greatly 
adds to his pleasures and to his power of entertain- 
ing the cultivated people of his social circle. He 
was married at Auburn, September 25, 1877, to Miss 
Alise Adrian, one of Auburn's fair daughters, she 
being a native of that town. 



ANTOINE CANON. 

Some distance above Michigan Bluff, between Big 
Secret and Van Clief Caflons, is a smaller stream 
than either of the two named, but having the same 
general course, as the waters flowing down it find 
their way into the North Fork of the Middle Fork, 
and is known as Antoine Canon. It was first dis- 
covered to contain gold by a half-breed Indian, who 
came into California in company with Jim Beck- 
wourtb from the Crow Indian country. Antoine (or 
Antwino, as always pronounced) in the spring of 1850. 
was ono of the Bronson party to Bird's Valley and 
the mouth of El Dorado Canon, near Michigan 
Bluff, but not liking the outlook there had returned 
to Pilot Hill, in company with Lawrence Bargy, to 
whom he had attached himself, Bargy being a 
careless, easy-going man of generous impulses, and 
the two prospected and worked together. 

An idea of the character of the twain will be 
better illustrated by the relation of the following 
fiicts. At Pilot Hill they had no cabin, and, during 
the winter of 1849-50, had depended altogether upon 
the hospitality of friends for shelter. O. T. Nichols 
and D. W. C. Story had a cabin which they shared 
with Bargy and Antoine, allowing them to sleep, 
cook and eat thei-e whenever they chose to do so, 
which was a great portion of the time during the 
winter. Bargy and the half-breed would, day after 
day, as they came in from work invariably leave on 
the table for their hosts the greater portion of the 
results of their labor, only taking enough themselves 
to keep them m grub, whisky, and tobacco, and 
could not be induced to do otherwise, being told, and 
well-knowing, that they were cordially welcome to 
the accommodations they had. The daily sums they 
would thus leave aggregated a groat deal, as they on 
one occasion left four ounces. 

The Indians about Pilot Hill that spring, being 
quite numerous, were saucy as well, and inclined to 
be troublesome. While coming to this country. Beck- 
wourth and Antoine, though of Indian blood them- 
selves, had been attacked by the Shoshones, and 
badly used, having lost their animals and every- 
thing else but their lives, which thoy barely saved 
by their superior art and endurance as plainsmen. 
This fact made Antoine the deadly enemj' of all 
Western Indians, and from time to time the Pilot 
Hill Indians would mysteriously lose ono of their 
tribe, who would be found dead, having been shot. 
Perhaps this had much to do with the hostile attitude 
assumed by them, which finally culminated by their 
killing a young white man about the 1st of Juno, 
1850. The whites then immediately retaliated by 
capturing and hanging three Indians, and an alarm- 
ing condition prevailed, as any lone miner was liable 
to be punctured by a glass-headed arrow at any 
time when out at work, and not pi'eparod for the 
enemy. Finally, it dawned upon the minds of the 
white people at Pilot Hill, that, from expressions 



374 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



the half-breed had from time to time dropped, he 
might be the one who was causing the decimation 
of the Digger race; and then it became natural that 
they should suppose Bafgy to be implicated also. 
The natives continued to go down before the mur- 
derous bullet of some one, until, at length, Bargy 
was told of the general suspicion of the peof)le, and 
that the business must stop. Whereupon Bargy, 
who was innocent, told Antoine, who acknowl- 
edged to his partner that he was the one to blame, 
that they must part company. Antoine replied that 
he did not wish to get his friend in trouble, and 
therefore would leave. He did so, following up the 
old trail he had gone in the spring to Bird's Valley; 
thence continued up the divide, prospecting as he 
went, until he finally entered the canon which now 
bears his name, in the latter part of June. He 
returned to where Bargy was, the same fall, with 
SI, 500 in gold dust, which, in consideration of the 
man's habitual improvidence, was remarkable. 

BARNES' BAR— A GLIMMER OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 

Even in California, in the year 18-19, at the mines 
along the rivers of Placer County, did there come a 
gleam of that '■ irrepressible conflict" which was the 
prime cause of the great civil war in later yeai's. 
That year there were located at Barnes' Bar, besides 
two camps of Stevenson's Regiment men of a half-doz- 
en each, a half-score of Yankees, and a goodly sprink- 
ling of Oregonians; also a company of Georgians, 
some of whom were accompanied by negro slaves. 
A mining claim then had in width only a frontage 
upon the river ol' twenty feet, with the length 
extending into the hill to an indefinite distance. 
The bar proper was not very extensive in its river 
frontage; was exceedingly rich and therefore desir- 
able. The Georgians, having come to the bar a little 
in advance of the Yankees, had naturally not only 
located claims for themselves, but for their negroes 
also. Thus some of the New Englanders were short 
of ground, and raised a tumult by springing the del- 
icate question that no " chattel " could assume 
ownership to a mining claim. Argument in relation 
to this matter waxed warm, and for a time the 
aspect was threatening. One side argued that each 
" person " was entitled to a mining claim, while the 
other as stoutly asserted that so long as the miners 
considered the slaves as their personal property 
they could no more hold mining ground for them 
than the non-slave owner could for his horse which 
was grazing upon the adjacent hills. The Yankee 
side of the question had strong friends in the camps 
of " Loo Choo " and " Susan Drew " men, as the 
respective parties which had comprised a portion oi 
Colonel Stevenson's command were called. Finally 
a " committee " sought the Southrons, and informed 
them it was the opinion of a majority of the residents 
of the bar that, while each white man among them 
had an undoubted right to the possession of a mining 
claim, and might set whomsoever he chose to work it 



bo he bond or free, white or black, that it was decid- 
edly unfair to locate more ground and place a personal 
" chattel " thereupon to represent it. The Georgi- 
ans protested, but agreed to submit the proposition 
to a public meeting of the I'esidents of the Bar. 
This was called; in fact several meetings were held 
before the decisive vote was taken, at which each 
faction put forth its best efforts to win. The final 
vote was at length taken, and the Yankees carried 
their point. The ai-bitrament, being extremely dis- 
tasteful to the Georgians, and there being no imme- 
ate prospect of an accession to their ranks which 
would enable them to change the result, soon after 
folded their tents, sought a more genial locality, and 
left the Yankees complete masters of the field. 

Barrett's store — a death struggle. 

On the north bank of the Middle Fork of the 
American River, at the foot of the steep hill where 
the trail comes down from Bird's Valley, near 
Horseshoe Bar, is the long-established and well- 
known trading-post of E. Barrett. Thousands of 
tons of the various commodities used by a mining 
population have been distributed from this post 
throughout the numerous camps and bars up and 
down the river, and mule-loads of gold-dust have 
been passed over the counters. Here it was that 
men came at the close of their week of toil to order 
fresh supplies, sell gold-dust, receive letters and 
papers, chat with their fellow-miners from the differ- 
eiat diggings, and often to indulge convivial longings. 
The store is situated at the head of a narrow prom- 
ontory, which here juts southeasterly for nearlj^ a 
half-mile, diverging the course of the stream, and 
causing one of those remarkable sinuosities for 
which the Middle Fork, more than any other stream 
in California, is noted. Turning the point of the 
promontory the stream retui'ns toward the location 
of the store, and thus washes the base of the hill 
where the building stands, below it, as it does upon 
the upper side where the stream is diverged. Taus 
are the river banks immediately contigaous to the 
store above and below, and overlooked throughout 
its long detour of nearly a mile. A tunnel of not 
more than 350 feet would pierce through the narrow 
promontory, near where the stream strikes its upper 
base, and by thus straightening the river, drain its 
bed for more than three-fourths of a mile. A scheme 
of this character was accomplished in the year 1849, 
which will be noted in another place in this work. 

Situated at an elevation of about 100 feet above 
the bed of the stream, Barrett's store commands as 
good a view of every side as can be often had from 
any position in these deep gorges of the American 
River. 

On the 5th of August, 1870, in the forenoon, there 
came to the store four men — Alexander McLain, a 
native of Renfrenshire, Scotland, who had been liv- 
ing about Stony, American, and other bars, for 
twenty years, and who had been nicknamed by min- 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



375 



ers, and known as, " Duke of Maccaeac; Louis Stu- 
peree, a native of Lesenia, on the Adriatic; and two 
pai-tners of the latter. The four men wore fast 
friends; they chatted pleasantly for several hours, 
meanwhile partaking of a social glass in deference to 
common custom, though not becoming intoxicated. 
About 12 o'clock tbcy left the store, the two un- 
named men going up the river, while McLain and 
Stuperee went down upon the Mad Canon trail lead- 
ing toward Bath and Forest Hill, which is upon a pre- 
cipitous side-hill, and in places near perpendicular 
cliffs overhanging the river. This was the last ever 
seen of them alive. Being without families, and 
belonging to the nomadic class of miners, who were 
as likely to go away from their cabins and remain 
for an indefinite period as not, they were neither 
missed nor inquired for. On the 12th of August, 
just one week from the day they left Barrett's, some 
men, who were working upon a dam near Grey 
Eagle, discovered the body of a man floating on the 
surface of the water. Presently another was seen 
a short distance above the first, and both were taken 
on shore for identification. They proved to be 
McLain and Stuporoe, the latter considerably disfig- 
ured about the ftice, but both with necks dislocated. 
The cause of the singular death was sought, but 
never will positively bo known, 

Upon the trail they had ti-avelcd, search was 
made, and a short distance from it toward the river, 
lying about twenty feet apart, were found the hats 
of the two men and evidences of preparations for a 
fight. They had, no doubt, begun a dispute about 
something after leaving the store; along friendship 
of years had been rudely broken and supplanted by 
sudden hate — one perhaps having given the other 
an involuntary blow or degrading epithet — and 
alone, unwitnessed, they had decided then and there, 
in that unfavorable spot, upon the very brink of a 
yawning precipice, to fight it out. The view up and 
down the river from the fateful spot was unobstructed 
and extended; many people wei-e working all along 
the river; the trail was one much frequented, and 
yet no one witnessed the death struggle of these 
two desperate men. Apparently, the Scot was too 
much for his antagonist in a fistic rencontre, for 
Stuperee's face was terribly disfigured, and in his 
hot blood he could never think of appearing before 
his fellow-miners, bearing the sears inflicted by his 
former friend. To set all things even, he could grasp 
McLain, crowd him over the precipice and hurl him 
down upon the rocks a hundred feet below! The 
attempt followed the thought; both went over the 
precipice. The necks of both were broken, and 
both lay dead upon the shingly beach of the river, 
at the water's edge, until the dammed up waters had 
risen to float thorn off" to discovery and burial. 



This place is situated about two miles north of the 
Middle Fork of the American Eiver, and a mile and 



a half northeast of Forest Hill. John Bradford, a 
merchant, was its pioneer settler, having been 
attracted there in the summer of 1850. He was, at 
that time, doing business af'Stony Bar, and his atten- 
tion was first drawn to the locality by the excellent 
pasturage, and the beauty of the location for a stock 
ranch. A cabin was erected in which to reside and 
store his goods on their arrival from Sacramento in 
wagons, to be packed to the store at Stony Bar as 
they were required. A brush fence was also built 
around the place which he claimed as a ranch. Some 
time during the fall of 1850, some miners from the 
Middle Fork of the American Eiver were attracted 
there, who purchased the place of Bradford for a 
small sum. They located therefor the winter, intend- 
ing to hunt deer, and mine in the dry gulches. 
After prospecting for some time, gold was discovered 
by this party, and, as the news spread of the exist- 
ence of mineral in paj'ing quantities, miners from all 
directions flocked to the place and formed a settle- 
ment, which was given the name of Volcano. 

The following year, in consequence of the discovery 
of rich " hill diggings," by the Blakeman Brothers, 
who located the " Mint Drop " claim, and by Isaac 
Snodgrass, who took up the " Snodgrass Claim," 
large numbers of miners flocked to the place, and a 
town was rapidly built up. As there was another 
town of the same name on the opposite side of the 
Middle Foi-k of the American River, at that time, of 
equal importance, a change was made in the name, 
and it was afterwards known as Sarahsville, in honor 
of the wife of a man by the name of" Blaze." Her 
Christian name being Sarah, and she being the first 
lady settler of the place, the gallant pioneers con- 
sidered the place honored by bearing her name. 

Early in January, 1858, a petition numerously 
signed, was sent to the Post-ofl[ice Department, ask- 
ing for the establishment of a post-office at the town, 
the name of which was changed from Sarahsville to 
Bath. In a short time a weekly mail route from 
Yankee Jim's to Bath was established, which had 
the effect of rendering the new name permanent, if 
the town itself was not. 

Owing to the close proximity and rapid growth 
of Forest Hill, tho town commenced to decrease in 
population and importance, until, at the present time, 
it is but a small village of about 200 inhabitants, 
with one or two stores, hotel, butcher and black- 
smith shops, a saloon, etc. Tlie mines, however, 
are rich, the principal one being the Paragon, owned 
by Messrs. Breeco & Wheeler, which yields a not 
profit of about $13,000 per month, a description of 
which is given in another chapter of this work. 

THOMAS N. nOSMER. 

Among the eai-ly miners on the " Divide," is Mr. 
Thomas N. Hosmer. This gentleman was born in 
Camden, Maine, June 24, 1823, his ancestors being 
of the old residents of that section of our Rf public. 
Like many of tho young men of Maine, he, when 



376 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



twenty-ono years of age, tried the life of a sailor. 
Not finding this vocation as pleasant as his fancy 
had pictured, he soon abandoned it, and removed to 
Georgetown, Massachusetts. In the quiet New Eng- 
land, he was roused to excitement, in 18-13, by the 
news of the discovery of gold on the Pacific Coast, 
and to that point he determined to emigrate. Mak- 
ing his preparations, he was delayed until November 
14, 1849, when he sailed in the schooner B. L. Allen, 
from Boston, via Cape Horn, for the golden land, 
arriving in San Francisco, April 27, lc>50. He went 
first to the southern mines, and, in 1853, to Mormon 
Island, Sacramento County. After trying different 
mining districts, in January, 1856, he found himself 
at Yankee Jim's, and in that region he has remained 
ever since, making mining his chief business. From 
1864, his principal place of operation has been at 
Bath, where, unless the laws and Courts of the State 
condemn the mining industry, he expects to secure 
the fortune his industry entitles him to. 

Mr. Hosmer was married in San Francisco, by 
Rev. E. S. Lacy, January 29, 1861, to Miss Sarah A. 
H. Barrett. This lady is a native of Camden, Maine, 
and came to California in 1859. During his long 
residence in California, Mr. Hosmer has made two 
visits to his native home; once in 1851, by steamer 
via Panama, remaining a few months, and again, 
accompanied by his wife, making the railroad jour- 
ney overland, in May, 1874, returning in October. 
The pleasant residence of Mr. Hosmer is shown by 
an accompanying illustration in this book. 



CHAPTER XL VI. 
TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 

[continued.] 

Bogus Thunder— Brushy CaSon — Butcher Ranch— Cisco — Colfax 
— Darius V. Norton--Clipper Gap — Damascus— Deadwood — 
— Dutch Flat — Henry A. Frost^Herman R. Hudepohl— 
Frytown — Duncan Caiion— Fort Trojan — James W. Ohinn 
— Gray Horse Canon — Humbug Caiion — Johnso I's Ranch 
— Manzaiiita Grove — Newtown — Grizzly Flat — Lincoln — 
Peter Ahart — Isaac .Stonecipher — Sheridan — Rogers' Shed — 
Shirt-tail Canon — Sunny South — Emigrant Gap — Forest 
Hill— J. G. Garrison— William Rea— Gold Hill— Gold Run 
—Iowa Hill— Dr. Oliver H. Petterson— Michigan Bluff- 
Newcastle— Ophir—Peuryn— Griffith Griffith— Placer County 
Granite — Elisha Grant— Rockliu — W. D.ma Perkins— Rose- 
ville— Todd's Valley— First Shaft in Todd's Valley— Alfred 
A. Pond — Nicolas Quirolo — Wisconsin Hill — Yankee .Jim's. 

BOGUS THUNDER. 

The above name is applied to a bench or high bar 
located upon the North Fork of the Middle Fork, 
in the canon some two or three miles from Deadwood. 
A fall in the river, a mile or more above the place, 
over which the waters of the stream plunge, and 
the sound of which reverberates throughout the 
gorge, fixes an impression upon the mind of a 
str.mger who first visits the bar, that the noise he 
hears so distinctly is thunder. So thought the first 
oxplorci-s, until they finally located the cause and 
proclaimed the thunder bogus. 



BRUSHY CANON. 

This locality is between Yankee ^^im's and Wis- 
consin Hill, and at one time was the scene of exten- 
sive mining operations. The diggings were located 
in 1855, and gave promise of great wealth. Numer- 
ous tunnels were constructed, and for three or four 
years the place was one of bustle and activity. 

BUTCHER RANCH. 

This is a farming settlement situated on the Stony 
Rill Turnpike, on the divide between the North and 
Middle Forks of the American River, eight miles 
from Auburn and fifteen miles from Forest Hill. It 
has a post-office and is a voting precinct, and has a 
population of about 250. The places of business 
consist of one drug store, two hotels, one blacksmith 
shop, and one carpenter shop. 
Cisco 

Is in the snowj' region of the Sierra, fifty-six miles 
northeast of Auburn, and 5,934 feet above the level 
of the ocean, in longitude 120° 33' west from Green- 
wich and 39° 21' north latitude, being within two 
miles of the extreme northern line of the county. 

With the opening of the Donner Lake Wagon 
Road, in 1864, for travel to the silver mines of Ne- 
vada, numerous stations, or hotels, were established 
along its line. Among these were Heaton's and 
Foley's, a few miles apart. In 1806 a great excite- 
ment prevailed regarding the mines and citj' of 
Meadow Lake, near the summit of the Sierra, in 
Nevada tJounty. With the rush of people thither 
the two stations mentioned were points of depart- 
ure from the Donner Lake Road, and both aspired, 
to be towns. In June the place at Heaton's was 
surveyed into lots, and the town named Cisco, in 
honor of John J. Cisco, United Slates Treasurer. . 
On the 29th of November, 1866, the Central Pacific 
Railroad was completed and the cars commenced 
running to this point, and Cisco became a ver}- 
busy place, crowded with groat freight wagons and 
teams, stages and travelers. This remained the ter- 
minus of the road until 1868, when the summit tun- 
nel was completed and the road extended out into 
Nevada. Cisco is in Township No. 11, and has a 
population of about 100. 

COLFAX. 

This place is situated on the Central Pacific Rail- 
road, fifty-four miles from Sacramento and eighteen 
miles northeast of Auburn, and is another of the 
many towns that sprang into existence upon the 
completion of the great overland railroad. The 
rails reached Colfax September 1, 1865, and regular 
trains were running on the 4th of that month. The 
town of Colfax was laid out in 1865 by the Central 
Pacific Railroad Company. The site was subse- 
quently sold to Messrs. Ivohn & Kind, and a sale of 
lots took place July 29, 1865, which amounted to 
between .•?6,000 and !?7,000. 







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TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



377 



• Within half a mile of where Colfax now stands is 
the old settlement of lllinoistown, and when Colfax 
was laid out in 1SG5 it gathered to itself all that was 
left of this ancient place. Colfax has, since that 
time, steadily increased in population and import- 
ance, until now it is one of the leading towns in the 
county. 

In 1874 a conipanj' was formed to build a narrow- 
gauge railroad from Colfax to Nevada City. The 
work of construction began in 1875, and the road 
was completed and the last spike driven at Nevada 
on the 20th of May, 1876. 

Kich veins of quartz were discovered near Colfax 
in 18C6. A test of the rock was made at Grass 
Vaile}', and found to be worth between $27 and S28 
per ton. A company was organized and a mill con- 
structed in 1869. The mine was christened the 
" Eising Sun." The gold is of a pure quality, being 
worth S18.50 per ounce. The mill had five stamps 
of 800 pounds each, and was capable of reducing 
ten tons per day. The mill was subsequently 
increased to twenty stamps, and still continues a 
paying mine. The Montana Mine has been worked 
to some extent, and numerous buildings have been 
erected. The Meda Mine is situated on the dividing 
ridge, three miles from town. The ore is rich and 
has yielded an average of $30 to the ton. 

A destructive fire occurred in April, 1874, which 
swept away the main portion of the town. With 
undaunted energy the citizens have re-built, and now 
it is difficult to discover any traces of the fire, and 
the place is now handsomer and more substantially 
built than ever. 

The climate of Colfax is similar to that of the 
other towns on the western slope of the Sierra. Its 
altitude is 2,421 feet above the sea level, and with 
its salubrious and healthful location, its mountain 
breezes, laden with the spicy odors of pine forests, 
disease cannot linger. Fruits of all kinds that grow 
in temperate latitudes are raised on the ranches, 
and apples and peaches are much better flavored 
than similar productions in the valleys. 

The population of Colfax is about 600. The 
business establishments consist of dry goods and 
grocery stores, two hotels, drug store, wagon and 
blacksmith shop, bakery and restaurant, saloons, 
lumber yard, meat market, shoemakers, etc. 

DARIUS V. NORTON, 

Eldest son of Eeuben and Mary Norton, was born 
at Allison's Prairie, Crawford County, Illinois, March 
^2, 1820. He grew to manhood in his native State, 
"and received a thorough education. After reach- 
ing his majority, he was for several years engaged in 
teaching school. In 1 850 he crossed the plains to 
California, arriving at " Hangtown " on the 15th of 
August. His journey over the barren country lying 
between the "Garden State" and the land of gold 
was similar in detail to that of thousands of others 
who braved the dangers of the trip in early days. 



His first three years in this State were spent in the 
mines in El Dorado County. In 1855 Mr. Norton 
failed in health, and removed to Nevada County, 
where he remained about two years as a teacher in 
the public schools; was also elected Justice of the 
Peace. His next move was to Napa County, where 
he owned a fruit ranch near St. Helena Mountain. 
This was his home for a number of years. In 1875 
he sold his fruit ranch and came to Placer County, 
settling in Auburn, where he remained one year, at 
which time he removed to his present home, about 
two miles from Colfax. A view of his place will be 
found in this volume. 

Mr. Norton was married June 23. 1863, at Napa 
City, California, to Mrs. Mary Sitton, nk,e Montague, 
who is a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky. Mi's. 
Norton came to California, across the plains, in 1854, 
and settled in Sonoma County, where she resided 
seven j^ears. She then i-emoved to Napa County, 
and lived there until her present union. They have 
two sons, aged, respectively, seventeen and twelve 
years. 

CLIPPER GAP 

Is a railroad station seven miles northeast of Auburn, 
in Township No. 3, having an elevation of 1,759 feet 
above sea level. It is in the midst of a fine fruit 
region, and is the depot of the Hotaling Iron Mines, 
and of the lime works of Holmes & Co. 

DAMASCUS. 

Damascus is an old mining town, whoso history 
begins in the year 1852, at which time Dr. D. W. 
Strong, who was prospecting in the vicinity, discov- 
ered gold in an outbreaking stratum of quartz 
gravel upon a point between the two branches of 
Humbug Canon, near the southern, or as it is now 
called, Damascus Branch. For several years, or 
until a post-office was established in 18 — , it was 
known as Strong's Diggings, Strong and his asso- 
ciates dug a small ditch from a spring at the head of 
the cafion, which conveyed a small head of water, 
and began to ground sluice — the gravel at the rim 
being not more than two feet deep, paying from the 
surface to the bod-rock. Later, hydraulic apparatus 
was placed in position, and the ground washed off 
during the portion of the year when water was 
obtainable for the purpose by that method, until 
too much barren overlying material was encountered, 
when, in 1854, a tunnel was begun for the purpose of 
drifting out the paying stratum, under the name of 
the Golden Gate. West of the claims of Strong & 
Co., was the Mountain Tunnel Company, also having 
commenced a tunnel. The two tunnel companies, 
becoming involved in disputes relating to boundaries, 
drainage, and priority of right, finally, in 1863, com- 
promised their difficulties and consolidated under 
the name of " Mountain Gate Mining Company," 
with twenty-one shares, representing an ownership 
of that number of persons, which are still main- 
tained. Like the majority of unincorporated mining 



378 



HISTORY OF PLACER COTTNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ventures, where no particular pains are taken in 
preliminaiy surveys, the first tuunel driven was 
found to be sixty-five feet too high to profitably work 
the gravel through, which it encountered in a length 
of 300 feet; consequently, another and lower one 
was driven, which reached the gravel in a distance 
of 800 feet. Much of the quartz-gravel of the 
" white channel " was worked through this second 
tunnel ; but eventually that also had to be abandoned, 
and the one through which the workings are now 
conducted was begun. This was driven into the 
hill 7,000 feet, at which point a chocolate-colored 
cement was encountered, with no paying gravel. 
Here a shaft was sunk thirty-eight feet deep, which 
encountered rich gravel, but not of the "white 
channel." It was of an entirely difierent character, 
the rocks, pebbles, and abraded matter being of a 
dark color, with but little white quartz — some dis- 
tinct deposit from a channel not contemporaneous 
with the other. This stratum has since that time 
been designated as the " black channel." It is here 
about eighty feet lower than the " white '' or quartz 
channel. To work this it became necessary to grade 
an incline from the floor of the tunnel to the bed- 
rock of the channel, which was done, down which a 
pump-column was conducted and a car-track laid, 
and the water flowing into this lower level is pumped 
and the gravel hoisted by one large overshot wheel 
and a turbine, supplied with water from the old 
breasts and levels of the "white channel" above, 
which has been extended some 200 feet further into 
the mountain than the point where the incline begins, 
and been stoped out an average width of 500 feet. 
Upon reaching the top of the incline, the cars 
loaded with gravel are drawn out of the tunnel — a 
distance of near one and a quarter miles — by horses, 
and emptied into the large dumping receptacle at the 
head of the sluices, and washed from water flowing 
from the tunnel. Over 7,000 feet of pay-channels 
have thus been explored — the black channel for a 
width of 275 feet — and is found to yield an average 
of about one-(iuarter of an ounce of gold to the car- 
load of gravel. 

The Mountain Gate Mine, for which'a patent has 
been applied, is located in sections 14, 15, 22, 23, and 
other subdivisions of Township 15 N., Range 11 E., 
Mount Diablo Meridian; with a lineal extent along 
the east line of 9,600 feet; southern end line extend- 
ing to the line of the Hidden Treasure of Sunny 
South, 5,500 feet; western line 10,000 feet, and 
northern (or front) line of 5,500 feet, of which some 
4,000 feet along the " white " and 6,000 of the 
'• black channel " are unworkod. Since 1860 it has 
produced over 81,000,000, and has been worked prin- 
cipally by the owners, who are as follows: John H. 
Thomas, Tunis C. Broom, John B. Parker, A. B. 
Campbell, Christopher Elliott, Owen Jones, Robert 
J. Thomas, J. P. Rains, William Rowlands, William 
Brown, Jr., G. W. Snyder, J. F. Moody, J. T. Ashley 
Albert Burgess, Mrs. J. N. Lombard, D. R. Abrams, 



Nicholas Weaver, William Broom, Sr., and Mrs. Jane 
Weaver. 

Damascus, being situated upon the northern slope 
of the ridge, is subjected to deep snows in the win- 
ter, but its summer temperature is admirable. 
During the inclement season, in cases of sickness, no 
little diflicult}' is experienced in procuring the attend- 
ance of a physician, the nearest one residing some 
ten miles distant, at Iowa Hill. At one time, during 
the prevalence of a fierce snow-storm, and when the 
earth was enveloped to the depth of many feet, it 
was found after nightfall that a lady resident, the 
wife of a miner, was suff"ering with an attack of 
pneumonia, and, without relief, could not long sur- 
vive. Females were never at any time numei'ous in 
the camp, but those who were there were respecta- 
ble ones, and were all favorites with the male popu- 
lation. A physician must be had at every hazard; 
work in the tunnels for that night, at least, was 
abandoned; twenty brave men assembled, who, under 
the leadership of Gould Coker, set out in the gloom 
of night, in the blinding storm, to break a trail to 
Iowa Hill for the physician. By turns, each man 
would take the lead in the deep snow until exhausted, 
and another took his place, as, waist deep, they wal- 
lowed slowly onward through the cold, fleecy mass. 
Some time upon the following day the heroic little 
party reached Iowa Hill, and, after prevailing upon 
Dr. O. H. Petterson to accompany them, and 
refreshing themselves as best they could within a 
limited time, started upon the homevrard journey. 
This trip, though not as fatiguing as the one out, 
was in itself no child's play; for, meanwhile, the 
storm continued to rage, and the fast-falling snow 
had well-nigh obliterated the trail previously made. 
But perseverance, at length, overcame eveiy obsta- 
cle, and within thirty -six hours from the time of 
starting for the doctor, he was at the bedside of the 
suffering woman, and not too late to save her life. 
When the patient was past danger, the humane min- 
ers were again obliged to escort the doctor home, 
breaking the road much after the manner they had 
been compelled to do at first. 

The site of the village is on a steep hill-side, over- 
looking the junction of Blue Canon with the North 
Fork of the American, the gorge of Humbug Gafion, 
and a stretch of the Central Pacific Railroad bed 
near Shady Run. Many comfortable cottages, 
around which are little garden plats and orchards, 
dot the landscape; a school house, at which, during 
school months, there is an attendance of about 
twenty-five scholars, and a large hotel and store, 
owned by Owen Jones, are among the architectural 
features of the place. In March, 1880, a former 
store-house and hotel were destroyed by fire while 
the owner, Mr. Jones, was prostrated by sickness at 
Iowa Hill, entailing a loss of S8,000. A post-office 
was established and maintained for several years at 
Damascus, but was finally abolished. The regular 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



379 



population will probably not exceed 150, most of 
whom are engaged in mining operations. 

DEADWOOn. 

Deadwood is situated about seven miles above 
Michigan Bluff, across El Dorado Canon, on the 
divide between that stream and the North Poi-k of 
the Middle Fork. The altitude of Deadwood is 
nearly 4,000 feet. The wagon road leading to the 
place is circuitous, and follows up the main divide 
via Forks House (that was), Secret Springs, around 
the head of El Dorado Canon, and then down the 
narrow ridge near the point of which the place is 
located. Some hydraulic mining has been done 
here, but the principal mines are now worked 
through tunnels by drifting and washing the bottom 
stratum of gravel. In 1881 there were five claims 
thus working — all old locations. 

Gold in paying quantity was first found here in 
1852 by a party of prospectors, who, being so elated 
at their good luck, remarked to all subsequent com- 
ers, that, though heretofore they had had indifferent 
success in prospecting, now assuredly had the "dead- 
wood " upon securing a fortune. So positive were 
the first discoverers of gold in this locality of its 
richness and magnitude, that the most flattering 
accounts were circulated and a great influx of people 
resulted. There must have been at one time 500 
or 600 people congregated in the vicinitj'. Many 
substantial buildings were erected, considering its 
isolated situation, and high hopes were indulged of 
sudden wealth to be acquired. The trail from Mich- 
igan Eluft' leads into the gorge of El Dorado CaSon, 
and thence for three miles almost uninterruptedly 
up an abrupt incline. Aside from the grandeur of the 
towering hill, the awe-inspiring chasms through 
which meander the tributaries of the Middle Fork, 
and the impressive jumble of rock and foliage spread 
out at the feet of the beholder, there is but one 
singular feature of interest in the course of the 
toilsome ascent. About a half-mile before reaching 
the village there are two long, parallel walls of stone, 
some three feet apart and about three feet high, evi- 
dently the handiwork of some branch of the human 
race. For what purpose so laid, or their use, is only 
a matter of conjecture; but many of those who first 
visited the spot supposed it to have been a crematory 
for the Indian dead. In 1855 Deadwood's transient 
glory had, in a great measure, departed, and since that 
time its remaining population have been content to 
delve in the mines there for a certain, though mod- 
erate, remuneration for their toil. 

Periodically during winter come fearful storms 
of rain and snow in these high altitudes. When 
warm, and the rain thoroughly saturates the loamy 
soil that overlies the cement, it becomes dangerous 
to those who dwell below the brow of the ridge upon 
the precipitous side-hills, for an occeasional ava- 
lanche is loosened from near the summit's crest, which 
sweeps everything before it. In December, 1860, 



on one side of the hill, about one-fourth of a mile 
below the village stood the house of A. J. Felch, 
occupied by himself, wife, and boy, aged eight, 
named William. On Christmas eve, while father and 
son were sitting in the house before a comfortable 
fire (Mrs. Felsh fortunately being absent), all at 
once the roar which precedes the approaching land- 
slide smote upon their ears. Before it was possible 
to get out of doors, the avalanche struck the build- 
ing, and crash ! it went, apparently carrying away 
inmates and all! Not so, however, for soon Mr. 
Felch became conscious that he was still alive! 
though cut, bruised, and bleeding from contact with 
falling timbers. Bat where was the boy ? A plain- 
tive call from the father elicited no response. Dead, 
mangled and swept away into the fierce-raging 
chasm below! thought the poor, wounded, agonized 
father; but he would search for the lost one. Prov- 
identially, some oak trees to which portions of the 
building had been attached had withstood the 
onslaught of the moving mass, and, under the pro- 
tecting lee of these, there yet remained debris of the 
household wreck. Digging among this the father 
found his boy, unharmed. That either escaped, is 
little less than a miracle. 

At that time, December, 1860, the ditch conveying 
water to Deadwood was owned by David Davis and 
John Williams, Welchmen. On the 24th of that 
month, during the prevalence of a tremendous snow- 
storm, they both started up the ditch, declaring 
they would bring the water down therein before 
they returned. They were never seen again alive. 
Parties went out to search after the storm subsided, 
and, on the 5th of January, 1861. the body of Wil- 
liams was discovered in the ditch, where, having 
sank in exhaustion, he had folded his arms upon his 
breast and died. Tracks of animals leading to the 
body caused its discoverj% and exposed portions of 
the corpse had been mutilated by the ravenous 
beasts. The Masonic fraternity consigned the 
remains to their final resting place at Michigan 
Bluft'. About two months after that time the body 
of Davis was found, and was buried by the Masons 
at Todd's Valley. 

DUTCH FLAT. 

This place is situated in the northeastern part of 
the county, upon the ridge which divides the waters 
of Bear Eiver from those of the North Fork of the 
American, thirty-one miles from Auburn, and dates 
back in the annals of time to the year 1851. 

Joseph Doranbach has the honor of being called 
the first settler, having located there in the spring of 
that year. The name " Dutch " is derived, perhaps, 
from the nationality of Mr. Doranbach and those 
who were his companions at the time, but it is diflS- 
cult to conceive of why "Flat" should be added in 
giving the name to the then embryo town, except 
it is to fully carry out and demonstrate the Califor- 
nian custom of perverting names. In 1854, the 



3S0 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY. CALIFORNIA. 



place was considered, by persons then thought to be 
visionary individuals, of sufficient importance as a 
mining locality to warrant the construction of a 
water-ditch to convej' the waters of Bear River upon 
the tops of the ridges for mining purposes. This 
gave quite an impetus to the settlement of the place, 
and it continued to increase in population and import- 
ance. In November, 1855, a post-office was estab- 
lished, with Charles Seifens as Postmaster. In May, 
1859, it was one of the first towns of the county in 
|)opulation. After the completion of the Bradley, 
or Placer County Canal, from the North Fork of 
ibe American, and the Bartlett & Thomas Ditch, 
from Little Bear River, in 1859 and '60, the town 
steadily increased, until, in 1860, its voting popula- 
tion was larger than that of any other town in the 
county, having polled at the Presidential election of 
that year over 500 votes. Since then the number 
of votes has decreased, but the permanent popula- 
tion has gained, and now it is next to Auburn in 
importance. The Dutch Flat Enquirer, a weekly 
newspaper, made its first importance May 29, 1860, 
and for a number of years was published regularly. 
The Enquirer was followed by the Forum, which in 
turn has been succeeded by the Placer Times. 

This is one of the principal and best-known mining 
localities of California, the system of hydraulic min- 
ing being carried on very extensively. The hill of 
gravel denominated Dutch Fiat is somewhat isolated, 
presenting three sides to the attack of the hydraulic, 
and overlooks Bear River, which runs along its 
northern base, about 1,200 feet below the crest of 
the hill. The gravel deposit is about one and a half 
miles in length by half a mile in width, and from 
100 to 350 feet in depth. Gold is found throughout 
the gravel, but there is a thick stratum of pipe-clay 
barren of the precious metal. Beds of ashes, char- 
coal, and partly charred wood are found in places 
beneath a hundred or more feet of gravel. The 
formation exposes a very interesting field for the 
geologist. A large number of mining companies are 
engaged here, and the product has been many mil- 
lions of dollars. In addition to the ditches stated, 
the South Yuba Canal supplies about 3,000 inches 
from the South Yuba River. The mining district 
embraces Elmore Hill, Indian Hill, and others of 
local name, besides Dutch Flat. In this district are 
a large number of mining companies, and the opera- 
tions are very extensive and interesting. The Cedar 
Creek Company, purchasing several properties in 
1872, was one of the most extensive. It was an 
English corporation, with a capital stock of £200,- 
000. During its most prosperous condition, there 
were 150 men employed. The capacity of its main 
ditch was 5,000 inches, the greater portion of which 
was used in operating its claims, the principal of 
which were the Pacific, the Central, Jehosophat, 
Homo Ticket, half of the Gold Run, and the Gem. 
The property altogether consisted of thirty-two 
claims, comprising about 200 acres of mining ground. 



The drill and machinery in use >y this company 
cost $12,000. The property, after having lain idle 
for about three years, owing to certain complications, 
fell into the hands of Mr. J. P. Hickey, of San Fran- 
cisco, in April, 1881, whose intention is to work it 
extensively and systematically. 

Like other towns of California, Dutch Flat has 
suffered much from fires. The most recent occurred 
on the 22d of October, 1881, when its Chinese quarter 
was burned, involving a loss of about 830,000. Some 
sixty buildings were burned, generally of a poor 
quality. These, although occupied by Chinese, were 
generally owned by white people. 

In 1860, a company was organized to construct a 
wagon road from Dutch Flat to the eastern slope, to 
accommodate the travel then beginning to flow over 
the mountains to the silver mines of Nevada. Two 
roads were subsequently constructed, and for several 
years the town profited by the large travel through 
it. In July, 1866, the Central Pacific Railroad 
reached the vicinity of the town, and soon passing 
on, making Cisco the depot of passengers and fi-eight, 
and business relapsed to its former dependence on 
the resources of its neighborhood. 

Dutch Flat is situated high up in the mountains, 
has an unlimited supply of water from pure mountain 
spi'ings, and timber abundant and convenient. In 
consequence of its elevated position, the town is 
regarded as a pleasant place for summer residence, 
its altitude being about 3,400 feet above the sea-level. 
Its climate is subject to great changes. Snow falls 
at times to considerable depth in the winter and 
spring months, but the summers are warm and 
exceedingly pleasant. At this elevation, tender 
fruits, such as the lemon and orange, are not raised; 
but the pear, peach, cherry, and apple, the black- 
berry, raspberry, grape, currant, and gooseberry 
grow in great perfection; so that the citizens are not 
dependent on the valleys for their supplies. 

The principal street, whereon are located nearly 
all the business houses, is Main Street. The general 
appearance of the private residences and places of 
business is neat and tasty, which speaks well for the 
culture and thrift of its inhabitants. The town at 
present supports one newspaper — the Placer Times — 
owned and published by W. A. Wheeler, Esq., and is 
issued eveiy Thursday. There are three churches, 
one school house, a number of dry goods and gro- 
cery stores, one drug store, hotel, livery stable, one 
fire company, and one brewery, besides the usual 
quota of lawyers, doctors, etc. Its secret societies 
number five — Masons, Odd Fellows, Red Men, Good 
Templars, and Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
The Masons and Odd Fellows each have a fine hall. 
The Ancient Order of United Workmen use the 
Odd Fellows Hall for their meetings. 

The society is good, owing to the settled and reli- 
able character of the mining interests, and business 
men find a substantial and legitimate trade; conse 
quentlj', they gather their families around them. 






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"FA/RVIEW place" RESI DENCE OF H.A.FROST DUTCH flat. 

PLACE,'! COC ,VT>' C^L 







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RESIDENCE OF H.R.HUDEPOHL 

nOTCH riJT. PLACEf\ CO.,CAl. 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



381 



Numerous pleasant homes cover the hill-sides, and 
evidences of taste and refinement are abundant. 

HENRY A. FROST. 

The subject of this biographical notice is a native 
of Massachusetts, having been born at New Bedford, 
Bristol County, May 15, 1830. Mr. Frost, through 
the visitation of the hand of death, lost his father 
in infancy, and, at the age of twelve years, was left 
an orphan by the death of his mother. This changed 
the course of his life, and he removed to the State of 
Vermont, where he remained until his eighteenth 
year, at which time he returned to his native 
State. During the succeeding twelve years, he was 
engaged in mechanical and agricultural pursuits at 
Worcester, in Worcester County. In the lall of 1861, 
he came to California by way of the Isthmus of 
Panama, landing in San Francisco in the month of 
December. lie made no stay in the city, but came 
immediately to Placer County, and during that win- 
ter remained at Gold Eun. In the Spring of 1862, 
he located at his present place, near Dutch Flat, 
where he has since resided. During the first ten 
years of his residence in this State, he followed 
mining, but of late has been engaged in agriculture 
in connection tlierewith. 

In Mr. Frost we do not find a '-IDer, though his 
twenty years residence in this State gives him the 
right to the title of an " old settler." He has been 
twice married, his first wife departing this life in 
June, 1878. In June, 1881, he was married to Mrs. 
S. A. Waggoner, a native of Illinois, but more 
recently from Nevada County, in this State. 

HERMAN R. HDDEPOHL. 

This gentleman is a native of Hanover, Germany, 
and was born March 30, 1823. He remained with 
his parents until he reached his sixteenth year, when 
he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, and, in due time, 
mastered that trade. Dui-ing eight years succeeding, 
he worked at his trade in different cities in the old 
world. In 1848 he came to America, and located at 
Cincinnati, Ohio, where he followed his trade until 
1854. In the last-named year, he came to Califor- 
nia by way of the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in 
San Francisco late in the month of March. After a 
few days sojourn in the city, he came to Placer 
County, and located at Dutch Flat, and for six 
months was a miner. From that time until 1865 he 
worked at his trade, and during that year he 
embarked in the dry goods business, which he has 
since successfully followed. His stock is one of the 
most complete in the town, embracing a full lino of 
dry and fancy goods, clothing, etc. 

Ho was married April 5, 1865, in Sacramento, to 
Miss Catherine E. Power, a native of New York 
City. By this union there were three children, two 
girls, aged, in 1881, fourteen and ten years, and on© 
son, aged twelve years. Mrs. Uudepohl died March 8, 
1875. 



Was located on the Auburn Itavino, about tvvo miles 
below Ophir. It was first settled in 184D. Only a 
few houses were built, but the miners were in the 
habit of using the place as supply head-quarters. 
There was a general merchandise store, kept by 
Messrs. Fry & Bruce, which supplied the miners in 
the immediate vicinity with the necessaries of life. 
The town received its name from the senior partner 
in the firm. It was one of those mushroom towns 
which sprang into existence and soon died. But 
" 'twas lively while it lasted." 

DUNCAN CANON. 

This stream is an important confluent of the 
Middle Fork of the Middle Fork of the American, 
and rises pretty well up toward the western summit 
of the Sierra, between the main North Fork and 
Picayune Valley. It was never noted for its gold 
product, and to-day, by reason of its undisturbed 
condition, its clear, pellucid water, the tangled mat 
of undergrowth upon its flats, and noble forest trees 
growing adjacent to its unscarified banks, it reminds 
the "old-timer" more of the primitive days than 
almost any other stream of like magnitude in the 
mountains. James W. Marshall says that it derived 
its name from Thomas Duncan, who came to the 
country overland, in 1848, from Missouri, in the 
train of Captain Winter, and who entered California 
via the road, or mountain trail rather, diverging 
from American Valley, and following down the ridge 
south of the North Fork. 

In the fall of 1850, Antoine and other eafions in 
that locality having been slightly worked, and con- 
siderable gold of a coarse character exhibited, which 
had been taken therefrom, naturally the attention 
of gold-seekers was directed thither, and persons 
who had been there were eagerly sought, and the 
oracular knowledge they dispensed was readilj' 
" taken in " by credulous inquirers. No tale was 
too extravagant; however palpable the canard, there 
were always more to believe than to doubt. The 
chronicler hereof remembers well how, in the 
spring of 1849, when one of the pioneer mail steam- 
ers of the Pacific Coast entered the harbor of 
Panama upon her first return trip, the city was 
thronged with Americans, who bad onlj' purchased 
tickets to the isthmus and were unable to get 
further. There were still doubts as to the reputed 
richness of the gold mines, and a thousand anxious 
and excited interviewers stood upon the shore, ready 
to make prisoners of those who landed. Two bravo 
sailors becoming thus corralod, and finding escape 
impossible, edified the crowd with yarns that did 
credit to their imaginative powers, satisfied their 
listeners, and disillumined the brilliancy of Alladin's 
Lamp. Exhibiting a buckskin bag which evidently 
contained nuggets, one of them said: " Whj', look 
here, it's no trouble to get gold anywhere in Califor- 
nia; it's all over — everywhere! Just after we loft 



382 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



tlie port of San Francisco, the mate set mo to clean- 
ing the anchor which wo had just hove up, and see! 
here's over §200 that I panned out from tho mud 
1 scraped otf the flukes!" and the crowd believed 
him — for why should they doubt ? 

In nice manner did Tom Duncan regale the senses 
of a crowd of minors who happened to be at work 
near him on Shirt-tail Canon, late in tho fall of 1850. 
Ho had, in coining into tho country, traversed tho 
region where Antoino Canon flowed; more than that, 
he had found digging.^ in a creek, but never stopped 
to work thorn, nor had he ever been back to them 
since. Could he find them for a consideration ? 
Most assuredly. Thereupon a company of select 
spirits entered into a compact with Tom, that he 
would pilot them to the spot. Furnishing him with 
a horse, the party started out in quest of tho favorite 
spot, which Duncan declared he had been to two 
yeai's before. Reaching tho vicinity, the canons all 
looked so much alike that Tom couldn't strike the 
right spot; member-* of the company canvassed the 
matter; the guide had either lied to them or was 
'■throwing oif" for a bettor thing — each offense 
deserving capital punishment. Tom was distrusted. 
At night he was placed under guard, and he must 
soon show the place ho had contracted to do, or be 
shot. While camped in the bed of a certain canon, 
near its head, the guide led the party to the northern 
side of the ridge, overlooking tho North Fork of tho 
American River above Sailor Bar. Here were some 
small flats and ponds, where gold enough was found 
to induce a relaxation of vigilance, to the extent 
that no guard was placed over Du;ican tho following 
night. Tho next morning's sun rose in the canon 
upon a decimated camp. Tom Duncan and a male 
had gone ! The party afterward found the mule at 
Todd's Valley, but Tom Duncan they never saw 
again. He had sought new diggings out of reach of 
his late companions — while as a remembrance, they 
christened tho stream upon which they had camped, 
Duncan's Canon — and thus it goes down to history. 

FORT TROJAN. 

This peculiarly-named town was located on tho 
Auburn Ravine, about three miles from tho present 
town of Lincoln. It does not date back in its history 
to tho days of '-19, but roaches only to the year 1838. 
It was lively until the starting of the town of Lin- 
coln, when the business was transferred to that 
place. There was a hotel kept by Jerry Henderson, 
who was also postmaster for the town ; xMills & Evans 
had a general merchandise store; Gray & Philipps 
had a moat market, and Peter Fritchard had a 
blacksmith shop. There were two saloons, one 
owned by Honcycut & Hoffman, and the other by 
E. A. Gibson. James Beck was Justice of the Peace, 
and James Berg was Constable. There is nothing 
left to denote tho existence of this town, except tho 
memories of the men who wei'o familiar with the 



facts. Tho common appellation given the place by 
the miners was " Fort Toejam." 

JAMES W. CHINN. 

This gentleman was tho third son of Robert and 
Sidney Chinn, who were natives of Loudon 
County, Virginia. James W. was born at Rich- 
mond, Virginia, December 28, 1822. He remained 
in his native city until he was sixteen years 
of age, at which time ho removed to Baltimore, 
Maryland, and was engaged in a wholesale dry 
goods establishment. About one and one-half years 
were spent in this place, when he went to Zanes- 
ville, Ohio, and was first a clerk, and then pro- 
prietor, in his adopted business until 1849. The 
excitement incident to the discovery of gold in 
California attracted his attention, and he joined 
tho throng who were rushing to the scene of battle 
for wealth on the Pacific Coast. On the 28th of 
August, 1850, he arrived at " Hangtown," now 
Placerville, in El Dorado County, after a long and 
tedious trip across tho plains. From Hangtown 
Mr. Chinn went to Sacramento, and then came to 
Placer County, and for a few weeks was in Auburn 
Ravine. His next move was to Nevada County, 
where he arrived in October, 1850. He was in that 
county until September, 1851, when ho came again 
to Placer and located at Ophir. In 1852 Mr. Chinn 
opened a store and sold miners' supplies, until Sep- 
tember, 1854. In tho fall of the last-named year 
ho opened a store at Dotan's Bar, on the American 
River, and was agent for Wells, Fargo & Co.'s 
Express. In 1856 he was elected a Supervisor of 
Placer County. During the latter year he removed 
to Nevada County and opened a store at Woolsy 
Flat, and another at Moore's Flat. In 1859 Mr. 
Chinn was elected Treasurer of Nevada County on 
the Democratic ticket, and hold the office one term. 
In 1861 he entered the dry goo.is business in 
Nevada City, which ho continued about two years, 
when he went to San Francisco and remained 
until 1866. During the summer of tho latter year 
he came again to Placer County and located at 
Iowa Hill, which has since been his home. Mr. 
Chinn has always been an active business man, 
and is to-day reckoned as one of the lively men 
of the county. Ho is tho postmaster of his town, 
and in connection therewith carries on a banking 
business, his purchases of gold-dust averaging about 
8200,000 per year. Ho is also agent for Wells, Fargo 
& Co. 

He was married January 26, 1863, at San Fran- 
cisco, to Miss Lizzie Jessup, a native of New York 
State. Four children live to bless their union, three 
girls and one boy. 

ORAY HORSE CANON. 

High up on tho Rubicon there occurs quite a flat 
stretch of grass land, in great contrast with the 
general cbaractoristics of that usuallj' rapid, rocky, 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



383 



and naiTOW gorge. For a mile and a half the 
river winds sluggishly along through a tussocky 
bottom, a quarter of a mile wide, where thei'e is 
splendid pasturage, and at the sides of which are 
many deer licks, occasioned by the exudations of 
salts, of which the animals are fond, from the bor- 
dering ledges. This place is much frequented in 
the summer and fiill by Indians, fi-om the trans- 
mountain tribes, who come over from the eastern 
slope of the Sierra, and in season and out of season 
remorselessly slay deer of all ages, sexes, and con- 
ditions, without regard to game laws or common 
decency. Near the head of this flat, from the 
north, comes in Gray Horse Caiion, once known as 
Big Valley. During the prospecting excitement 
which resulted in the discovery of the Squaw Val- 
ley mines, the original pariy looking for the place, 
during their peregrinations, happened into Big Val- 
ley, and camped. Upon packing up to depart, an 
old gray horse used for suniptei'ing '-threw up," and 
in his antics " bucked " the camp equippage with 
which he was loaded off, and scattered the traps 
around promiscuously over a great extent of terri- 
tory, to the gi-eat annoyance and inconvenience of 
the prospectors. Hence its present name, in com- 
memoration of the frisky disposition of the old gray 
horse. 

Gray Horse Valley is a fine grazing locality, and 
is claimed by George Taverner, of Cosumnes Town- 
ship, Sacramento County, who uses it as a summer 
pasture for sheep. For about three miles the valley 
is from 300 to 400 yards wide. It was first claimed 
by John and George Hunsucker. Five-lake Creek, 
American Valley Creek, Gray Horse, Bear, and 
Squaw Creeks all head in one range of mountains, 
and quite near each other — the two latter running 
into the Truckee, while the waters of the others 
run toward the Pacific. Fire Lake Creek comes 
into the Eubicon above Gray Horse, and between 
the two is a large and exceedingly rocky point. 
During the wagon road excitements, when the 
Geoi'getown party were out in search of a practi- 
cable route to Washoe, two members of the expe- 
dition — W. S. Montague and John W. McKinnej' — 
took a stroll upon this rocky ridge. Eattlesnakes 
were numerous then in that region, almost any- 
where, for the sheej) had not, at that time, driven 
them to cover, as now-a-days, and the two men 
named did not mind an occasional rattler in their 
pathway; but upon this particular promontory they 
began to be too frequent for either safety or com- 
fort of feeling, and when about passing a crevice 
in a rock, which was about two feet wide, they 
were stopped by the most wonderful spectacle. It 
was literally filled with twisting, writhing, seal}-, 
mottled serpents — a veritable den of monsters such 
as they had never before conceived the existence 
of. They had revolvers, and McKinnoy proposed 
firing a few shots into the mass. This they did; 
but then there arose guch a horrid stench, to which 



the thousand odors of Cologne were as otto of rosos, 
that the attacking party were forced to beat a 
retreat, vomiting as they went. McKinney swears 
to this day that there were not less than four solid 
cords of rattlesnakes in that single crevice. 

HUMBCG CANON. 

The above-named stream is one of the earliest 
placers worked, and empties into the South Branch 
of the North Fork of the American, from the south, 
a short distance above its junction with Blue Canon 
at Euchre Bar. It heads at the base of the grand 
gravel ridge, upon which are located the Mountain 
Gate and adjoining mines, having several branches, 
and was first explored early in 18-50. In February 
of that year L. P. Burnham, now a resident of 
Damascus; Kobert E. Draper, who subsequently 
lived a long time in El Dorado County, and at 
Aurora, Nevada, at which latter place he figured in 
a duel with Dr. Eichelroth, and a man -by the name 
of Kirkpatrick, were among the crowd who first 
rushed, during the pleasant weather which at that 
time prevailed and gave promise of an early open- 
ing of spring, to the locality of Bird's Valley and 
Michigan Bluff. Snow covered the ridges, and the 
water in the main streams was so high that but 
little mining was done there then , which circumstances 
caused a feeling of restlessness to pervade the 
minds of the nomadic pi'ospectors, and these three 
men concluded to "strike out " in seai-ch of other 
diggings. Therefore, the same month, they mounted 
snow-shoes, left camp at the future-to-be Michigan 
City, and boldly turned their footsteps toward the 
unknown region to the northeastward. Arriving at 
the head of a canon which ran toward the North 
Fork, after a weary journey of some eighteen or 
twenty miles, they proceeded down it to where 
another branch came in, the two forming quite a 
large stream within a deep gorge. Here they 
camped, and, upon prospecting, found gold sufficient 
in quantity to induce them to locate claims. As it 
was of importance enough to do this, a proposal was 
made that a name be given it, and the three pioneers 
having all emigrated to California from Mississippi — 
though none wei"C natives of that State but Kirkpat- 
rick — they bestowed upon the stream the name of 
Mississippi Canon. A few days work, however, 
seems to have disgusted them, for thereafter they 
shouldered their blankets and climbed the hill, with 
the intention of returning to the place from whence 
they started. After leaving their camp in the canon, 
and while toiling up the steep mountain side, Kirkpat- 
rick, in an interval while resting in the ascent, gave 
expression to his disgust by saying: '• Pshaw, hasn't 
an}' gold of any account, it's a regular humbug, and 
instead of Mississippi we'd better call it Humbug 
Canon." 

Just as the throe men had scaled the precipitous 
sides of the canon, and were fairly setting out on 
their return journey down the ridge, human voices 



384 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



were heard, and soon after human forms descried 
approaching them. The new-comers proved to be a 
party of men following up their trail, supposing they 
had discovered rich diggings. No declarations upon 
the part of the three could deter the new party from 
going ahead; the more the three endeavored to per- 
suade them that the canon was a " humbug," the 
more determined were the interlopers that they 
were upon the portals leading to great wealth, and 
into the canon thej' would descend. This determin- 
ation on the part of the last party re-enthused the 
hopes of the first, and they, too, would return and 
define the boundaries of their claims. Consequently 
all went into the canon, when the following day a 
mining district was organized, and rules and regula- 
tions were adopted. At the meeting held, Robert 
E. Draper was chosen to act as Secretary, and in his 
written minutes of the proceedings occurred the fol- 
lowing words: '■ At a meeting of the xamem of Humbug 
Canon, held this — day of February, 1850," etc., 
which have ineffacably attached themselves to the 
place, to the entire obliteration of the primal cogno- 
men of Mississippi. Subsequent workings have 
proven the banks and bed of the canon to be rich — 
no humbug — it having been washed over several 
times, and at each time producing large amounts of 
gold. 

Johnson's ranch. 

Among the many camps that sprang into existence 
in this county during the few years subsequent to 
the discovery of gold in California, was the one 
known as Johnson's Crossing, or Johnson's Ranch. 
The spot where the little town once stood is still 
there, but the inhabitants have all sought other 
fields for their labors. There was a bridge across 
Bear River at this place, and it was a stopping-place 
for the many teams engaged in hauling freights from 
Sacramento to the mines in the upper country. In 
1852 there was a small hotel kept by a man named 
John Shuster, and soon after that the town com- 
menced to flourish. It was located about twenty- 
five miles northwest from Auburn, which was the 
principal town in the county at that time. Mr. 
Young Dougherty, now a resident of Sheridan, and 
from whom the information regarding the place was 
received, pitched bis tent there in 1852, and the 
next year built his house. In 1856 there were about 
thirty dwelling-houses and the usual number of 
business places. Wm. O'Rear was the first post- 
master, and was appointed in 1854. He also kept a 
hotel. 

The place at one time had a population of over 
100, and supported two blacksmith shops, two stores, 
and also a couple of saloons. It was a voting pre- 
cinct and often polled as high as 150 votes, though 
the voters came in from the surrounding country. 

Among the earliest settlers were Claude Chana, 
who came there as early as 1846. After him came 
John Shuster, Wm. B. Campbell, John Swearer, A. 



H. Estell, Joseph Rears, Philip Tracy, Dr. Gray, Dr. 
Esmond, John Boone, Dennis Neugent, Harrison 
Kimball, Young Dougherty, and others. 

In the year 1862 the floods nearly destroj-ed the 
place, and then came the debris from the hj'draulic 
mines higher up on the river, and now there is not 
a vestige of this lively little town left visible. The 
deer and bear run wild over the site of the town. 
The real cause of the desertion of the place was the 
debris from up the river. 

MANZANITA GROVE. 

This remarkable spot claims a place in the history 
of the county in which it lies. It is situated about 
half-way between the towns of Lincoln and Sheri- 
dan, and contains about fifteen acres. The place 
gained notoriety in early days from the fact of its 
being a stronghold for thieves, who had a corral near 
the center of the grove, where they kept their stolen 
stock until an opportunity presented itself to drive 
it to the country lying south. The name i-< derived 
from the manzanita bushes growing there, which 
were much more numerous in the early days than 
now. Quite a number remain, though the grove is 
composed mostly of oak. In 1855, some one con- 
ceived the idea of turning this place into a burial- 
ground, and there are at the present time several 
hundred people buried within the enclosure. The 
first one was buried in the last-named year, in the 
spring. His name was Wynan. There are some 
monuments that would grace some of the fine cem- 
etei'ies in large cities. The towns of Lincoln, Sheri- 
dan, and even Wheatland, furnish subjects to pop- 
ulate this city of the dead. It is a very picturesque 
spot, and will always remain as a monument to per- 
petuate the memory of the dead. It is cared for by 
an annual subscription. 

NEWTOWN. 

This, like others of its class, has ceased to exist as 
a place of habitation. It was located on a side 
ravine that terminated in what was known as Doty's 
Ravine, and was started about the year 1855. The 
population increased to about one hundred. The 
claims paid big, but it was what they called a 
"spotted" location, and " once j'ou find it and twice 
you don't." The town was about five miles north- 
oast of the present town of Lincoln. Not a house is 
left to mark the spot where so many miners found 
employment in days gone bj-. There was a largo 
hotel called the " CardiUion House," owned and run 
by a man named CardiUion; another was run by 

Webdell. Neidihut & OTeele kept a large 

grocery store, and another was kept by John Barnes. 
There was a saloon and dance-hall, owned by Ezra 
Newell, and a livery stable, by Wm. Johnson. 

GRIZZLY FLAT. 

The mining camp of Grizzly Flat is situated 
directly cast of Wisconsin Hill, at the head of Griz- 
zly Ca&on. 






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STORE OFA.A.POND 8<, CO.TODDS VALLEY. 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



38o 



In 1855-56 this camp had a population of fifty 
people, tho mining ground consisted of nearly forty 
acres. The gold was course, and was taken out by 
the handful, and the whole flat was honey-combed 
with drifts and tunnels. Every minor made some- 
thing, and many made fortunes. After the flat had 
been worked out, a company of a dozen minors, who 
had been successful, was formed to prospect the 
northerly branch. The name of the company was 
the Rough and Kcady. A long tunnel was con- 
structed of several hundred feet in length, from a 
point down the canon, which cut through the rim- 
rock of the basin, and drained the claim to a 
certain depth. A steam-engine was purchased, and 
a large pump put in operation. 

The company worked with constant internal dis- 
scntions, until the year 1865, when the members 
mutually separated, and the claim was abandoned. 

Upon the dissolution of the old Rough and Ready 
Company, in 1865, Messrs. Little & Hazelroth, of Griz- 
zly Flat, obtained a possessory title to the tunnel 
claim ; but, not having the capital to successfully carry 
on the work, a new company was incorporated in 
1878, under the name of tho Eclipse Company. This 
company paid Mr. Hazelroth and tho heirs of Mr. 
Little 82,000 for their possessory title. They also 
obtained title from the Government for 171 acres 
of mining ground. 



Is situated in the valley of tho Sacramento, bordering 
the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, near where 
Auburn Ravine debouches upon the plain, being 
nearly directly west of Auburn, and fourteen miles 
distant in a direct line, or twenty-nine miles by rail. 
It is on the line of the California and Oregon Rail- 
road, ten miles from its junction with the Central 
Pacific. The place was named in honor of Charles 
Lincoln Wilson, the builder of the California Central 
Railroad, which was completed to this point October 
31, 1861. Tho first settlement was made in 1859 by 
John Chapman, G. Gray, John Ziegenbein, E. A. 
Gibson, and Camron & Ballinger following soon after. 
In the years 1862-63, the town was very pros- 
perous, having at that time between 400 and 500 
inhabitants, and from four to eight stages making 
daily trips from Lincoln. 

The section of country surrounding Lincoln is 
decidedly- agricultural, and is especially noted for its 
certainty of crops. Excellent fruit is raised here, and 
apples of superior quality. Mr. J. R. Nickerson, 
the pioneer fruit-raiser, exhibited at San Francisco 
in 1865, at the Mechanics' Institute Fair, 223 varieties 
of apples, for which he received a high testimonial 
from the committee. 

The Lincoln Winery, conducted by Stephen D. 
Burdge, is an industrial feature which will probably 
grow into considerable importance as a more extended 
knowledge obtains of California's vintage. It was 
established in 1880, by the proprietor, who learned 



the business of wine-making in Italy, in 1828 and 
tho time intervening to 1835, going there from tho 
United States for that purpose. Mr. Burdge came 
to Placer County in 1850, and has never considered 
any other place than the locality about Lincoln his 
homo since, as he soon after settled about four miles 
from tho present site of the town, upon the place 
originally located by Kinsly and Copeland, but now 
owned by George D. Aldrich, on Doty's Ravine. 
Mr. Burdge made wine as early as 1851 from grapes 
grown on the Hock Farm. In 1852 he obtained at 
the farm, from General Sutter, a lot of cuttings — the 
General being loth to part with Ibem then, as they 
were scarce — which he set out upon the Kinsly and 
Copeland place, he having purchased it from thom 
for i?6,000. In 1854, his cuttings had done so well, 
that he was enabled that season to make a small 
quantity of wine from grapes grown upon the young 
vines. 

The wine manufactured at the Lincoln Wincrj- is 
entirely the product of the mission grape, denomi- 
nated Hock by the proprietor, with a beautiful 
amber color, fine flavor and bouquet, and finds ready 
market. But 2,000 gallons wore made in 1881. The 
vintage of 1882 is expected to produce 30,000 gallons. 

The discovery of excellent beds of coal in 1873, 
has contributed to bringing Lincoln into prominence. 
The Lincoln coal mine, situated a short distance 
from the depot, was discovered in 1873, a description 
of which can bo found on page 213 of this volume. 

The Clipper Coal Mine was discovered in June, 

1874, by J. D. B. Cook. The propertj- has changed 
hands several times, arid is now owned by John 
Landers, of Wheatland. In March. 1875, Mr. Glad- 
ding, the senior member of the firm of Gladding, 
iMcBean & Co., tho present owners of the pottery, 
being on this coast, took some of the clay found in 
the Lincoln coal mine to Chicago, where he had 
Formerly been in business. The sample proved 
suitable for sower pipe and that class of goods; a 
company was soon formed, and in the same year, 

1875, he returned and erected a building 11(1x45 feet, 
with an engine at one side. The main building is 
now 216x45 feet; another built recently is 135x30 
feet. There are five kilns where the pipe is burned; 
the engine is sixty-horse power, with two boilers. 
All the machinery was made in Ohio, and is of the 
most modern kind. About thirty-five men and boys 
are employed constantly; the principal manufacture 
is sewer pipe, but in connection with this they make 
well-pipes, chimney-tops, flower-pots, lawn-vases, 
and ornaments of all descriptions. 

The present population of Lincoln is about 300, 
and at the elections about 170 votes are polled. 
There is one drug store, one express office, two 
hotels, two grocery stores, one dry goods store, 
three blacksmith shops, one butcher shop, one tele- 
graph office, one bakery, five saloons, two doctors, 
one lawyer, one notary public, and two school teach- 
ers. There are two churches, one built in 1864 and 



386 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



afterwards sold for taxes, and bought by the citizens 
of the town, who opened it as a free church, 
allowing anybody to preach. A Catholic Church was 
built in 1880, in which services are held regularly. 
There is one school house, built of wood, with a seat- 
ing capacity of about eighty. Two teachers are 
employed. The buildings in Lincoln are mainly of 
wood, there being several of brick. The people are 
supplied with water by a reservoir that is connected 
with the Bear River Ditch Company, and the water 
is distributed through the town in pipes. Several 
disastrous fires have occurred here. In October, 
1867, the large flouring-mill of Messrs. Ziegenbein, 
Heffner & Co. was destroyed, with a loss of about 
$30,000. October 12, 1875, a fire occurred which 
destroyed a livery stable, blacksmith shop, and 
meat market. Another fire occurred March 30, 
1876, which destroyed the Logan Livery Stable, 
together with all its contents, consisting of eleven 
horses, all the buggies, harness, and saddles, the 
stock of feed, etc. 

PETEE AHART 

Was born in Germany June 27, 1833, and when but 
twelve years of age left his native home for the 
great Republic of the West, arriving in the United 
States in May, 1845, with his father, his mother 
dying on the voyage. His father, George Ahart, 
settled in Missouri, and died in 1866. Mr. Peter 
Ahart came to California in 1852, and engaged in 
mining, which ho followed successfully until 1857, 
when ho bought the farm he now occupies at Lin- 
coln, Placer County. For some years he pursued 
the business of raising and dealing in cattle, which 
be continued for a period of fifteen years, when he 
turned his attention more particularly to the culti- 
vation of his farm and the raising of sheep, in 
which profitable business he is now engaged. 

Mr. Ahart is a member of Valley Lodge of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is highly 
respected in the community in which he lives. On 
the 9th of May, 1861, he was married by the Rev. 
Mr. Winters, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
to Miss Ursula Prudence Ragsdale. daughter of 
William B. and Sarah W. Ragsdale, and the happy 
family occupy the pleasant home shown in the 
accompanying illustration. The farm of Mr. Ahart 
coraprisHS the extensive area of 2,200 acres, being 
almost enough for a Dukedom in the land of his 
nativity. Here in the fertile valley of the Sacra- 
mento his broad acres spread out miles in extent, 
of some of the finest land in the world, showing 
a wealth that could be acijuircd by the unaided 
efforts of man in but few other countries than Cali- 
fornia. 

ISAAC STONECIPHER. 

Isaac Stonecipher, now a resident of Lincoln, 
was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on 
the 5th of November, 1819. Leaving Pittsburg on 
the 14th of January, 1850, for California, via the 



Isthmus of Panama, at New York he purchased a 
ticket for passage through, the connecting steamer 
on the Pacific to be the Monumental City. Arriving 
at Panama, that mythical vessel never came, and 
after remaining three weeks in suspense concluded 
to wait no longer. The whale ship Rowenn in the 
meantime came in and fitted up for passengers, and 
in her he embarked upon the Pacific side. Not 
long after the vessel went to sea an epidemic broke 
out, which prostrated many of the passengers, and 
before the ship reached Acapulco, in Mexico, thir- 
teen had died and been cast overboard. Here the 
Captain of the Eowena determined to leave his sick 
passengers, and Mr. Stonecipher, being one of these, 
was taken ashore. Partially recovering, when the 
steamer Win/ieM Scott came in, eight days after, he 
was enabled to procure passage on her, and arrived 
in San Francisco April 30, 1851. On the Ist of 
^lay he arrived at Auburn, and has continuously 
resided in Placer County ever since. 

SHERIDAN. 

The village of Sheridan, named in honor of Gen. 
Phil. Sheridan, is situated near the southwestern 
portion of Placer County, in township 13 north, 
range 5 oast. Mount Diablo meridian, twenty 
miles northwest of Auburn, or thirty-six miles by 
rail; is a station on the Oregon Division of the Cen- 
tral Pacific Railroad; is the trading point for a con- 
siderable population of farmers and stock-raisers, 
who occupy lands and grazing ranges surround- 
ing it, and is the only place in the county which 
has at this time in operation a flouring-mill. With 
a public school, several trading establishments, 
post and express oflSce. and one hotel, it is quite a 
thriving little town. The locality was first settled 
upon in 1855, by Mr. E. C. Rogers, and soon after 
came Mr. Young Dougherty. 

The flouring-mill was built in 1870, under the pat- 
ronage of the late Mark Hopkins, for Daniel Click, 
who has ever since its construction boon the man- 
ager, and is now its owner. The motive power is 
steam; the fuel, wood, being hauled from the foot- 
hills, some six or eight miles distant in an easterly 
direction. The water used is obtained from wells 
sunk upon the premises, and pumped into tanks by 
steam. The capacity of the mill is about 175 bar- 
rels of flour per day. and consumes nearly all the 
grain raised within a radius of ten miles. 

The town site is located near a historic place — 
that wayside hostelry, so well and favorably known 
to all old-time travelers as 

ROGERS' SHED. 

The " Shed," or " Union Shed," as afterwards 
called, was built by E. C. Rogers, in December. 
1857, and comprised a one-story house, 24x80 feet, 
and the uninclosed shed in front, 40x40 feet, and 
twenty feel high, under the shelter of which the 
monstrous freight teams, then thronging the roads. 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



387 



Gould repose, and be sheltered from summer's heat or 
from the winter's rain. A large barn and corral 
were also an attachment of the premises upon the 
opposite side of the road. Situated as the " Shed " 
was upon the old Sacramento and Nevada road, and 
there being also four other roads diverging there- 
from, it became, in those early days, quite a noted 
place. One road ran westerly toward Nicholaus; 
one northwesterly to Marysville, rin Kempton's 
Crossing of Bear River; one northeasterly toward 
Grass Valley, via McCourtney's Crossing of Bear 
River, and another running easterly to Auburn L-ia 
Danetown. The distance from the •• Shed " to Sac- 
ramento was thirty miles; to Grass Valley, twenty- 
eight; to Nevada, thirty-two; to Auburn, twenty; 
to -Maiysville, fifteen; to Nicholaus, thirteen; to 
Johnson's Crossing, four and to Coon Creek, 
three. For four or five years after its establish- 
ment, two stages passed the " Shed " daily; and 
the number of big freight teams during that 
period was from forty to sixty each daj^, the most of 
the latter either stopping over night or for dinner. 
The road was then traveled by all teams going to 
Grass Valley, Nevada, North San Juan, Forest City, 
Downieville, and other places in the mountains in 
that direction, and, as they here laid in a supply of 
feed to last during the round trip, the " Shed " 
became the market place at which the fiirmers of the 
surrounding county congregated for the purpose of 
disposing of their hay and barley. 

And then the "Shed" became a place where the 
people of both valley and mountain resorted for 
amusement. During these lively days, now, alas, all 
deadened by the remorseless puff and snort of the 
locomotive, there were two evenings in each week 
devoted to dancing-school; while, as regularly as the 
months rolled round, was there a public ball held — 
one every month — at which the people flocked from 
all sides, from the very suburbs of Sacramento, 
Marysville, Auburn, Grass Valley, and from other 
places. A fine race-track and frequent trials of 
speed soon attracted many stock-breeder.-; to the 
place, some of whom brought and matched blooded 
horses, and either lost or won considerable sums of 
money. 

Mr. Rogers was an enterprising man, and he desired 
people with families to settle about him. An objec- 
tion to this was raised, because there was no school 
in the vicinity. To obviate this, Mr. Rogers applied 
for, and was successful in, the establishment of a 
school district — calling it Norwich District — from a 
portion of Manzanita District, in 1864. Of Nor- 
wich District he was elected one of the Trustees. 
There was no school house in which to hold a school, 
nor school money with which to pay a teacher; but 
all this did not daunt Mr. Rogers, who hired Mrs. 
M. E. Reynolds as teacher, gave the use of his ball- 
room at the "Shed" as a school house, boarded her, 
and paid her $60.00 a month for two months out of 
his own pocket. Subsequently the teacher's wages 



was paid out of the school fund. Thus was the 
school district at Sheridan established, and for four- 
teen years did Mr. Rogers retain the position of 
Trustee. 

In 1860, there was a voting precinct established 
there called Union Shed Precinct — now changed to 
Sheridan, as is the name of Norwich to Sheridan 
School District. The locality being upon quite high 
ground, in the undulating lands just where the lower 
foot-hills blend with the stretches of the valley, and 
overlooking a long distance thereof, it was a central 
position at which stock-raisers met in searching for 
estray animals, and a number of them selected this 
point upon which to erect an observatory, or '• look- 
out," as the vaqueros termed it. This structure 
was forty feet high, and had a large telescope some 
four or five feet long, mounted at its apex, which 
took in a view for many miles, and with which stock 
could be descried for a long distance. It was situ- 
ated a little west from the " Shed." 

In 1865, a church was organized and also a Sunday- 
school, the latter probably the first in the vallc}-, 
both of which were held in the ball-room of the 
"Shed," and were well attended. Mr. Charles Luce 
was the first Superintendent of the Sunday-school. 

Business was good at the old " Shed " on the road 
until 1866, when the railroad was constructed 
through as far as Wheatland, and a great change 
was the consequence. Finally, in 1868, the entire 
establishment, together with a large quantity of hay, 
grain, etc., was destroyed by fire, by which Mr. 
Rogers lost $3,000, there being no insurance. 

The first depot building constructed at Sheridan 
was in 1866, near the " Shed," by the farmers in the 
neighborhood; but in 1868, it was moved some sixty 
rods to where it now stands in the village, by Messrs. 
Doughert}' and Rogers. The post-office was first 
established in 1868, with Mr. Young Dougherty as 
Postmaster, to which position Mr. E. C. Rogers soon 
succeeded, and has ever since and now holds it. The 
first store was built in 1869. The population of the 
village, as given by the census of 1880, was 125, but 
the precinct, including considerable of the surround- 
ing country', has a voting population of about 130. 
The village has, in 1881. three stores, one drug store, 
two blacksmith shops, one shoe store, two hotels, 
three saloons, two clergymen, one doctor, and one 
school teacher. The school house is of wood, with 
a seating capacity of sixty, and was erected at a 
cost of 13,000. It contains a schoolroom, librarj*. 
and ante-room. There are two church denomina- 
tions — Baptist and Methodist. Rev. John S.Jesse is 
pastor of the Baptist Church, and Rev. L. S. Feath- 
erston is pastor of the Methodist Church. Several 
social orders are, or have been, represented in Sheri- 
dan. Sheridan Lodge, No. 304, I. O. G. T., was 
organized in November, 1870, and a Division of the 
Sons of Temperance was formed in 1878. Sheridan 
Band of Hope was organized November 7, 1880. 
The first officers were: Y. Dougherty, Superintend- 



388 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ent; Mrs. R. V. McDonald, President; J. Boyce 
Chaplain; Daniel Click, Treasurer; Joseph Jesse, 
Secretary; Mrs. Lucy McAllister, Sentinel and Usher. 
The present officers are: Mrs. E. C. Rogers, Presi- 
dent; Miss Lelah Carpenter, Vice-President; Miss 
Ella Rickey, Assistant Superintendent; Joseph Jesse, 
Chaplain; Daniel Click, Treasurer; Mrs. R. V. Mc- 
Donald, Secretary: Miss Alice Murphy, Sentinel; 
Miss Mary Raymond, Usher. There are thirty-six 
members. Mr. J. T. Briggs is the Justice of the 
Peace, and E. C. Rogers is Constable. 

SHIRT-TAIL CANON. 

A short distance above the historic spot once 
known as Barnes' Bar, on the North Fork of the 
American River, a stream flows into the river from 
the southward, known as Devil's Canon. Going up 
this, perhaps three miles, a branch joins it upon the 
left hand side, and Shirt-tail Canon presents itself, 
to the beholder. Like all streams of its magnitude, 
its bed is a deep gorge, narrow and rocky, from 
1,000 to 1,500 feet below the crests of the surround- 
ing " divides." It became an important auxiliary to 
the gold-producing fields at an early period in the 
history of the State, and has poured forth from its 
rough bosom a large quota of treasure to swell the 
volume of that precious commodity by which com- 
merce regulates the standard of values. 

The unique name it bears was bestowed in the 
following manner: Early in the summer of 1849 two 
men, one named Tuttle, Ibrmerly from the State of 
Connecticut, and the other Van Zandt, from Oregon, 
were prospecting upon Brushy Canon and in that 
locality, and at the time supposed there was no one 
nearer to them than the people who were at work 
along the river bars. From Brushy they emerged 
into the valley of the larger stream into which it 
emptied. It was sultry and hot, and no sound but 
their own suppressed voices broke the silence of the 
gorge. A bend in the creek a short distance below 
them obstructed the view, and they walked down 
the stream to overcome it. Abruptly turning the 
point, they were astonished to see before them, but 
a little way off, a solitary individual — whether white 
or red they could not at first determine— engaged 
in primitive mining operations, with creviciug spoon, 
and sheath-knife and pan. The apparition was per- 
fectly nude, with the exception of a shirt, and that 
was not overly lengthy. The lone miner was in the 
edge of the water, and, happening to look up, saw 
the two men who had intruded upon his domain at 
about the same time that they discovered him. Had 
this not been so, Tuttle and Van Zandt, as 
they declared afterward, would have stepped back, 
made some noise, and given the man a chance to 
don his overalls. As it was, the eyes of both parties 
mot, and an involuntary "hello!" came from all throe 
mouths. " What in the devil's name do you call this 
place?" queried one of the intruders of the sans 
callolUs, who proved to bo an American. He glanced 



at his bare legs, and from them to his questioners, 
took in at a moment the ludicrous appearance ho 
made, and laughingly answered: " Don't know any 
name for it yet, but we might as well call it Shirt- 
tail as anything else," and under that euphoneous 
nomenclature has it since been known, and must 
thus go down to posterity. It is to be regretted that 
no record can be found of the name of the man in 
the shirt. 

SUNNY SOUTH. 

The little town of Sunny South, represented in the 
picture upon another page, owes its existence entirely 
to the extensive and rich gravel mine known as the 
Hidden Treasure. Lying upon the southern slope 
of the ridge which separates the waters of the North 
and Middle Forks of the American, the exposure to 
sunshine causes such a contrast with respect to cli- 
mate to that of the temperature enjoyed by the 
kindred villages upon the northern side of the ridge, 
that its first residents bestowed upon it the above 
appellative, in contra-distinutian between their own 
and the snow-buried domiciles of their neighbors. 
Being about 3,500 feet above sea-level, on the north 
crest of the ridge, which here assumes the char- 
acter of a broad plateau, rises some 700 or 800 
feet higher, and is, for four or five months of the 
year, ordinarily covered with snow — ^sometimes to a 
great depth — during which time the ground at the 
immediate locality of the village will be nearly or 
quite bare. It is five miles from Michigan Bluft', 
which lies in a southerly direction, and seven from 
Damascus, situated toward the north; and from the 
site of the town appears one of the most magnifi- 
cent views of the rugged side of nature that can be 
well imagined in a bird's-eye survey of the tremen- 
dous gorges of the branches of the Middle Fork of the 
American, with the towering bluffs and peaks that 
skirt them, which are here spread out at the feet of 
the beholder. A school house, two hotels, and two 
stores, and numerous cosy and well-furnished family 
cottages, are among the structures of Sunny South. 
The school has an attendance of about tvventy 
scholars. The stores are kept, respectively, by Peter 
Just and John Abram & Son, and the hotels by Mrs. 
B. Lyons and James A. Abram. 

EMIOKANT GAP 

Is a station on the Central Pacific Railroad, forty- 
seren miles northeast of Auburn, at an elevation of 
5,221 feet above the sea, in Township No. 4, and has 
a population of 137. It is in the midst of the great 
pine forests of the Sierra, and lumbering is the chief 
resource of the place. The scenerj' around Emi- 
grant Gap is grand and inspiring, and, coupled with 
its fine summer climate and good hunting, makes it 
a pleasant place of resort for those seeking health 
and pleasure. 

FOREST BILL. 

This mining town is pleasantly situated on the 
ridge between Shirt-tail Canon and the Middle Fork 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



389 



of the American River, twenty-two miles northeast of 
Auburn, at an elevation of 3,230 feet above the sea. 
The region is a gravel formation, and was originally 
covered with a noble growth of pine trees. Before 
March, 1850, the surface of the ground was un- 
broken, and its forest unbacked by the hand of the 
white man. In that month the story was spread of 
the discovery of rich diggings at Bird's store, and a 
rush of people passed up the country via Coloma 
and Greenwood Valley from the south, and via 
Auburn from the west. On the top of the ridge, a 
few miles from Dr. Todd's store, now the village of 
Todd's Valley, the two routes came together. Some 
of the prospectors stopped near the junction and 
washed in the surface for gold, making from five to 
ten dollars a day each, with a rocker. The first of 
such mining was in the middle of April, 1850. Wher- 
ever running water was found, there gold could be ob- 
tained; but with the simple appliances of pan, shovel, 
and rocker, in use at that time, the returns were not 
such as satisfied the expectations, and the inexperi- 
enced and hopeful miners moved on. The point 
being well situated for trade, it was occupied in the 
fall of that year by M. and James Fannan and R. S. 
Johnson, who established a trading-post. This way- 
side brush shanty grew into a house and hotel, 
known as the Forest House, as here was a dense 
forest of pine, fir, spruce, and oak trees. In 1851 
other houses were built in the vicinity, and the 
Forest House became quite an important trade and 
travel center. 

Mining was continued in a small way in the neigh- 
boring gulches, but an accident in the winter of 
1852-53 led to greater enterprise and the opening of 
the deep mines which have given to Forest Hill its 
celebrity. That winter is historically remembered 
as one of great severity of storm and flood. During 
one of the storms a mass of earth was loosened at 
the head of Jenny Lind Canon, above the mining 
claims of Snyder, Brown & Co. Upon going to their 
claim, when the storm had abated, they saw with 
dismay the havoc that had been wrought. A great 
slide of earth had covered their mine and mining 
implements, and, in curiosity, they proceeded to 
examine the mass and the freshly-ront bank whence 
it came, and it was a bank of I'ich deposit for them. 
Chunks of gold were seen glistening in the gravel, 
and these they at once proceeded to gather, finding 
some §2,000 or $2,500 worth a day. This led to the 
opening of the Jenny Lind Mine, which has pro- 
duced over $1,100,000 of gold. Claims wore then 
located on all the gravel region thought accessible, 
and tunnels started to develop them. Among these 
were the Deidesheimer, Rough and Ready, Inde- 
pendent, Northwood & Fast, Gore, Alabama, Darda- 
nelles, Eagle, Garden, India Rubber, and others, 
covering quite an extended area. The miners were 
considerably scattered, and, for some years, the 
labor was devoted to opening the mines, rather than 
extracting the precious metal. 



Forcot Hill is remai-ked to have seen its most pros- 
perous days in the first eight or ten years of its 
existence, but under the more skillful and economical 
management of mining of late years the prospects 
must be considered very favorable. There are. 
moreover, many resources besides mining, but the 
absence of railroad facilities and an abundant supply 
of water prevent full development. In 1859, and 
for several j'ears, the Placer Courier was published 
here, and with its newspaper, fine blocks of fire- 
.proof stores, hotels, elegant saloons, banks and 
express offices, and pleasant flower-adorned resi- 
dences, Forest Hill had quite a metropolitan air. 
This, in a measure, it retains at present, though the 
bustle on the street is not so great, and it still bears 
the appearance of a prosperous and pleasant village. 
The population, as given by the census of 1880, was 
688, showing it to be one of the large towns of 
Placer County. 

J. Q. GARRISON 

Is a native of the State of Maine, and was born in 
Harps well, Cumberland County, March 15, 1830. At 
the tender ago of fourteen years, he left his home 
and became a sailor on the " briny deep," making his 
first voyage in the bi-ig Rebecca C. Fisher. This 
vessel was engaged in the West India trade. Mr. 
Garrison followed the sea until the year 1850, at 
which time he came to California by way of Cape 
Horn, in the ship Poiohatan, from Baltimore, Mary- 
land. One hundred and seventy-five days were con- 
sumed in the trip, and he landed in San Francisco 
on the 15th of November. About four months were 
passed in the latter city by him, when he went to 
Drytown, Amador County, but remained only a few 
weeks, returning to the city, and, soon after, coming 
to Placer County, and locating at Auburn. In the 
fall of 1851, he removed to Coloma, and from there 
to Trinity County, and engaged in mining for about 
nine months. He then returned to Placer County, 
and was engaged in the same line of business, until 
1855. During the latter year he conducted a butch- 
ering and meat business at Volcanoville, El Dorado 
County, and, in March. 1856, was engaged in mer- 
chandising with Harding & Kennedy, at Gray Eagle, 
in the same county. Ho remained with this firm 
about one year and a half, and then removed to 
Horse-shoe Bar, in Placer County, and established a 
business of his own, general merchandising, which 
he conducted until the great flood of January, 1862, 
destroyed his place and stock. Mr. Garrison barely 
escaped death in the troubled waters, by breaking a 
hole through the roof of his house. His next ven- 
ture was purchasing the interest of S. S. Kennedy in 
a mercantile house, at Forest Hill, where be has since 
resided. His establishment is one of the largest in 
the county. His residence at Forest Hill is iu keep- 
ing with the cultivated tastes of its owner, and will 
compare favorably with many in large cities, costing 
about $14,000. Among the misfortunes to which he 
has been subjected during his eventful life, was the 



soo 



HIRTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



burning of a $10,000 residence, July 30, 1879. His 
present house is erected upon the site of the former. 
Mr. Garrison was married October 2-3, 1864, to 
Miss Alice M. Humphrey, a native of Wisconsin. 
They had, in 1881, four children, three sons and one 
daughter, aged respectively, fourteen, twelve, ten 
and eight years. 

WILLIAM RKi. 

This gentleman is the fifth son of Robert and 
Mary Rea, who were natives of England. Our pres- 
ent subject was born at Hillsboro, New Brunswick, 
March 25, 1833. In his infancy ho removed with 
his parents, to the State of Maine, where he lived 
until he was twenty-one years of age. He was 
employed in the mills after he became old enough 
to woi-k. In 1854 he came to California, by the 
Nicaragua route, arriving in San Francisco in the 
month of June. He wont immediately to El Do- 
rado County, and two months later removed to 
Lakeport, in Lake County. In company with an 
elder brother, he erected a saw-mill at ti)e outlet of 
Clear Lake, on Cache Creek. About one year later 
he came to Placer County, and located at Forest Hill. 
Mr. Rea has been largely interested in the milling 
bijpness during his life in California, and is at pres- 
ent the owner of a mill situated in Black Hawk 
Canon, about three miles from Forest Hill. This 
mill was erected in 1869, by two brothers of Mr. 
Rea, but was subsequently purchased by him, and 
moved to its present site. About five years since 
Mr. Rea leased the well-known " Forest House," 
which hotel he has since conducted. In the fall of 
1880, he became one-third owner in the stage line 
running between Auburn and Michigan Bluff, a dis- 
tance of about thirty miles. 

Mr. Rea returned to Maine in the spring of 1861. 
and was married to Miss Angeline Rice, and returned 
with his bride to California during the following 
winter. In 1864 he went East again, in hopes to 
recruit his wife's health, but she died in 1866. He 
was again married in 1870, to Miss Annie Allen, a 
native of Maine, and the same year returned to Cal- 
ifornia, and has since resided at Forest Hill. 

GOLD HILL. 

In the early history of Placer County Gold Hill 
was quite a conspicuous point, but as a village its 
glory has departed. It is situated in Auburn Ravine, 
seven and one-half miles west of the county seat. 
Here are the lower foot-hills of the Sierra, slight 
undulations distinguish it from the great valley that 
a few miles west stretches oil' a level plain, and at 
the present time oi-chards, fields, gardens, and vino- 
yards occupy the places once devoted to mining. 
The first attempt at mining was in 1851, and in 
April, 1852, the village was organized and received 
its name. J. M. Bedford was Justice of the Peace; 
T. Taylor was Constable, and C. Langdon was 
Recorder of mining claims. The busy population of 
its early days may be estimated from the votes 



given. In 1852, Presidential election, the vote at 
Gold Hill numbered 444; in 1853 it was 304, and in 
1854, 294. The diggings were in the surface, and 
almost everywhere, where water could be obtained, 
a miner could get some gold, and in some spots rich 
deposits were found. Gradually the village declined, 
until at present it is not distinguished as a voting 
precinct. 

GOLD RUN 

Is situated on the line of the Central Pacific Rail- 
road, twentj^-niue miles northeast of Auburn, having 
an elevation above the sea of 3,206 feet. Through 
this region extends that succession of auriferous 
deposits of gravel found in Nevada and Placer Coun- 
ties, which some have, without authority of facts, 
constructed into an imaginary and impossible con- 
tinuous "Dead Blue River " channel. For some 
miles around Gold Run are these gravel deposits, 
constituting hills similar to Dutch Flat, and which 
are mined by the hydraulic process. This system 
of mining has been carried on here ver^- extensively 
until enjoined, in the fall of 1881, by order of the 
Superior Court of Sacramento, in a suit brought by 
the Attorney-General in behalf of the State against 
the Gold Run Ditch and Mining Company, to restrain 
the running of debris from the mines into the 
American River. This put a temporary stop, pos- 
sibly perpetual, to the hydraulic mining. 

In this vicinity were some of the first hydraulic 
mines of the State, opened by that process, as sworn 
to by J. F. Talbott in the trial above referred to, 
early in 1853, on Indian Hill. Mr. H. H. Brown 
stated in the trial that the population of Gold Run, 
engaged in mining in 1865, was about 250. In 1866 
it was about 400. From 1866 to 1878 the population 
diminished, until now they only poll about 100 votes. 
The census of 1880 gives the population at 377. Mr. 
Brown, who had formerly been a banker at Gold 
Run, stated that there bad been shipped, through 
Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Express, from 1865 to 1878, 
$4,500,000, and via Dutch Flat $1,625,000, making 
the product, in twelve years, $6,425,000. In 1865 
the product was $400,000; in 1866, $600,000; in 1867, 
•$500,000, and a gradual decline to 1877, $250,000. 
Prior to 1878 the wages paid to miners was $3.00 
for ordinary and $5.00 for foremen per diem of eight 
hours. Since then the ordinary pay is $2.50 a day, 
the miners paying all their own personal expenses. 
While much minitig was done prior to 1865, it was 
not until that year that an abundance of water was 
supplied and the mines opened systematically and 
with improved mining apparatus. Since 1877 the 
product has averaged about $200,000 annually from 
this locality. 

The early history of Gold Run is given in the bio- 
graphical sketch of O. W. Hollenbeck (see page 307;, 
who laid out the town in 1862, when called Mountain 
Springs, and was its first postmaster. The name of 
Gold Run was adopted in September, 1863. by the 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



391 



authorities at Washington as the name of the post- 
oflSce. In July, 1866, the Central Pacific Railroad 
was completed to this point, and since then the 
village has been one of the important ones of Placer 
County. 

IOWA HILL. 

So much has already been told in this historj' of 
the mining region of the Iowa Hill Divide that an 
extended notice here specially devoted to the town 
would be superfluous. The town is located on a nar- 
row part of the ridge between the North Fork of the 
American, on the north, and Indian Canon, on the 
south, twenty-six miles northeast of Auburn, via the 
Central Pacific Eailroad to Colfax, in Township No. 
7. The population, as returned by the census of 
1880, was 450; the elevation, 2,867 feet above sea 
level. The surrounding localities are. Independence 
Hill, Roach Hill, Birds' Flat, Monona Flat, Grizzly 
Flat, Wisconsin Hill, Elizabethtown, and Stephens' 
Hill. The first discoveries of gold were made in 
185.3 on the ground subsequently so famous for its 
productions, called the Jamison Claim. Other claims 
were opened, first bj' drifting and ground-sluicing, 
and then by the hj'draulic. The weekly product in 
1856 was stated at 8100,000. The historian of 1861 
says, " The business portion of Iowa Hill consists of 
three large grocery stores, four hotels, five dry-goods 
and clothing stores, one fancy store, three variety 
stores, one brewery and soda factory, two hardware 
and tinware stores, and two butcher shops, besides 
the usual number of bowling alleys, billiard and 
lager beer saloons. Iowa Hill also has a splendid 
Catholic Church, a Methodist Church, a Masonic 
Lodge, and a lodge of Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, also a public school, and a theater. 

February 2, 1857, the town was destroyed by fire, 
of which the following account was published in the 
Iowa Hill N'ews, Extra, of that day:^ — 

Monday, Februar}- 2, 185 7. 

This morning at 3 o'clock the alarm of fire was 
given. In a few moments the central portion of the 
town was in flames. The fire was first discovered in 
the back part of the City Bakery, and is supposed 
to have been the work of an incendiary, as thei'e had 
been no fire in the building for baking purposes since 
Sunday at 10 a. m. 

The east side of Main Street, from Temperance 
Hall to McCall & Co.'s Breweiy, is swept away with 
the exception of Colgans' brick store. The post-ofiice 
was in this building. On the west side of the street 
the fire extended from the office of the Xews to Hill's 
reservoir. The dwelling-houses in the rear on either 
side of Main Street were all saved. About one hun- 
dred buildings and tenements are destroyed. It is 
almost miraculous that no lives were lost. 

The material of the JVews printing office was all 
moved, but by tearing away a building between it and 
the St. Louis House, and by the indefatigable exertions 
of our citizens, our office was saved and the fire 
arrested on the west side of the street. We are 
under deep and lasting obligations to friends and 
our citizens generally, for their generous and timely 
assistance. 



It is almost impossible to approximate anything 
near the loss sustained. So rapidly did the flames 
extend that the fire-proof cellars under the most of 
the large stores were of little use, there being no 
time to remove merchandise into them. 

Wo give an estimate of some of the heaviest 
losses: — 

Creamer's Hotel . _ _ 810,000 

Melbourne (clothing) . 7,000 

Hawkins & DeLiano .__ 8,000 

Rosenburg . , 8,000 

Sanders 5,000 

Block (cigars, etc.) . . 5,000 

Gross & Co 2,000 

Berger 2,500 

Egbert & Co. (grocers) 3,500 

•Tohn Kneeland , 10,000 

Isabella Connor 10,000 

St. Louis House 1,000 

Jas. Walworth ... 3,000 

Brown 2.500 

Hotel De Paris 3,000 

Peacock Stable _.. 1,000 

Alleman & Baker. 1,250 

Kimball & Co 1,000 

Barber 2,500 

Sheafe 1,500 

Dr. Strong (drug) - . 5,000 

Roberts (saloon) . . 3,000 

Garity (liquors) 5,000 

McCall & Co 3,000 

Henley 5,000 

Smith (City Bakery) 2,000 

Steen & Willits 2,500 

Patrick 1,500 

Edwards (banker) 1,000 

Winn (bookstore) 1,500 

Geo. Haycock 8,000 

Ogelby 4,000 

Cadien... 5,000 

Matthews. 3,000 

Vogeley 3,000 

Empire Stable 2,500 

McKinney . 4,000 

Wells, Fargo & Co. saved their papers. 

Up to the time of our going to press P. J. 
Edwards' safe had not been opened; probably all 
his papers are preserved. 

A meeting was held to-daj- at 12 o'clock for the 
purpose of devising means for the alleviation of the 
destitute. 

Messrs. Ladd, Cruteher, Hotchkiss, Rich & Ben- 
nett of Iowa Hill, Wm. D. Lawrence of Birds' Flat, 
Housel of Grizzly Flat, Brown of Wisconsin Hill, 
Reno of Independence Hill, and Trask of Roach 
Hill, were appointed a committee to receive sub- 
scriptions. A meeting will be held at 3 o'clock for 
the purpose of taking into consideration the widen- 
ing of the streets. 

Two o'clock. The work of re-bidlding has com- 
menced. Two houses have been moved on to Main 
street. Teams are busily engaged in hauling lumber 
for the reconstruction. 

The telegraph office has been removed to the 
Nevjs office, and was in working order by 9 o'clock, 

A. M. 

Main street has been surveyed by Mr. Young 
twenty feet wider than originall}-. Additional losses: 

Mrs. Colcutt 83,000 

Hotchkiss. . 300 

Stiles. 1,200 



392 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Carder & Harmon $ 400 

Coyle (Commercial Hotel) 2,000 

Levy & Co 2,000 

Heberle & Stockwell 800 

Sullivan & Kligo 1,000 

Sterling 3,500 

P. H. Sibley _ 800 

Mrs. Hawkins . 800 

M. E. Church . 500 

The town was again burned on the 27th of March, 
1862, involving a loss of $65,000. Notwithstanding 
these disasters the citizens rebuilt in a substantial 
manner, but the losses were such as to seriously 
impair the fortunes of the wealth}' and bring to ruin 
and discouragement those of feebler characters. 

DR. OLIVER H. PETTERSON 

Is the only son of Oliver and Elizabeth Petterson, 
the former a native of Sweden, and the latter a 
native of England. Oliver H., our present subject, 
is, however, a native of New York City, having 
been born there on the 12th day of November, 1830. 
He received a classic education in his native city, 
and was a graduate of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in 185n. He also attended a full course of 
lectures at the State University. At the age of 
twenty-one years he bade farewell to the great 
metropolis and sailed for Califoi-nia in the ship 
Philip Home. Nearly six months were consumed 
in the voyage, as he made the passage of Cape Horn. 
Early in August, 1851, he landed in San Francisco, 
and proceeded at once to Sacramento, where betook 
charge of the City Hospital. This position he held 
for one year, and then removed to Salmon Falls, 
El Dorado County, and commenced the practice of 
his profession. He remained at that point about two 
years, and while there was Justice of the Peace and 
Associate Justice of the Court of Sessions. His next 
location was at the New Almaden Quicksilver Mine, 
in Santa Clara County, where for eighteen months 
he was surgeon for that company. He then 
returned to San Francisco and practiced medicine 
for two years in that city, but the climate proving 
detrimental to his health, he was obliged to seek 
other fields for his labors. We next find him located 
at Iowa Hill, in Placer County, in the enjoyment of 
a large and lucrative practice in his profession. The 
Doctor is a man well known outside of his pi'actice, 
as well as recognized in his calling for honesty, 
integrity, and the skillful treatment of diseases. 

He was married May 4, 1864, to Miss Elizabeth 
Beybring, a native of Mexico, of Gorman descent. 

MICHIGAN BLUFF, 

One of the oldest of Placer's mining towns, rests 
high upon the brow of the canon of the Middle Fork 
of the American River, looking over into the neigh- 
boring county of El Dorado, thirty miles northeast ot 
Auburn, from which point it is reached by wagon 
road through Todd's Valley and Forest Hill. It is 
in Township No. 6, has a population of 468, and is 
3,488 feet above ihe sea. 



There is no authentic data attainable whereby the 
facts can be chronicled in these pages, relating to 
the nomenclature of this noted mining locality. It 
is presumed, however, that a party of prospectors 
from the State of Michigan, in the spring of 1850, 
camping somewhere near the base of Sugar Loaf 
Hill, gave cause for the name. Sugar Loaf is a 
peak, the shape of which is indicated by the name, 
whose crest rises 3,740 feet above the sea level, or 
250 feet higher than the main street of the town, at 
the Phcenix Hotel. The present village is situated 
immediately at its southern base; but the first town, 
which in earlier days was commonly known as 
Michigan City, was located about half a mile below 
upon a stretch of tolerably flat ground which once 
existed there. 

While little mining was done in that vicinity, 
on the rivers, as early as the summer and fall of 1848 
— first at Rector's Bar by a party of sailors, and later 
in the season by a company who went there from 
Sutter's Fort with J. D. Hoppe — it was not until 
1850 that any extensive operations were begun. In 
the fall of 1849 there seems to have been two men, 
one named Robert Wilson, who worked a short time 
in Dutch Gulch, but who did little, as one would 
stand out upon the flat and watch for Indians — of 
whom they were afraid — while the other dug and 
washed the gravel for gold. They did not stop here 
long, however, under these circumstances; but that 
they did well in thus working, is evinced by the fact 
that Mr. Wilson returned to the spot in 1880, after a 
lapse of thirty-one years, confident that he knew of 
a spot in the vicinity of his early labors, where a 
fortune lay awaiting him. 

With the above exception, the work done in that 
vicinity during the year 1849, seems to have been 
confined entirely to the bars upon the adjoining 
streams in the deep canons, and this was only in the 
shallow places, by crevicing. That fall two men, 

Ned and Bronson, being at work upon the 

Middle Fork of the American, decided to follow up 
the stream for the purpose of prospecting. In doing 
so they reached the mouth of a large canon coming 
into the river from the northeast, where they found 
in crevicing the cleanly water- washed bed rock, con- 
siderable quantities of large, heav}- gold. Not long 
after this the rainy season begun and they were 
compelled to leave — going to Pilot Hill, El Dorado 
County, where, during the summer, they had located 
claims to be worked in che winter after water came. 
While at Pilot Hill they exhibited their gold to a 
number of persons, whom they informed of their 
intention to return in the spring to the spot where 
thej' obtained it, but only to their intimate friends 
would they disclose the locality. As time wore on, 
the flight of imagination became loftier and loftier, 
increasing the importance of the new find, until the 
Bronsons gave away their claims at Pilot Hill, as 
they were too insignificant for them to work, and 
awaited the coming of spring, when they could 




O. H. Pettersou. 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



39:1 



.return to the canon thej- had left on the Middle 
Fork — always representing it to be a long ways off 
and in an almost inaccessible locality. Lawrence 
Bargy, Sid. Kitchum, and several other men who 
came from Syracuse, New York, with the Bronsons. 
were at that time also living at Pilot Hill, and, being 
townsmen, became allied, and were all to go in the 
spring together to the wondrous mines on the Middle 
Fork. Quite a company of men thus became inter- 
ested in the prospect between the friends of all — 
some of whom were living at Coloma, some at Hang- 
town, and at other places — to the number of twenty 
or twenty-five. Outside of this particular circle 
nobody knew where the good diggings of the Bron- 
sons were located. It nevertheless became notorious 
that they were to start out in the spring, and parties 
were constantly on the watch prepared to follow 
them up. Meanwhile the favored ones were going 
well provided for; they had purchased not less than 
sixty mules and horses, and packed to the rendezvous 
at Pilot Hill several loads of tools, pi-ovisions, etc., 
from Sacramento, during the latter part of the 
winter, to be ready to start on the melting of the 
snow in the mountains. February was a pleasant 
month; the rendezvous was below the snowy zone; 
the continued fine weather that prevailed through 
the first week of March brought out the early vege- 
tation and flowers, so that by the middle of that 
month the party thought the season far enough 
advanced to justify a movement. Accordingly, with 
as much secrecy as any such large party could 
gather, they assembled, packed up and went away 
at night. Not many days elapsed after the cavalcade 
had got under way, before there were from 500 to 
600 men in their wake — pursuing them, and as 
rolling snow gathers volume as it courses down an 
inclination, so did the crowd of pursuers increase 
as it proceeded, until the rush became enormous. 
The Bronson party traveled up the Georgetown 
Divide, crossed Canon and Otter Creeks to where Vol- 
canoville now is, and thence descended the hill to 
Volcano Bar, on the Middle Fork. Finding the 
river so high that it was impossible to proceed up 
the canon, with much delay and diflSculty they got 
across the stream, climbed the hill on the north side, 
and were upon the ridge between the North and 
Middle Forks of the American, up which the party 
traveled. Upon arriving at Bird's store, in a little 
valley about a mile west of where the town of 
Michigan City was afterwards built, they went into 
camp — the Bronsons believing they were not far 
away from the canon at the mouth of which they 
had found their gold. A few people even at that 
time had preceded them; but it was the operations 
of this party which caused the great influx of popu- 
lation into Bird's Valley to the number of two or 
three thousand in the spring of 1850, and the subse- 
quent creation of the little temporary town there, 
and of building the permanent one afterward, of 
Michigan Bluff'. 



Research determined that it was at the mouth of 
El Dorado Canon where the Bronsons had obtained 
their gold; but how changed in appearance ! Instead 
of an insignificant stream as they had left it in the 
fall, the Bronsons and party found a great, rapid 
river — larger now, a great deal, than the Middle Fork 
was the fall before — and the water so high that but 
little work could be done. Bird's Valley was at that 
time about as far up in the mountains as it was pos- 
sible for animals to travel, for snow, which, as late 
as the middle of April, fell in the valley to a depth of 
eight inches to one foot. Hundreds of men sought 
the river for diggings, at Stonj', Eector, and other 
bars, but the water being too high to enable them to 
work to any great extent, the majority of them 
remained congregated at Bird's and other eligibly 
located camping places, awaiting a time when the 
water would be low in the streams. Some of these 
who had camped upon the flat east of Bird's, and 
nearer to the supposed rich diggings, while waiting 
for the subsidence of the water, and being attracted 
by the fine growth of sugar-pine in the vicinity, 
became of the belief that by riving out shakes, etc., 
and constructing shanties they might bo rented to 
some of the many homeless, tentless and shelterless 
prospectors thronging the vieinitj'. In accordance 
with this suggestion several of the more speculative 
individuals of the community began the work of 
building, and being in some instances obliged to do 
slight grading for their primitive structures, while 
doing so discovered that they were upon ground 
composed largely of gravel — smooth -washed, rounded, 
white quartz gravel — which upon being washed was 
found to contain gold. This ultimately led to the 
location of the ground for mining purposes; as also, 
the permanent establishment of the town of Michi- 
gan Bluff. Not long after this time Lawrence Bargy 
returned to Pilot Hill, disgusted with the diggings 
at the mouth of El Dorado Canon, and reported the 
discovery of gold at Michigan Bluff", saying that some 
fine gold had been found away up near the top of the 
ridge from the river — fine gold, and but little of it — 
and men had located claims there, but were wild for 
having done so; and for his part said he " wanted no 
diggings BO far away from water," which opinion 
goes to show the citizen of to-day what the esti- 
mated value was of the mines there in the mind of 
some of the pioneers. 

Though manjT claims had been located in the deep 
gravel diggingsof Michigan Bluff from 1850 to '52, but 
little progress had been made toward their develop- 
ment until the latter year,when several ditch compan- 
ies were organized to bring the water to the banks, 
where it could be made available in washing the 
ground. The first of these was begun in 1852, but 
was not completed so as to run water until the spring 
of 1853. The water was taken from from Volcano 
Canon, a distance of about five miles, and its carrj-ing 
capacity about fifty inches. Philip Stoner, George 
Smith and Barker were the owners. 



394- 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The second ditch was also begun in 1852, and 
completed in 1853; but did not convey water to the 
diggings as soon as the other, owing to careless 
engineering — four miles of the lower end being too 
level. This brought water from El Dorado Canon; 
was twelve miles long, with a capacity of five 
hundred inches. Edwin Tyler. Charles Blake, C. H. 

T. Palmer, and Webster were the owners. 

Several years later it was extended some six or eight 
miles to the east branch of El Dorado Canon. 

With the introduction of water, although the price 
for its use was one dollar an inch, several hydraulic 
operations were started, many shafts and tunnels 
were begun; population augmented rapidly, and the 
"city" soon became a tangible reality. T'revious to 
this time, in the fall of 1852. a hydraulic apparatus 
had been put in place at El Dorado Hill, a mile east 
of Michigan Bluff, by Jo. Burnham, Jo. Millsap, 
Lex. Gooch, John Lowe, Wm. Bui-nham and Benj. 
Mitten, which was operated by water from Poor- 
man's Ca&on, flowing through a ditch about one and 
a quarter miles long, of a capacity of one hundred 
inches, where with a pressure of seventy-five feet, 
directed by canvas hose through a one-inch and 
three-quartor-ineh nozzles, and sluices one foot wide, 
the gravel was sent off (as they then thought) with 
great rapidity. 

Among the first hydraulic miners at Michigan 
Bluff was Tim. G. Smith, afterward Sheriff of 
Ormsby County, Nevada, who began upon the first 
introduction of the water. 0!aims were very small 
in those days compared with those of the present 
time. The Millsap claim, tailing into Poorman's 
Canon, was also one of the earliest hydraulic mines 
worked, with water taken from Volcano Canon by a 
ditch about six miles long, costing S7, 000, constructed 
by Jo. Burnham and Jo. Millsap, who also sold water 
at seventy-five cents an inch, having more than they 
required for their own use. The Millsap hydraulic 
used about two hundred inches of water, and was 
rigged with four-inch leather hose. This company 
built the pioneer car of the district — a wooden one 
entirely — laid a track, and moved the bowlders from 
their claim with it. 

The mines, as first located at Michigan Bluff, lay 
upon an extensive flat, where the town was first 
built, lying between Skunk Cafion on the west, and 
Poorman's Gulch on the east, with Tichenor's Ravine 
and Dutch Gulch intervening; the latter, where it 
reached the flat, being a mere channel cut into the 
gravel, with no bed-rock at sides or bottom, the 
depression dividing the gravel plateau. The eastern 
side of the flat was named Red Hill, while the west- 
ern part was called Michigan Bluff Flat. The claims 
around the flat were only twenty feet front, and 
were numbered from 1 to — , and went in that order 
all round the brow of the oval plateau, narrowing as 
they went back toward the center. When the main 
hill was reached different mining regulations were 
adopted, in 1854, and one hundred feet square was 



allowed to each claim. As the ground became 
deeper shafts were sunk and horse-power whims 
erected to raise the dirt and water. The first of 
these whims, with a twenty-foot drum, was con- 
structed by the "Know Nothing" Company, the 
members of which were Joseph and William Burn- 
ham, Matthew Nunan (now an Ex-Sheriff of San 
Francisco County), Capt. Michael White, Nelson 
Finley, J. Hugh Ivins, and William Christie, each 
one of whom had consolidated his 100x100 claim. 
This shaft was sunk in 1854, and was 150 feet deep, 
seven feet deep of the bottom stratum of which was 
drifted and washed, yielding a net profit per man of 
$10.00 a day until worked out. The Empire Com- 
pany sunk the first shaft in deep ground and began 
drifting, That ground was drifted over twice, and in 
many places three times — the posts first put in hav- 
ing, by pressure above, been driven into the bed-rock 
so that it again united with the gravel, while at the 
same time the bed-rock coming in contact with the 
air would rise up, or, in mining parlance, " swell." 

As time passed by, one by one these small-sized 
claims were purchased from the original locators, 
until at the present time nearly all of the ground 
embraced in Michigan Flat and Red Hill is consoli- 
dated under the name of Big Gun Mine, under the 
ownership of Jas. A. and H. L. Van Emmon, who 
have a patent for about 300 acres. 

To such an extent had the ground around the rim 
of the flat upon which Michigan City was built been 
washed away or cut up by drifts, and with the reser- 
voirs in which the water from the ditches was stored 
so situated above that it percolated the land remain- 
ing, in 18.t8 the whole site upon which the town was 
built began to settle and slip downward, cracking 
the walls of buildings, and seriously affecting the 
stability of every structure, great and small. This 
continued until it was rendered unsafe to remain 
longer, and, in 1859, the site where the present vil- 
lage stands was selected and built upon. Sugar-Loaf 
Hill affords most of the water used, there being an 
occasional well dug in the sloping ground at its base, 
but the main supply, cold, clear, and delicious, is 
delivered throughout the village in pipes under pres- 
sure from tunnels run in the side of the hill. 

This flourishing village was almost wholly de- 
stroyed by fire on the 22d of July, 1857, causing a 
loss of S150,000, as the work of an hour. 

NEWCASTLE. 

The present village of Newcastle is on the line of 
the Central Pacific Railroad, five miles southeast of 
Auburn, in Township No. 2, having an elevation of 
95fi feet above the sea. Here was a mining town of 
the earlj^ days, but now it is the center of one of the 
most important fruit-growing districts of the State. 



The name of Ophir was a favorite one with 'the 
pioneer gold-hunters, and it was given to numerous 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



39.S 



localities and claims which were supposed to be of 
extraordinary richness. Here was supposed to be 
the land of Ophir spoken of in the Bible, whence 
came the gold to adorn the temple of Solomon. The 
Ophir of Placer County is situated on Auburn 
Eavine, about three miles west of the Court House, 
and is still an important and pleasant village. Its 
history as a village dates from 1850. In 1852, it was 
the most populous town in the county, polling in 
that year 500 votes. In recent years it has been 
distinguished for tlie number and wealth of its quartz 
veins and the fruitfulness of its orchards and vine- 
yards. Oranges, figs, olives, almonds, and other 
semi-tropical fruits grow luxuriantly. The present 
population is about 600. 

PENRTN. 

The busy town of Penryn bases its prosperity 
upon the enduring granite, and a more solid and 
lasting foundation could not be found or desired. 
The site is on the line of the Central Pacific Rail- 
road, eight miles southeast of Auburn, twenty-eight 
miles from Sacramento, and at an elevation of 610 
feet above the sea. The population, as given by the 
census of 1880, was 238; but the vote of the precinct 
in the same year being 91, a larger population is 
indicated. The town is a growth of the granite 
quarries in the neighborhood, which were opened in 
1864. This was not at once made a station, and pas- 
sengers to and from Penhryn — as it was then 
spelled, after its patronym in Wales — were obliged 
to go to some other station. Later a station was 
established, and the spelling of the name changed 
by Judge Crocker to suit the modern method of sim- 
plicity. Penryn owes its existence and prosperity as 
a town to 

GRIFFITH GRIFFITH, 

The proprietor of the celebrated Penryn granite 
quarries. This gentleman is a native of Great 
Britain; was born Decembers, 1823, at Ty Gwyn, 
Llanllyfni, Carnarvonshire, North Wales. His 
parents were David and Mary (Eoberts) Griffith, the 
father being superintendent of a large slate quarry 
in that country. The elder Griffith died when the 
subject of our sketch was but fourteen years of age. 
leaving a family of seven children, the youngest 
being but one year old. Hard labor on the farm, to 
aid the mother, burdened by heavy taxes and high 
rents, added to the support of the large family, occu- 
pied the next five years of his life. At the age of 
nineteen, he went to work in the slate quarry, and 
soon became foreman over a gang of thirty men. 

In June, 18-17, Mr. Griffith came to the United 
States, taking a sailing vessel via Quebec, and mak- 
ing his way to the granite quarries of Quincy, Mas- 
sachusetts. There he obtained employment of 
Wright, Barker & Co., first as a quarryman, and 
then as a stone-cutter. For this firm he wrought 
some years, at Quincy, Milford, and Lynnfield, in 
Massachusetts, and at Millstone Point, in Connecti- 
cut, for Barker & Hoxie, of Philadelphia. 



In 1853 he removed to California, arriving in San 
Francisco on the 14th of April, of that year. His 
first effort in this State was in mining at Coloma, 
and afterwards at Mormon Island and Negro Hill, 
in El Dorado County. There the bed-rock was gran- 
ite, and along the river banks were immense bowl- 
ders and projections of this rock, glistening with the 
polish of the waters, and as hard as adamant. The 
experienced quarryman viewed these as his familiar 
companions of past years, and here was promised a 
vocation more to his taste than the precarious search 
for gold. But of Mr. Griffith's experience in this 
new line of business for California, we will relate in 
our notice of the Placer County granite. 

Mr. Griffith is fond of society, and is a genial com- 
panion. His wife is a native of North Prospect, 
Maine, her maiden name being Julia Ann Partridge. 
He is a member of the Masonic Order, a Knight 
Templar, Thirty-second Scottish Rite, Knight 
Defender of the Shield and Star, and a life member 
of the Cambrian Mutual Aid Society. In politics he 
is a Republican since the Charleston Convention of 
1860, but never has held or aspired to office. 

PLACER COUNTY GRANITE. 

While fruit-growing, the product of gold, raisin 
manufacturing, the grain interest, wool-growing, 
lime-burning, pottery manufacture, smelting of iron 
ore, the production of wines and brandies, and other 
industrial interests in which multitudes are engaged, 
are noted in their proper order in this work, there is 
another important industry, which, though even at 
this time may be considered large, is yet in compar- 
ative primacy. This is the quarrying, dressing, and 
preparing of granite for builders' use. This primitive 
rock occurs in a zone which, upon the eastern side, 
reaches well up in the foot-hills — to an elevation, ap- 
proximately, of 800 feet — and crops out as far to the 
westerly as a height above the tide level of about 150 
feet, at which point the abrasions of centuries have 
washed down and hidden it under the undulating sur- 
face of the higher plain lands, where it is no longer 
seen. This granite zone extends across the entire 
county from north to south, and is visible in width, 
from east to west, a distance of at least twelve miles. 
In traveling through the granite region, one is im- 
pressed favorably by the peculiar aspect of the land- 
scape; with the smooth roads, which are without dust 
in summer and mud in winter, the white-oak. with its 
hanging mosses; the first appearance of the silver- 
leafed pine; the live-oak with deep verdure; the 
chapparral and the buckeye, with an occasional bush 
of holly; while not infrequently will be seen monu- 
mental nodules of the solid granite itself rising to a 
height of twenty or more feet, that have been left 
as the erosion of thousands of years of frost and 
sunshine has worn away its surroundings, leaving 
it unscaleable without the aid of ladders — a reminder 
that once the overhanging cliff's of granite looked 
down upon a deep, yawning chasm, now occupied 
by the fair valley of the Sacramento. 



S96 



HISTORY Of PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



The j)ioneer worker of granite in California for 
building purposes is Mr. G. Griffith, whose works 
are illustrated in this book. His experience was 
brought into requisition in the year 1853, by the 
Meredith Brothers, at Folsom, Sacramento County, 
in testing the quality of some large granite bowl- 
ders, which were then lying near the American 
River, at Negro Bar, to determine the worth of the 
material for constructing large buildings. The 
granite proving to be of fair quality, Mr. Griffith 
soon had large contracts at Sacramento, and opened 
his first quarry of importance near Mormon Island. 
While established in that locality, he furnished the 
granite used for all buildings of importance in the 
State, such as the Adams & Co.'s Express, Sacra- 
mento; for the fortifications at Alcatraz, Fort Point, 
and other costly structures. 

As the demand for cut granite steadily increased 
with the progress of the State, in 1S6-1 Mr. Griffith 
located a quarry at Wildwood. on the line of the 
Sacramento, Placer & Nevada Railroad, and when 
this road was destroyed he moved to the Penryn 
Quarry, upon the line of the Central Pacific Rail- 
road — thus securing most advantageous shipping 
facilities. This location being nearly in the center 
of the granite belt, the stone is hero found to be of 
a superior quality to that l3"ing nearer either the 
eastern or western edges of the zone, in that it is 
entirely free of iron, and, therefore, never changes 
color from atmospheric effects, nor, where polished 
and placed in position in buildings, or as monuments, 
can Time's corroding tooth mar the beauty of its 
glassy and faultless surface. In appearance, the 
Penryn granite is beautifully mottled in white and 
black, equally proportioned, and in larger spots than 
that of the granite from quarries nearer the edges 
of the zone, while occasional dark-gray •• knots" of 
varj-ing sizes and form occur to relieve the block or 
column of monotonous color. 

Besides the mottled granite principallj- wrought, 
there are several other kinds at the Penryn works 
equally susceptible to finish, and quite as durable. 
One of these is a beautiful black granite, polished 
columns and ornaments of which can bo seen in 
most of the important business buildings and pri- 
vate mansions of the State. 

Samples of the several kinds of granite were sent 
to the Centennial Exhibition, as a part of the Cen- 
tral Pacific Railroad Company's cabinet exhibit, and 
were pronounced to be the best in the world with 
reference to freedom from iron, and liability to stain 
or abrade. This fact brought it to the notice of the 
ofiicials of the Interior Department, at Washington, 
whose duty it was to report upon the building mate- 
rials of the United States, who wrote to Mr. Griffith 
for samples, which were sent. 

And yet, with such quarries as these in Placer 
County, to the derricks of which are laid the rails of 
a commercial highway; where there is no difficulty 
in procuring all the building material necessary for 



the wants of the whole Pacific Coast, in as large 
blocks as any contract ever called for; when the 
present United States mint at San Francisco was 
built, the architect saw fit, for some reason the 
outside looker-on cannot divine, to only procure a 
portion of the I'ock used therein from the California 
quarries, obtaining the rest from British Columbia, 
a sort of sandstone in which there is iron, and 
which being laid above the California granite, sends 
down upon it, from its own discolored surface, 
unsightly stains which nothing but the chisel and 
hammer can efface. 

In 1874 Mr. Griffith erected at the Penrj'n quarry 
a large polishing mill, the first and only one of the 
kind in the State. This building is 200 feet long by 
40 feet wide, with a polishing capacity of 100 feet 
per day. A fifty-horse power engine is the motor. 
There are two stone-polishing carriages for flat sur- 
face work, 26 feet long by 6 feet wide, worked by 
a spring wheel driven by two belts. A block of 
stone weighing upward of ten tons can be polished 
with ease upon these carriages. There are also two 
polishing pendulums in the mill, as well as eight 
vertical polishers, so arranged that the operator can 
readily handle them for the smallest and most intri- 
cate portions of his work, either upon flat surfaces 
or moldings. Two large and powerful lathes occupy 
space in the building, upon which are placed, and 
turned, and polished, granite columns of ten tons 
weight. Railroad tracks are laid in the building, 
and cars run immediately under each of these pol- 
ishing and turning machines to deliver the rough 
granite, and again receive the polished block or 
column. 

The granite of Placer County is steadily gaining 
favor, and this industry must increase as the years 
go by, as a feeling of permanency obtains among 
the population, and those of other generations appear 
npon the scene, who know no other home but Cali- 
fornia. Then will wood be discarded as the principal 
material for building, and the eternal granite, so 
easily obtained, more generally substituted. 

Other extensive granite quarries besides those at 
Penryn are also in operation in Placer County. Mr. 
Griffith has one at Rocklin, also; and A. D. Hath- 
away and J. N. and J. W. Taylor have large, fine 
quarries there, with steam hoisting apparatus, and 
many men constantly employed. At Pino there is 
also a good quarry opened. 

ELISHA GRANT 

Was born in the town of Prospect, Waldo County, 
Maine, February 24, 1815, and for the succeeding 
thirty-seven years was a resident of that State. He 
was married in November, 1850, and in 1852 he fell 
into the big column of immigration and started for 
California, via Cape Horn, on the 12th day of Feb- 
ruary. 

His first halt was made in the harbor of Rio 
Janeiro, where his vessel was detained for eighteen 





;^?^1^^ 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



397 



daj's. Leaving Jlio JaiiLiro on tho 8th of April, he 
arrived in San Francisco Jul}' 12ih. He left at once 
for the mines, where he spent the first four years of 
his California life in " seeking the golden fleece." 
In 1856 he located at Eich Gulch Flat, in Calaveras 
County, where he formed a partnership with Tunis 
Sylvester Bever, for the hotel business, the firm 
being known as Gratit & Bever. After remaining 
together for twelve years the partnership was dis- 
solved, and, in 1868, Mr. Grant removed to Railroad 
Flat, in the same county, where for six yeai's he 
continued in the same business. In 187'l- he sold out, 
and removed to Penryn, where he is at present 
engaged in his old occupation, that of hotel-keeping. 
The character of his place will be best learned from 
the fine engraving which accompanies this volume. 

In politics Mr. Grant is a staunch Eepublican, 
having always voted the Republican ticket, and has 
never had cause to change his views. He is a mem- 
ber of Independent Lodge, No. 158, Independent 
Order Odd Fellows, and Placer Lodge, No. 52, 
Knights of Pythias. 

Mr. Grant was married in November, 1850, at his 
native place. Prospect, Maine, and, in 1856, Mrs. 
Grant joined her husband in California, making the 
journey via the Isthmus of Panama. 

ROCKLIN. 

This is a thriving village on the line of the Cen- 
tral Pacific Railroad, fourteen miles southwest of 
Auburn, 249 feet above the level of the sea, in Town- 
ship No. 9, and has a population of 624. Here is a 
round-house of the Central Pacific Railroad, where 
the extra locomotives ai'e kept which are necessary 
to attach to trains ascending the mountain. Here 
also are large granite quarries, giving employment to 
many people. The history of the village dates from 
the construction of the railroad. The water supply 
of the railroad company is bi'ought a distance of six 
or seven miles, from Secret Ravine. Wells are sunk 
in various parts of town, and fair water obtained at 
depths varying from fifteen to forty feet — all in 
granite. Well water is used for animals and many 
domestic purposes, but all the drinking-water is 
furnished free by the railroad company, from Blue 
CaSon, from the tenders of the locomotives. These 
all come down from the mountains filled with the 
most delicious water, and as there are always several 
locomotives in the round-house, a syphon is always 
kept attached to the tank of one of them, and all 
who wish go there and take away all they have 
a mind to; therefore the wells are not depended upon 
for water for drinking. All Rocklin people have the 
best of mountain water to drink, and to this fact do 
they attribute their immunity from intermittent 
fever, which is so prevalent upon all sides of them. 
It is also the boast of its citizens that not a single 
case of diphtheria has ever occurred there. Not a 
Chinaman is to be found at Rocklin. The round- 
house is capable of accommodating about thirty 
engines — not as large now as before the fire that 



partiallj- destroyed it. A great deal of wood is con- 
sumed by engines, there sometimes being as much 
as 25,000 coi-ds piled there at once. ' 

W. DANA PERKINS. 

Of the pioneer residents of Placer, none are better 
or more favorably known than Will Dana Perkins, 
of Rocklin. Mr. Perkins is a native of the " Old 
Granite State," New Hampshire, where he was born 
in 1S31. For many years he was the proprietor of 
the Pine Grove House, on the Auburn and Sacra- 
mento road. This house was distinguished as pos- 
sessing one of the finest and most capacious dancing- 
halls in that part of the State, and the grand parties 
there held are among the most pleasant reminis- 
cences of the people. The genial Perkins, as well as 
being a very popular host, has always taken a 
prominent part in politics, being one of the leaders 
of the Democratic party in Placer County, and has 
held several offices of honor and responsibility, as 
has been previously noticed in. these pages. 



The railroad name of this place is Junction, as 
here the Oregon Division joins the Central Pacific. 
It is eighteen miles southeast of Auburn, at an eleva- 
tion of 163 feet above sea level, is in Township No. 
1, and has a population of 288. The town plat was 
laid out in 1864. Cyrus Taylor was the first resi- 
dent; Van Trees built the first hotel, and W. A. 
Thomas opened the first store. A good farming and 
grazing region surrounds the town, giving it a sub- 
stantial and increasing business. The name is 
derived from the neighboring ranch of Rose Spring, 
formerly the property of Judge James McGinley. 

todd's valley. 

This charming and pi'osperous village lies on the 
southern slope of the divide, between the north and 
Middle Forks of the American River, twenty miles 
northeast of Auburn, on the line of road reaching to 
Forest Hill, Michigan Bluff, etc., in Township No. 5, 
and has a population of 226, as returned by the 
census of 1880. Previous to the time that the coun- 
try was overrun with gold-seekei"s, and before they 
had begun to scarify the beautiful ridges and seam 
up the gently sloping vales that were occasionally 
found nestling upon the park like plateaus, with the 
unsightly gashes necessary to the pursuit of their 
occupation, there were few more inviting places than 
Todd's Valley. Beautiful streams, with broad flats; 
meadowed slopes abundant with grass; clear, cold 
and deliciously sweet water; fern-covered hills; 
towering pine and other trees, and the various foli- 
age of maples, dogwood and indigenous shrubs of 
many sorts, waving to the song of passing zephyrs, 
combined to form a panoramic scene of wondrous 
beauty. 

The first settler there was Dr. F. Walton Todd, in 
June, 1849, and whose name this place has since 
borne. Ho built a log-house, for a store and tavern, 



398 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



about three-fourths of a mile from the present town- 
site, and there, in the fall of that year, drove a lively 
trade with passing miners who were in need of his 
commodities, at good round prices — his rice, not 
first-class, selling in December at §1.50 a pound; 
flour, that upon 'Change would have been rated as 
'* sour," $2.50 a pound, and other articles at propor- 
tionate rates. The station being upon the main 
trail, over which the wandering prospectors from 
the mining camps further south traveled toward the 
upper portion of Placer County, in 1850, became a 
general stopping-place for travelers, as well as a 
ftrading-point for the mines upon the river, and the 
few men who had then begun to work the shallow 
diggings upon the ravine, near the head of which 
Dr. Todd's buildings stood. As the ravines were 
found to pay well, it occurred to some of the men 
who had been working upon the main one leading 
out of the valley, ihat a shaft sunk in the flat itself 
might develop good-paying ground. This fact 
caused Joseph Swasey, Mark E. Hubbell, and Josej»h 
■ Simmons, in the winter of 1850-51, to begin the work 
•of sinking 

THE FIRST SH.iFT IN TODD'S VALLET, 

That ultimately led to the opening of the deep dig- 
gings there. Just below the valley, or the little 
stream near the doctor's house, a company had 
located a claim which was called Long Island — the 
uppermost one on the ravine. Above this, in the 
flat, Swasey, liubboU, and Simmons located and 
commenced their shaft. Deep mining, at that time, 
was to these three men an untried mystery, but they 
were willing to attempt to fathom it. They sank 
down into the gravel to the depth of twenty feet, 
and at that point encountered a soft, whitish sub- 
stance, which yielded to their shovels — the "pipe- 
clay," so called, now so well known to all hydraulic 
miners. Continuing to sink in this stratum some 
four or five feet further, and not reaching any other 
material, they decided that the substance they were 
working in vvas either the bed-rock itself, or that it 
laid upon it; at all events, they had gone to the 
bottom of the gravel. The gravel they had thrown 
out, though containing gold all through, would not 
pay as well as that of the more shallow diggings 
they had left in the ravine; and as the quantity of 
water met with in sinking the shaft was then to 
them a formidable obstruction to the further working 
in the flat, they abandoned the shaft and went back 
to their old claim on the gulch. 

The succeeding spring two men — bi-others — came 
into the valley from the lead mines of Illinois, both 
of whom had had experience in deep mining, and 
seeing the abandoned shaft, thought thej' would 
bail out the water and explore it. They did so, and 
then went further down into the bottom stratum, not 
knowing what it was, nor the nature of gold placers. 
Fortunately they had but a little depth to go until 
the pipe-clay was penetrated, under which another 



stratum of gravel was found, that prospected much 
better than that above. This stimulated them to 
greater eftbrls, and they continued working, with 
more favorable results as they went deeper, until 
they reached the bed-rock. Here the extreme bot- 
tom stratum was found to be very rich, not infre- 
quently yielding a half ounce to the pan. The two 
men, in the meantime, having kept their own coun- 
sel, sought Swasey and his companions, whom they 
informed of the find, and generously offered to share 
the discovery with them. At that time, Swasey and 
his partners happened to be doing remarkably well 
in the old claim, where the gravel was shallow and 
the work easy and in the open air. He and his 
associates, upon consultation, concluded that, as 
the shaft was wet and deep, and they inexperienced in 
underground work, that if they went there, they 
must of necessity endure many discomforts, and that 
there was more danger in that method of working 
than that in which they were now engaged, they 
would decline the offer tendered, which they did, 
telling the two brothers to keep the ground in the 
flat all to themselves. In this manner was deep 
mining begun at Todd's Valley. Before a year 
passed, the two brothers owning the ground had 
realized 320,000 each, when, becoming satisfied with 
their accumulations, and desiring to return to their 
former home, disposed of their claim, and left for 
Illinois. 

From that time mining at Todd's Valley has con- 
tinued. In 1867 the principal mines were purchased 
by Mr. Alfred A. Pond, who has continued the pos- 
sessor with fine success. But this pleasant locality 
is not dependent upon mining alone. The altitude 
is 2,738 feet, which is usually regarded as too high 
for the semi-tropical fruits which flourish so well in 
the western part of the county, but this valley is 
peculiarly favored in location, and most of the fruits 
grow to perfection. Dr. Todd, at an early day, 
planted fruit trees and vines, and in 1865 made a 
large quantity of wine, which was regarded as of an 
excellent quality. 

DESTROYED BY FIRE. 

Todd's Valley, like other villages of California, 
has had the sad experience of fire. On the 25th of 
September, 1859, the whole business part of the 
town went down before the terrible flames, leaving 
only the store of A. A. Pond, the Masonic Hall, the 
store of Read & Hall, and a butcher shop, all of 
brick and tire-proof The loss was estimated at 
from §150,000 to $200,000. The fire originated in 
the Pacific Saloon, in the center of the village, and 
as it had not been occupied for some months, the 
conflagration was undoubtedly the work of an 
incendiary. The work of re-building commenced 
immediately, and in December following the burned 
district presented a better appearance than before 
the fire. 



TOWNS AND LOCALITIES. 



399 



ALFRED A. POND 

Is the second son of Jonathan and Charlotte Pond, 
natives of New England. Alfred A. was born on 
the 6th of January, 1830, in Essex County, Massa- 
chusetts. His first recollections are of the " Old 
Bay State," but at the age of nine years he removed, 
with his parents, to Scott County, Illinois. In the 
latter State he received his education, and at the 
early age of nineteen years wo find him among the 
hardy pioneers wending his way toward the land of 
gold. In Mr. Pond we find a real '49er, he having 
arrived in California in the fall of 1849, after spend- 
ing about six months in making the trip across the 
plains. His first location was at Weaverville, Trin- 
ity County, where he engaged in mining for four 
months. In the spring of 1850 he came to Placer 
County and located at Todd's Valley, and since that 
time has been a permanent resident of that place. 
Mr. Pond has for many j'ears been extensively 
engaged in mining and merchandising, and has the 
largest mercantile establishment in the town. In 
early times he had all his goods packed upon mules 
from Sacramento, there being no wagon road to the 
valley. He is interested in some good paying mines, 
one of which is being worked by Pond & Co. This 
mine has been worked since 1854, and has always 
paid well. He was married July 1, 1855, at Diamond 
Spring, El Dorado County, to Miss Olive Constable, 
a native of Pennsylvania. Their union has been 
blessed with eight children, three girls and five boys. 

NICHOLAS QUIROLO 

Is a native of " Sunny Italy," having been born at 
San Ambrosia January 1, 1834. The first twenty 
years of his life were passed in his native land, and 
on the 11th day of July, 1854, be sailed from Genoa 
in the bark Am/el for New York. During the suc- 
ceeding two years he followed the calling of a sailor, 
and on the 17th of Januaiy, 1856, landed in San 
Francisco. He went immediately to the mines in 
Calaveras County, where for two years he was 
engaged in search of the precious metal. He then 
engaged himself as a clerk at Campo Seco. From 
that point be went to Jenny Lind Camp, and 
conducted a store for one and one-half years . He 
came to Todd's Valley in 1861, where he has since 
made his home. He has a store in which he keeps a 
full stock of miners' supplies. A view of his busi- 
ness house will be found in this work. 

WISCONSIN HILL 

Is situated on the Iowa Hill Divide, thirty-eight 
miles northeast of Auburn and opposite Iowa City, 
the two places being separated bj- Indian Cafion. 
The first settlement at Wisconsin Hill was made in 
June, 1854, and as the reports of the rich hill dig- 
gings gained circulation the camp began to increase, 
so that in a few months many families were located 
there, and the place had a population of about 700 
inhabitants. At that time the people wore support- 
ing some half dozen saloons, several restaurants, 



dry goods and grocery stores, and two hotels. In' 
the spring of 1856 the tunnels that had been work-' 
ing began to reach the center of the hills, and no 
rich deposits being struck the claims were " laid 
over" to wait for future developments. The popu- 
lation then began to dwindle, but soon again the 
hopes of the business men and property holders 
were revived by the completion of a turnpike road 
across Shirt-tail Canon, connecting the place with 
Yankee Jim's, and another across Indian Caiion, 
connecting with Iowa City. But instead of these 
roads tending to increase the population, by render- 
ing the place easy of access, they furnished the peo- 
ple with an easy mode of transit to some more 
favored locality, and the place began to decrease in 
population and importance. 

YANKEE JIJi'S. 

About eighteen miles northeast of Auburn, in 
Township No. 5, is the ancient mining town of Yan- 
kee Jim's. This town is situated on the northern 
side of Devil's Canon, which stream forms a junction 
with Shirt-tail a mile or so above its entrance into 
the North Fork. Among the first permanent 
settlers there were Nicholas F. Gilbert, Geo. W. Gil- 
bert, Benjamin F. Gilbert, and Thomas Farthing, 
from Missouri; Thomas Adams, of Massachusetts, and 
Samuel W. Bowman, of Pennsylvania, who all reside 
there now but Mr. Adams, who still lives in Placer 
County. The Messrs. Gilbert were the pioneer 
wagoners into town, arriving there with a team in 
the ftiU of 1850. Thomas Adams was one of a firm 
that established the first trading-post the same fall. 

In March, 1851, the diggings on Georgia Hill, on 
the opposite side of Devil's Canon from Yankee 
Jim's, were discovered by a party of Georgians. 
The discovery of this rich deposit of gold was 
purely accidental. While lying upon the ground to- 
rest, one of the party saw some particles of gold 
upon the surface. Taking some of the dirt to the 
canon and washing it, a fair prospect was obtained, 
but it was believed that it was gold that had been 
spilled there by some one. However, they contin- 
ued, and thus opened, probably, the richest surface 
diggings over found in the State, and soon loaded 
their mules with clean gold-dust and departed for 
their Georgian home. 

During its history Yankee Jim's has been one of 
the largest towns of the county, and the leader in 
many enterprises. Here was one of the first ditches 
in the State, made by H. Starr and Eugene Phelps; 
hero Colonel McCluro introduced the hydraulic in 
1853, and here he planted his largo orchard in the 
same year, having purchased 500 trees in Philadel- 
phia in the fall of 1852. 

The Mountain Courier was established at Yankee 
Jim's in 1856 by Parker & Graves, and in 1857 E. 
B. Boust published the Placer Courier. The place 
was of such importance that the Democratic County 
Convention of 1857 was held here. 



400 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



In June, 1852, a fire broke out in tho lower part of 
town, and before it could be checked had consumed 
over half the entire number of buildings, embracing 
more than half the business portion. The loss was 
estimated at §55,000, leaving several of the most 
enterprising citizens penniless. The town is off the 
main road of travel up the divide, and bears little 
of its former importance, the population, according 
to the last census, being 150. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 
RIVER BARS, VALLEYS, LAKES, ANIMALS, ETC. 

The Old River Bars — Old Time Improvements — The Eivers in 
their Purity — Along the Southern Boundary — The Hunter's 
Home — Tahoe City — Lake Tahoe — Lake Tahoe's Name — The 
Georgetown Snag — Mountain Lakes^Mountain Peaks — 
Mountain Valleys — Squaw Valley— French Meadows — 
Picayune Valley — Soda Springs Valley — American Valley — 
Animal? — An .Amphibious Mouse — Unclassitied Big Trees 
^-Mining on Bear River in 1S49. 

A HISTORY would be incomplete that did not men- 
tion the old river bars, once so full of life, thronged 
with speculative humanity, so productive of gold, 
and the scene of so many queer incidents. Time 
was when they were the only places where towns 
were located, and where community congregated. 
The ridges adjoining the rivei-s were where the roads 
ran, over which freight was hauled to the bars, and 
the wayside taverns were there for the accom- 
modation of teamsters and travelers en route for the 
mines; but the mines were all on ihe river, at the 
bars, consequently the little stations along the roads 
owed their existence to the fact that there wore bars 
upon tho streams where all tho gold was dag. No 
one then had begun to investigate the capabilities of 
mountain land, if, indeed, they had ever thought of 
anything else but to accumulate a " pile" and go to 
" the States," and consequently no further idea than 
temporary occupancy claimed the attention of the 
squatter upon the foot-hill domain. The river bars 
were " worked out " in a few years, that is, the gold- 
bearing strata of gravel they were composed of were 
washed oif, and they were gone. And now, alas, 
all that is left of them are black sand flats, stretches 
of bare, white, sun-heated cobbles, or, perhaps, a cosy 
little vineyard or orchard. A description of one will 
suffice to depict the general characteristics of all. 

A rapid stream on one hand, curving around a 
peninsular-shaped, or a rectangular plat of land, with 
a sharp hilly background, down which came trails 
and roads, tho surface of tho plat being elevated but 
a few feet above the level of the water in the river. 
Next to the high ground which formed tho border is 
the street — the main one — narrow and crowded, and 
upon one, or each side, are the buildings. If large 
enough, there may be a few square feet allotted for 
the plaza, near which stands tho round tent where 
all sorts of games of hazard are played and liquors 
dispensed; and perhaps adjoining that is the danco- 
hou.~e, with squeaking violins, dark-skinned senori- 



tas putfing cigarettes, and more liquors on sale. On 
the main street are found the hotels, boarding-houses, 
stores, bakeries, saloons, in each of which more 
liquors are displayed. Here are the livery stable, 
the butcher shop, the shoemaker, the washman, the 
blacksmith, all in operative order, in all sorts of 
structures — some stone, some shakes, some canvas, 
some of boards, and an occasional one of poles with 
brush thrown over. Pack-mules, saddle-horses, 
donkeys, and not infrequently large freight wagons 
to which are hitched eight to ten mules, are seen in 
the street. 

All along the brink of the stream are men with 
rockers and long-toms washing gravel which other 
men are either bringing to them in buckets or dig- 
ging and shoveling to them from holes in the bar, 
from " claims " of from fifteen to twenty-five feet in 
width. From the I'iver a wheel set between two 
boats and having buckets attached to the paddles is 
seen revolving and hoisting water for the " tom," 
while the man at the rocker dips up his own. At 
noon and night they are seen cleaning, drying and 
weighing their gold-dust, which frequently is an 
amazing sight. When the work of the day is done 
the street is thronged, and the populace soon there- 
after divide their presence where the attraction is 
greatest for each individual — some to the tent 
to gamble; some to the dance-house to court 
torpsicboro; some to the billiard-rooms; some to the 
stores and taverns to play bean poker, talk politics, 
and discuss the value of claims, etc., etc. An occa- 
sional dog-fight fills tho street with people in an 
instant, while a row between two half-drunk gam- 
blers or habitues of the dance-house inspires a desire 
that there may be a funeral or two. Once in a 
while a preacher comes to the bar and wishes to 
eshort the people, and often tho bar-room is cleared 
and prepared for him, his discourse uttered to atten- 
tive listeners, and his appeal for contributions 
responded to by a generous crowd, after which "bus- 
iness " will proceed as though no interruption had 
occurred. The '• alcalde" which the miners have 
chosen will now and again try and determine cases 
which have been brought before him, from simple 
assault, to murder, and decide them in accordance 
with the popular will, whether strictly legal or not 
— and has been known to even issue high chancery 
papers, and make them stick, too, notwithstanding the 
arguments adduced by lawyers brought from the 
shire towns that such things ''couldn't be done." 
Among the men who in early times dug for gold upon 
the river bars, were numbered some of the most 
prominent of the State — lawj'ors, doctors, divines, 
artisans, gentlemen, and roughs of all sorts. 

Placer County, embracing as it does several 
branches of the American, besides Bear River, was 
the localitj' of scores of these river bars, where the 
earliest mining was principally done, and the most 
exciting scenes of its historj- have occurred. Real's 
Bar is the first upon the North Fork, and situated 




s 
} 



1b^ 






7 T 



*"^: t^ 





RIVER BARS, VALLEYS, ETC. 



401 



in the southeast corner of the county, and as late as 
1853 polled a vote of ninety-six. It was an 
active mining town, and when the old bar immedi- 
ately upon the river was worked out sufficiently to 
require it, the town was moved to a high bench 
adjoining, and the sight of the primitive village dug 
out and washed. Among the records loft of its for- 
mer incidents is the following: " On the 6th of 
September, 1852, a negro was arrested for stealing 
a watch, and a people's jury empanneled. The theft 
was confes.sed, judgment awarded, and thirty-nine 
lashes duly administered upon the bare back." 

Following up the stream from Beal's Bar, are Con- 
demned, Doton's, Long, Horseshoe, Rattlesnake, 
Whisky, Milk Punch, Deadman's, Smith's, Lacy's 
Granite, Manhattan, Oregon, and Tamaroo Bars, 
before arriving at the point where the Middle Fork 
joins, the names of which are suggestive, which have 
at one time been densely peopled, and each has an 
interesting history if pains were taken in rescuing it 
from a fast-concealing oblivion. 

OLD TIME IMPROVEMENTS. 

One of the first bridges built in the lower portion 
of the county was erected at Condemned Bar, and 
the road which crossed the river here for a long time 
was run by mail coaches. 

Doton's Bar and Long Bar, the former on the 
north and the latter on the south side of the river, 
opposite to each other, are about two miles above 
Condemned Bar. The old '49 wagon road from Sac- 
ramento came around upon the bench where the 
later town was built, after leaving Rock Springs and 
approaching the old original Franklin House, which 
stood some distance south fi-om the more modern 
hostelry of that name. From 1849 to 1852, during 
the summer months, there were probably not less 
than 500 men strung along the river's edge working 
in these two bars. When the town was built upon 
the high flat there were some pretentious buildings 
there, among which was Grilley's Hotel, a two-story 
structure, which stood there and did a good business 
for several years. In 1851, among other miners here, 
were John C. Heenan, afterward the " Benicia Boy," 
then an awkward youth working for a fluming com- 
pany for wages, and the subsequent great grain king. 
Isaac Friedlander. The former had hi.^ first prize- 
fight at Long Bar with a bully much older, who 
forced a fight simply because the boy would not 
acknowledge him as his superior. Old-timers tell of a 
little brush tent occupied by the tall grain merchant, 
and of how ho fried his flapjacks, cooked his bacon 
and beans, and dug and rocked alone at the upper 
end of Long Bar, all of which the historian must 
chronicle as fact. 

Horseshoe Bar, situated about seven miles above 
Beal's and about two miles south of the old '49 Sac- 
ramento road, was first worked by Mormons in 1848. 
In the four or five following years it had quite a pop- 
ulation, and was a trading center for the following- 



named adjacent bars: Whisky, Beaver, Deadman's, 
Milk Punch and, until 1853, Rattlesnake Bar. In 
18-52 there were four hotels and stores there, owned 
by the following firms: Harrub & Manseur, Sweet & 
Barney, Clark & Canfield, and George W. Martin & 
Co. That year it was estimated there were three 
hundred voters at Horseshoe, and that the gold 
product was one hunderd thousand dollars. 

Rattlesnake Bar became notorious as the principal 
town along the river in 1853, when the town was 
built on the flat bench, high up, and back of the low 
bar from which it derived its name. On the 7th of 
April of thnt year, John C. Barnelt, while prospecting 
the flat back of the bar, washed out a pan of gravel 
and got nearl}^ an ounce of gold. The next bucket 
of dirt contained an ounce and a quarter. This cre- 
ated a great excitement, the whole bench was located 
by people who rushed in, and building upon the flat 
began immediately. So great was the increase of 
population that in May, Frank Brown establi.xhed a 
daily stage-line from Sacramento, and Jim Birch 
announced that he would run in there en route 
from Sacramento and Auburn. The Bear River 
Ditch Company immediately began the construc- 
tion of a ditch to convey water there, and by the 
middle of July had turned it in and begun to supply 
the miners. 

From that time till 1856 the town grew rapidly; 
the North Fork Canal Company constructed a ditch 
that supplied water to the mines, and there were 
several small ditches. There were several hotels; 
Well's, Fargo & Co. established an express ofiice; a 
theater was built, and the population rated about 
one thousand, and many estimated the number of 
inhabitants of the town and immediate suburbs at 
double that number. 

The place was the scene of many stirring events 
and its disreputable haunts were the primary school 
in which several aftertimo notorious criminals begun 
their career. Richard H. Barter, a/ios " Rattlesnake 
Dick," here worked as an " honest miner" until led 
astray. In December, 1854, a post-office was first 
established at Rattlesnake Bar, with Thomas Woods 
as postmaster, and about the same time the new 
wagon road was completed upon the El Dorado side, 
and the Whisky Bar wire suspension bridge finished. 

A fire which occurred on the 7th of October, 1863^ 
destroj-ed a number of the principal buildings, includ- 
ing a hotel and the theater, and made considerable 
of an inroad, since when it has been on tlie decline, 
and, like all of the old river mining towns, is a thing 
ofthe past. 

First upon the Middle Fork, after passing up from 
the junction with the North Fork, is Louisiana Bar; 
then New York, Murderer's, Sailor Claim, Buckner's, 
Rocky Point Slide, Mammoth, Texas, Quail, Brown's, 
Kennebec, Wild Cat, Willow, Hoosier, Green Moun- 
tain, Maine, Poverty, Buckeye, American, Sardine, 
Yankee, Dutch, Spanish, Oregon, African, Drunk- 
ard's, Ford's, Big, Volcano, Sandy , Yankee Slide, Gray 



402 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Eagle, Eureka, Horseshoe (No. 2), Boston, Pleasant, 
American, Junction, Alabama, Stony, Rector's, and a 
score of others, all noted once for their produT3tion of 
gold, and as having been the locality of interesting 
scenes, comic and tragic, in the early history of the 
country. 

On the North Fork, above the junction, Calf Bar 
comes first, and then Kelley's, Rich, Jones', Barnes', 
Mineral, Pickering, and Euchre, with a score of 
others long since washed awaj'or buried out of sight 
by the mass of debris sent down into the river by 
the Gold Run and other mines of more modern days. 

THE RIVERS IN THEIR PURITY. 

The river canons, where the old bars were located, 
were romantic places previous to being disturbed and 
torn up by the gold-digger. The water was as clear 
as crystal, and above each ripple or rapid place was 
a l(>ng, deep pool, with water blue as turquoise, 
swarming with fish. Salmon at that time ran up all 
the streams as Air as they could get, until some per- 
pendicular barrier which they could not leap pre- 
vented further progress. Before the falls at Mur- 
derer's Bar was cut down, during spawning time, the 
salmon would accumulate so thickly in a large pool 
just below, that they were taken in great numbers 
by merely attaching large iron hooks to a pole, run- 
ning it down in the water, and suddenly jerking it 
up through the mass. And that place was not an 
exceptional one; it was so at all places where there 
was any obstruction to free running. During these 
times, the Indians supplied themselves with fish, 
which they dried in the sun. Trout similar to those 
now in Lake Tahoe were also plentiful, and the 
writer has caught them with hook and line weighing 
as high as ten pounds in the North Fork, above 
Kelley's Bar. 

Upon every little bend or plat of land bordering 
the streams, grew the white ash, alder, maple, laurel, 
honeysuckle and rank ferns and mosses, with other 
indigenous shrubs and plants, while every projecting 
bowlder in the river-bed was the home of the bi'oad- 
leaved water-plant. Tussocks of rank bunch-grass 
covered the bottoms, and wild grapevines clam- 
bered over everj' convenient tree. The water ousel, 
a little dark-colored bird, flitted from phico to 
place in search of food, and the vigilant kingfisher 
darted from his perch on overhanging limb into the 
clear water and rose again with some finny victim in 
his beak. Deer wandered unscared amid these 
beauteous scenes, for there were none to do them 
harm. When first dug ovei', the old river bars were 
simply beds of clean-washed gravel, containing gold 
— natural ground-sluices — where nature had been for 
untold ages at work, and the innumerable fierce 
floods had so thoroughly washed away the finer 
alluvium and abraded material, that what remained, 
after getting below the surface soil, would scarcely 
roil the element in which the miner washed it. 

Such was the condition of the California streams 



when the gold-seeker first approached them — things 
of rare beauty, joyous to behold, inconceivable to 
those who only know them as they are found to-day 
— treeless, mud-laden, turgid, filthy, and fishless; 
with matchless beauty gone, and natural purity 
forever lost, prostituted to the unchaste uses of man- 
kind in the acquirement of an artificial wealth made 
absolutely necessary by the civilization of the age. 

ALONG THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY. 

The southern boundary line of Placer County is 
the middle of the North Fork of the_ American 
River, from its junction with the South Fork to 
Lj'on's Bridge, where the Middle Fork comes in. At 
this place the county is narrowest, as a due north 
course, according to the United States land surveys, 
would enable one to strike Bear River, the northern 
line, in less than eight miles. Continuing above 
Lyon's Bridge, the boundary line follows the center 
of the Middle Fork up its principal branch, the 
Rubicon, to where the Georgetown trail crosses the 
stream, a short distance below Hunsucker's soda 
spring. The line then follows the trail to the west- 
ern summit of the Sierra, through McKinney's pass, 
where there are four little lakes and several hun- 
dred acres of fine meadow land, at intervals, to the 
head of McKinney's Creek, and following down that 
stream, strikes the Lake Tahoe near the northern 
side of Sugar-pine Point, thence continuing east 
until it intersects the California and Nevada line, 
toward the center of the lake. 

With the multiplicity of diverse territory, it has a 
shore line upon Lake Tahoe of from fifteen to twenty 
miles — from the mouth of McKinney's Creek, via 
Tahoe City, to the State line, east of the Hot Springs; 
and for a distance of some seven or eight miles, does 
the outlet, or Truckee River, flow within its borders. 
The marine interests of Placer County were first 
noticed by the Assessor in 1866, when he, that year, 
listed upon the assessment roll for taxation two 
schooners which were then plying upon the lake. 
The lake portion of Placer did not become populated 
as early as some other parts, owing to its isolation 
from the direct routes of wagon travel. About the 
earliest permanent settlements there, of which there 
is any record, were those at the mouth of McKinney's 
Creek, at Ward's Creek, and at the outlet, now 
Tahoe City, in 1861 and '62. In the winter of 1861, 
a man who attempted to pass the winter on the lake, 
near the outlet, was frozen to death. William Fer- 
guson and Ward Rust built a cabin on the lake at 
the mouth of Ward's Creek, in the summer of 1862, 
having gone there from Volcanoville, El Dorado 
County. John W. McKinney and Thomas Wren 
located a hay ranch on the summit, near the county 
line, in 1861, but McKinney, in 1862, went to the 
lake shore, near the creek now bearing his name, 
and located thei-e, for the purpose of hunting, fishing, 
and trapping, where ho has ever since remained, and 
has established quite a noted place of resort known as 



RIVER BARS, VALLEYS, ETC. 



403 



THE hunter's home, 

Which i8 patronized extensively by people from the 
State of Nevada, as -well as by tourists. He has 
erected, for the accommodation of guests, besides 
the main building in which is the dining-hall, com- 
fortable cottages, to the number of tweuty-five or 
more, bordering the clean, pebbly beach, just far 
enough back from the lake to be away from the 
reach of high water. A good wharf extends into 
the lake some two hundred feet to water deep enough 
to admit of steamer landing, on which is a good 
saloon building 22x32 feet in dimensions, and two 
stories high. All of the steamers running on the 
lake stop semi-daily at McKinney's Landing for 
passengers and mail, and the old pioneer always 
treats his guests well. He always keeps a number 
of sail and row-boats for yachting or fishing parties. 
Among the former is the Transit, the crack yacht of 
the lake, and the fastest sailer. 

Going northerly along the lake shore, from the 
Hunter's Retreat a mile distant, and the mouth of 
Madden's Creek is reached; two miles further to 
Blackwood, where there are nice picnic gi-ounds, with 
a large floor forty feet square laid for dancing, and 
a wharf where steamers laud. Thomas McConnell, 
of Sacramento County, owns the land, and has a 
summer cottage there. Here, too, is the " Wildidle " 
cottage, belonging to Mrs. Crocker and daughter, of 
Sacramento, besides another belonging to some resi- 
dent of the State of Nevada. Other people have 
bought lots in Blackwood, and will build cottages 
during the summer of 1882. Two miles further 
toward the foot of the lake is where Ward's Creek 
debouches, and here is the " Sunnyside Cottage," 
belonging to Mrs. Hayes, of Nevada State, with 
wharf, boat-house, etc. About a mile from the latter- 
named stream is the site of the saw-mill of Reuben 
H. Saxton, on the lake shore, which, when running, 
was propelled by an overshot wheel fifty-four feet in 
diameter, run with water brought in a ditch from 
Ward's Creek. All of these streams are resorted to 
by trout in spawning-time, when thousands of them 
of large size are taken. 

The next point of interest reached is the Truekee 
River, the outlet of Lake Tahoe. The stream here 
is about fifty feet wide, with an average depth of 
five feet, the water flowing with a velocity of five 
feet a second, and discharging from the lake approx- 
imately 518,400,000 gallons of water every twenty- 
four hours. A few hundred yards across the stream, 
which is crossed by a bridge, is the site of 

TAUOE CITY, 

Which was first laid out in 1863, by a party of men 
who, having congregated during that summer and 
fall at the new diggings in Squaw Valley District, in 
anticipation of the commercial importance of the 
place, and in view of its commanding position, 
located "city" lots, each proprietor digging a trench 
around his plat. It lies on a gently sloping plateau, 



at an elevation of about fifty feet above the water 
of the lake, to mark the boundaries. The following 
year a wharf was begun by John Chesronn, which 
was afterwards purchased bj' J. O. Forbes, Jr., and 
J. B. Campbell, who completed it. It extends into 
the lake some 200 yards, and is constructed upon 
cribs built of strong timbers and anchored with 
rock — the bottom found in the lake here being too 
hard to drive piles to sufficient depth in. About 300 
feet from the shore, upon the wharf, is situated the 
" Custom House," a building used as a saloon and 
post-office, now owned by J. B. Campbell. Beyond 
the wharf, some 200 feet into the lake, one strong 
pier has been sunk, where steamers are moored in 
bad weather, when too rough to lay up at the wharf 
Thefirstpublichouscbuiltthere was the Tahoe House, 
by William Pomin, who is yet the owner and pro- 
prietor. He also built a brewery there. Later, as 
the place began to be visited by pleasure-seekers, as 
steamers began to ply the lake, and a wagon road 
was constructed from Truekee, after the completion 
to that point of the Central Pacific Railroad, the 
want of more extended accommodations was felt, and 
another hotel was built. This, after passing through 
numerous managements, has at length merged into 
one of California's palatial hostelries under the 
ownership of A. J. Baj'ley, and is now enduringly 
established, with a world-wide reputation, as the 
Grand Central Hotel. 

LAKE TAHOE. 

Tahoe City is justly conceded by all to be the best 
point of observation for a general panoramic view of 
the lake, as from here almost every location of inter- 
est is within the range of vision aided by a field- 
glass of ordinary power. Glenbrook, fourteen miles 
across the water, is distinctly seen. During winter 
the snow often falls at Tahoe City to the depth of 
five or six feet, and in summer the climate ttiere is 
called the coolest of any place upon the lake. The 
water of the lake is wondrously clear and blue, so 
that when in repose fish and other objects can be 
readily discerned at a depth of thirty or forty feet. 
It is also very cold, but has the peculiarity of never 
freezing in the winter. The deepest soundings ever 
made were 2,800 feet. The bed of Lake Tahoe is 
supposed by some to be the crater of an extinct 
volcano, and unfathomable. Some plausibility exists 
for such a theory in the fact that hot springs occur at 
places on the lake shore, and a small conical mound, 
evidently the creation of solfataras, exists a short 
distance northwest of Tahoe City, and masses of 
scoriaceous rock are strewn promiscuously along the 
banks of the Truekee River. A phenomenon was 
witnessed in September, 1866, from Saxton's saw- 
mill, at that time in operation, by a number of per- 
sons employed there. Nearly abreast of the mill, 
several hundred yards out from the shore, the water, 
being smooth and calm at the time, was discovered 
at a particular locality to suddenly rise in columnar 
foi'm some five or six feet above the' surface of the 



iOi 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



surrounding level. The diameter of the column 
seemed to be eight to ten feet, and when subsiding, 
as it soon did, a whirlpool was formed. This being 
noticed upon several occasions, a person rowed out 
to the spot in a small boat and found the water 
there quite warm. At the place where this occuri'cd, 
there is a deep hole, perhaps fifty yards in diameter, 
which has been sounded to the depth of seventy-five 
or eighty feet, while all around the indentation the 
water is only thirty or forty feet deep, and which, 
until about two j'ears before this phenomenon was 
witnessed, was noted as an excellent fishing ground. 
The fact that the water there was found to be warm 
gave plausibility to the theory that a sub-aqueous 
volcano caused the commotion, and that its existence, 
unnoticed before, explained the reason why the fish 
had been driven away. Perhaps these phenomena 
have in former ages been noticed by the aborigines, 
and have been handed down in their traditions, as 
the Indians of the present day never cross the lake, 
affirming the belief that an evil spirit would draw 
them to the bottom were they to make the attempt. 

Following the lake shore from Tahoe City, the 
Island House is approached in a distance of a couple 
of miles, over a fine stretch of country; thence 
Observatorj' Point, a sharp prominence running into 
the lake at the lower end of Carnelian Bny; follow- 
ing up the beach, where are found many smoothly- 
worn and variagated silicioas pebbles, the rocky 
point on the north is passed, and the shore of Agate 
Bay greets the traveler. Not far from hei-c a small 
creek enters the lake, about the mouth of which is 
some pretty meadow land. Griffin's saw-mill is on 
this stream. Bast of this a few miles are the Hot 
Springs, near the State line, now the pi-operty of 
Sisson, Wallace & Co. 

The altitude of Lake Tahoe, according to the 
observations of the United States Geographical Sur- 
veying Corps, under the command of Lieutenant 
George M. Wheeler, is 6,202 feet above the sea; 
Tahoe City, 6,251; Hot Springs, 6,237. The lake is 
twenty -two miles long and twelve and a half wide, and 
is fed by the waters of more than thirty streams of 
various sizes, which have their sources in the surround- 
ing snow-clad hills, and are ever pouring their volume 
into it — sometimes in gently flowing brooklets; at 
others in leaping, laughing, beautiful cascades, and 
again in fierce and angry tori'ents. 

LAKE TAHOE'S name. 

The name of this grand lake now appears to be 
fixed as Tahoe, but over this subject an exciting and 
acrimonious controversy has more than once been 
held. The first record of the lake is in Fremont's 
explorations of 1843-44. January 10, 1844, he dis- 
covered and named Pyramid Lake, and a few days 
thereafter reached the river at the south end, where 
he had a feast of salmon trout, and he named the 
stream Salmon Trout River. This now bears the 
name of Truckee. He was told that the river came 



from another " lake in the mountains three or four 
days distant, in a direction a little west of south." 
On the maps accompanying " Captain Fremont's 
Narrative," this lake bears the name of " Mountain 
Lake," and it was so called in California until after 
1852, and it is thus referred to in the Placer Herald 
in discussing the subject of wagon roads. In 1852, 
the Surveyor-General, looking out a route for a 
wagon road, gave the name of the then Governor of 
California to the lake, and it became officially and 
generally known as Lake Bigler. 

In 1859, Dr. Henry De Groot was exploring the 
mountains, and being of an inquiring mind and a 
writer for the press, formed a vocabulary of Indian 
words of the Washoe dialect. By this he learned that 
tah-oo-ee meant a great deal of water; tahu e maani 
snow, and tah-oo, water. This he wrote, or a partial 
explanation, to the Sacramento Union, and the word 
tah-oo-ee suggested as an appropriate n.ame for 
Lake Bigler, being the Indian term for " big water." 
In 1863, Rev. T. Starr King and a party visited the 
lake. The War of the Rebellion was then raging; 
Governor Bigler was a Democrat, and was denounced 
as a "copperhead" and secessionist, and therefore 
unworthy of the honor of having so grand a feature 
of natural scenery named in his honor, and Starr 
King christened the lake " Tahoe." California and 
Nevada Legislatures have repeatedly " Resolved " 
that the name was " Lake Bigler," but notwithstand- 
ing all these " official " declarations, the popular 
name of Tahoe is adopted, and '• Bigler " is only pre- 
served by his partisans and friends. 

Among the French immigrants of 1849 were maps 
in which the mountain lake was given the name of 
" Bonpland." This name had been given to it by 
Preuss, the draughtsman accompanying Fremont in 
1843-44, and was so published in Europe. This name 
seemed so appropriate, as in honor of a great traveler 
and geographer, the famous companion of Baron 
Von Humboldt, that, when the change was proposed 
to Tahoe, an effort was made to have the name of 
Bonpland re-established. This, however, did not 
obtain. 

Upon inquiry of Governor Fremont in this con- 
nection, we have the following letter: — 

Presoott, Arizona Territory, Feb. 20, 1881. 
My Dear Sirs: What is now called Tahoe Lake 
I named Lake Bonj^land, upon my first crossing the 
Sierra in 1843-44. I gave to the basin river its name 
of Humboldt, and to the mountain lake the name of 
his companion traveler, Bonpland, and so put it in 
the map of that expedition. Tahoe, I suppose, is the 
Indian name, and the lake the same, though I have 
not visited the head of the American since I first 
crossed the Nevada in '44. Yours Truly, 

J. C. Fremont. 

THE GEORGETOWN " SNAO." 

One of the features to be seen along Tahoe's Placer 
County coast line, is the " Geoi-getown Snag," about 
half a mile south of McKinney's. It is the top of a 



RIVER BARS, VALLEYS, ETC. 



405 



largo pine or fir tree, barkless, which usually stands 
in the lake about 150 yards from shore, rising above 
the surface of the water from six to eight feet, and 
where broken off, about two feet in diameter. It is 
a dead tree standing upon end, and finds anchorage 
in water at the depth of 110 feet. From time to 
time, with the varying winds, it shifts its position, 
but never gets far from the locality where first dis- 
covered by the white man. It is a favorite hitching 
place for fishing boats. How long it has been there 
the "oldest inhabitant " knoweth not. Several years 
ago a severe gale prevailed off shore, and the old 
"snag" was seen to leave its moorings and move 
farther seaward than was its wont. Fearing it had 
got too far ever to be returned by favoring winds 
and currents, some daring boatman, who, from 
MeKinney's, saw its movements, launched a boat, 
braved the gale, rowed to it, and towed it near the 
spot it had left. 

MOUNTAIN LAKES. 

Besides Lake Tahoe, Placer County contains a 
great number of small lakes in her extended mount- 
ain area, the most of which have been stocked with 
trout within the past ten years. West of the " George- 
town Snag," (described elsewhere), about one and a 
half miles west of Lake Tahoe, is Quail Lake, some 
600 to 800 feet higher in altitude than the former, 
about 300x200 yards in extent, and from fifteen to 
forty feet deep. J. VV. McKinney, several years ago, 
caused some small trout to be put into this lake. In 
1881 some of these were caught, weighing three to 
four pounds, which fact induced him to place more 
there. John Hunsucker that year added to Quail 
Lake about 3,000 young trout from one and a half to 
two inches long. 

Bear Lake, a pretty sheet of water lying in the 
high mountains, about eight miles west of MeKinney's, 
and about 400 yards in diameter, nearly round, has 
been stocked with trout by shepherds in the employ 
of James H. Miller, of Latrobe, El Dorado County, 
who has extensive land interests near by, used for 
summer pasturage for sheep. 

Buck Lake is 300x150 yards in extent, and lies 
about four miles southwesterly from MeKinney's; 
will be stocked with trout by Mr. McKinney during 
the spawning season of 1882. 

There is a lake about half a mile north of the 
trail going over from the Rubicon River to Lake 
Tahoe, which is about a mile long and 150 yards 
wide, the outlet to which flows into the Rubicon. 

Four small lakes, of several hundred j'ards each in 
extent, lie embosomed upon the summit of the divide 
in the magnificent pass through which the trail from 
the Rubicon to l^ake Tahoe runs. 

Five-lake Valley derives its name from that 
number of lakes, which it contains. A portion of 
the water from these lakes runs into the Rubicon 
and finds its way to the Pacific, while another part 
goes into Bear Valley, and thence through Bear 
Creek to the Truckee. 



MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 



While the denizens of the lowlands bordering the 
great valley of the Sacramento, in Placer County, 
amid their vine-embowered foot-hills, and their or- 
chards of semi-tropical fruits, their level grain fields, 
and stretches of arid bowlder-strewn pasture grounds, 
Bwelter in the heat of Summer, from a point where 
no snow ever covered the surface of the land but for 
a few hours, if at all, they yet have the satisfaction 
of casting their eyes to the esatward, and taking in 
the range of their vision many lofty snow-clad 
peaks within the limits of their own county. Among 
these ai'e Twin Peaks, near the head of Blackwood 
and Ward Creeks, 8,824 feet high; Ellis Peak, at 
the head of Madden Creek, 8,675 feet; Duncan Peak, 
7,286 feet; with Devil Peak, Granite Chief, The 
Needles, near American Valley, Gray Eagle Bluffs, 
Boar Hill, Pluto Peak, at the head of Silver Creek 
(a stream flowing west into the Truckee), and many 
others, at whose feet nestle delightful little valleys of 
lesser altitude, and through which flow beautiful 
streams of purest water, cold and sweet, in which 
desport the nimble trout — all inviting the heat-over- 
burdened mortal to comfort, freedom, and repose. 

MOUNTAIN VALLEYS. 

Many mountain valleys of small size are found in 
the eastern portion of Placer County, that are 
among the best in the world for summer pasturage 
for horned cattle, and for dairying purposes, the 
herbage being sweet, and not causing distasteful 
flavor to dairy products, while the cold, pure water 
insures cleanliness and solidity to the article. Nearly 
all of these are occupied for this business, and a 
great deal of butter is made, which, as a rule, finds 
ready market without leaving the mountains — at the 
tourists' resorts, the logging and wood-chopping 
camps, lumbering mills — and it is from this source 
that the well-to-do resident of the Silver State 
usually secures his annual supply. One of the most 
important of these is 

SQUAW VALLEY, 

Lying at an altitude of 6,126 feet above the sea. Dur- 
ing the time in the history of the State when there 
were so many emigrant wagon-roads projected, the 
Placer County road, as contemplated, ran through it, 
and Surveyor Thomas A. Young thus said in his report 
to the Surveyor-General: — 

Squaw Valley is the most beautiful valley the eye 
ever beheld. It is covered with luxuriant grass and 
the soil is of the most productive nature. The 
valley is completely surrounded by mountains, with 
the exception of the east end, at which point a most 
magnificent stream of water, that flows through the 
eatire length of the valley, empties into Truckee 
River; There is contained in the valley about 500 
acres of tillable land. 

The dehouoheur of the stream running through 
Squaw Valley into the Truckee is about five miles 
from the lake. This beautiful valley has been util- 



406 



HISTORY OF PLACER COimTY, CALIFORNIA. 



ized by the farmer, its products of hay and vegeta- 
bles, butter, cheese, eggs, and berries, usually finding 
a market at the hotels on Lake Tahoe, the saw-mills 
of the region, and in Nevada. 

^-■^^ FRENCH MEADOWS. 

At the time there were so many people prospect- 
ing in the eastern portion of Placer County, from 
1850 to 1836, but few places escaped exploration, as 
there are continuous beds of auriferous gravel upon 
most of the ridges clear up to the very base of the 
bare granite peaks which form the high Sierra. 
Early during that period a company of Frenchmen, 
in following up the Middle Fork of the Middle Fork 
of the American, came upon a narrow gorge, where 
for about half a mile the stream whirled and tum- 
bled through a rocky canon at a fearful velocity. 
Passing this they found that the country above 
opened out into a fair valley of near half a mile wide 
and for several miles in length. Here, for a time, 
they camped and pi-ospected for gold, and subse- 
quent comers who followed, and found them located 
there, were wont to cull thelocaliiy the Frenchmen's 
Meadows, to designate it from other places in the 
vicinity, which circumstance has indelibly affixed 
the name. 

The altitude at the lower end of the meadows is 
5,108 feet. The soil is gravel, but as frosts occur 
every month of the year, no attempt has ever been 
made at cultivation. Considerable prospecting has 
been done for gold in the vicinity of the meadows, 
but no large results have been met. Gen. 0. H. 
Evans, of Nevada County, is the owner of large 
mining locations, upon which he has been tunneling 
for several years, at a place several miles up the 
valley, called Chalk Bluffs. Sheep and cattle are 
kept here during the summer in large numbers, being 
driven in over the road ma Murderer's Bar, Forest 
Hill, Secret House, Tadpole Lake, Main Top, and 
across Duncan Canon. Splendid trout-fishing is to 
be had in the stream, running through the meadows, 
while various kinds of mountain game are plentiful, 
from quail to bear. 

PIOATUNE VALLEr 

is simply an extension of the river valley in which 
French Meadows occur, lying upon the southern 
branch of the stream, while continuous bottom 
lands are found up the northern fork until the base 
of the ridge dividing the waters of the North and 
Middle Forks of the American is reached, ascending 
which Soda Springs Valley, to which a wagon-road 
from Summit Station on the Central Pacific Eail- 
road is constructed, and where thei-e is a noted sum- 
mer resort. At this place, too, in 1864, did the pros- 
pectors rush and form a district, and locate many 
claims, with high-sounding titles, for mining pur- 
poses. 

SODA SPRINGS VALLEY 

Is at the head of the North Fork of the American, 
about ten miles west of Lake Tahoe. I-n natiu^l 



beauty, picturesque scenery, and romantic land- 
scapes it stands out unique and wonderful in all the 
features that compose it, surrounded by lofty mount- 
ain peaks, with their bare, rugged granite sides ex- 
posed, and with shaded depressions filled with snow. 
It is at this point where the great tunnel of seven 
miles in length, proposed by Colonel Von Schmidt to 
divert the waters of Lake Tahoe into the North 
Fork, has its exit to the California side of the Sierra. 

AMERICAN VALLEY, 

Big and Little, lie at the extreme head of the 
Middle Fork of the American, and at an elevation of 
over 7,000 feet. A number of years ago, during the 
prevalence of the wagon road and mining excite- 
j ments in the neighborhood, Jorge Ballen, or, as he 
is commonly called, Greek George, built a house in 
Little American Valley, and kept store as well as 
public house for the accommodation of travelers. 
He and his wife concluded at one time to remain 
there all winter, and brave the rigors of the climate. 
The one hibernation there, however sufficed, as the 
snow fell early and remained late, and most of the 
time was twenty feet deep. Mrs. Ballen did not 
leave the house for a period of five months, and then 
made her first appearance from that long imprison- 
ment in the month of April, after her husband had 
shoveled a trail from the door of the house to the 
roof, to which she ascended, and there, upon a 
blanket spread for the occasion stood for awhile to 
bask in the sunlight from which she had been so 
long deprived — the snow at that time being, by 
actual measurement, just five feet deeper than the 
apex of the roof 

A climb of half a mile east of the house brings 
one to the top of a ridge overlooking nearly the 
whole of Lake Tahoe and surroundings, and is mag- 
nificent, the point of observation being perhaps four 
miles distant from the northwestern shore of the lake, 
some 1,500 feet above it, with Squaw Valley inter- 
vening, and the valley of the Truckee stretching 
away to the northward, the railroad in view at a 
distance, while Tahoe City is at the feet of the 
beholder, and the summer cottages between that and 
McKinney's — in fact a bird's-eye view of the whole 
scene is at once taken in — the immense water sheds 
at the heads of the Itubieon, and of the South, Mid- 
dle and North Forks of the American and their innu- 
merable tributaries in the sinuosities; the unequaled 
grandeur of the mountain meadows spread out at 
the feet, verdant with freshly-grown herbage; 
craggy and fantastic peaks; gigantic forests of 
conifera; leaping cascades; snowy, bleak, hoary and 
grand old mountains, rendered doubly magnificent 
by the reflection in the blue waters of the lake. The 
American Valleys are now used exclsively as a sum- 
mer pasturage for stock. 

ANIMALS. 

Among the wild animals of the high Sierra are 
four distinct varieties of bear — cinnamon, brown, 



RIVER BARS, VALLEYS, ETC. 



407 



black, and an occasional grizzly. The black bear 
invariably has a white spot about the size of a 
man's hand on the breast. The cinnamon differs 
from the brown bear in that it has a longer and 
differently shaped head, and, next to the grizzly, is 
more dangerous to attack than the black or brown. 
Trappers in the mountains number among their 
captures the following fur-bearers: Fishers, pine 
martin, mink, otter, and black, red, silver-gra}' and 
cross fox; muskrats have also been caught in the 
Truckee River. 

To the larger game mentioned may be added, 
deer, gray squirrel, grouse, and mountain quail, in 
the high Sierra; valley quail, doves, and wild 
pigeons, in the foot-hills and valleys. When the 
region was first occupied herds of antelope, num- 
bering thousands in a bfidy, fed on the plains, and 
elk, and deer, and coyotes were quite plentiful, and 
all the streams abounded in fish. Now the game 
is confined to the mountains, and mining has 
driven the fish from the rivers. 

AN AMPHIBIOUS SIOUSE. 

Perhaps the smallest of the furred amphibia that 
exists, and of which no mention has ever hitherto 
been made, is a tiny creature resembling an ordi- 
nary mouse, which is common along the clear 
streams of the high Sierra. Does a solitary camper 
seek the bed of the creek for water with which to 
wash down his noonday lunch, and keep quiet 
alongside of the huge granite bowlders that lie so 
thickly about him, more than likely will he see one 
or more of these little fellows peei'ing forth from 
their lurking places, and finally stealing out to 
gather up the fallen crumbs. If he remains quiet 
he will see them, after finishing their repast on 
land, go directly to the water, plunge in, and swim 
and walk beneath its clear surface with as little 
inconvenience as if treading dry land. Its body 
is no more than one and one-half inches long, 
while the tail appears the same as that of the 
common mouse. In color, it is bluish, or maltese, 
and altogether is a curious little creature. 

UNCLASSIFED BIO TREES. 

There is a group of big trees, four or five in 
number, in" Placer County, on the divide between the 
North Fork of the American and Duncan Cafion, 
east of Last Chance, and near a locality known as 
" Black Joe's Diggings." The largest of these trees 
was originally 300 feet in height, before it lost its 
top in a gale of wind. Several years ago the tree 
also fell, and is about thirty feet in diameter at the 
butt, tapering symmetrically to the top. The bark 
of these trees, unlike those of the Mariposa and 
other mammoth conifera,is quite thin, being but a few 
inches thick. The wood alone of the prostrate tree 
is thirteen feet in diameter, fifty feet up from the 
ground, and is soil and white, though at the same 
time susceptible to a high polish. They are doubt- 
less all of their kind there is in the State, and never 



have been classified because of their isolated situa- 
tion. 

MINING ON BEAE RIVER IN '49. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Bear River is to-day 
turgid with thickened water, and that the gorge in 
which this slickens-laden element runs is now broad- 
ened by the resultant eff^ects of the artificial erosion 
east from adjacent hills to a width of many yai-ds, 
and a depth of near 100 feet; that dead, barkless, 
and rotting trees stand all along its sinuous way, 
casting out their bare and verdureless limbs in every 
direction as warning finger-posts to guide from cor- 
roding art's insiduous realm, time was when that 
stream, with all its ravines and tributaries, were 
marvelous in their natural beauty. Pleasant little 
flats covered with trees and bunch grass; clamber- 
ing grapevines; pebbly bars; moss-eovcred bowl- 
dei's; clear, bright water inhabited by myriads of 
fish; fringes of cedars, spruce, fir, pines, yews, maples, 
and ash, greeted the eyes of the pioneers who first 
sought the banks of Bear River above its deboucheur 
from the foot-hills into the valleys, while below were 
extensive meads of bottom lands black in the moldy 
richness which had been caused by the aggregation 
of ages of alternate overflow, of thrifty vegetable 
growth, and annual decomposition. 

Not noted as a great gold-producing stream, it has 
yet yielded up much treasure in its time. Many 
were the bars along its banks that in 1849 were 
sure to produce an ounce and a quarter to each 
100 buckets of gravel washed out by rocker. That 
fall, about duo north from Illinoistown, were a 
party of eight men from Palmyra, New York, 
among whom were I. N. Hoag and Joe Under- 
wood, engaged in their maiden eff'orts at gold dig- 
ging. And they did well, stripping off" and throw- 
ing away top gravel that would have yielded five 
cents a pan had it been washed, to get at that 
which was ultimately worked. It is doubtful if the 
bed of Bear River, or the bars, were ever worked 
as thoroughly as their merit deserved, before being 
overwhelmed by debris from the hills. In the 
spring of 1851 a party of seven men went on to 
Bear River from S. D. Burge's place, on Doty's 
Ravine, intending to put in the entire Summer at 
mining there; but the melting snow caused hi^h 
water, and no work of account could be done the 
first few weeks. Fourteen claims were located in 
the stream, and the camp was made upon a bar 
not a great way below Dutch Flat. About this time 
the Gold Bluff excitement began, and the rumors 
of wealth to be found on the far-away northern 
coast made the men restive while inactive and 
waiting for the snow to go ofi". S. D. Burge was 
of the party, and as ho was permanently located on 
a ranch within one day's travel, while the others 
had no permanent abiding-place, they finally pro- 
posed to " sell " to him. He did not wish to buy, 
but for fun off"ered them half an ounce for diggings, 
tent and outfit. They took him at his offer and left. 



408 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



As ho could not yet work in the stream, the place 
on which the tent stood looked the more favorable 
spot to prospect, and so ho sank a hole there. The 
first pan, after getting to bed-rock, yielded S52, and 
it was not many weeks before Burge folded his tent 
and went back to his ranch on Doty's Ravine with 
$9,000. Many other incidents of like character as 
the foregoing could be related, but the above suflSces 
for an illustration. 



CHAPTER XLVIIL 
OBITUARIES OF PIONEERS. 

To some arc given spirits high and daring, 
And stouter hearts than others of their kind ; 

Who never know the sense of fear and fearing, 
Who never in the race are left behind. 

And while wc throng to do our country honor — 
Our golden State, the proudest of her peers — 

May it not he that with our blessings on her 
Are mingled those of long-gone pioneers ? 

— O'CONNELL. 

In closing the history of Placer County a brief fare- 
well notice is due to those of her prominent pioneer 
citizens who have passed from the stage of their 
early toils, triumphs, and disappointments, hoping to 
revive a kind and sympathetic memory of those who 
bore a part in the settlement and development of the 
State. Many have been noticed in the preceding 
pages whoso names will not be found in this chapter, 
and the records of many are lost. 

Benj. C. Allen, one of Auburn's old-time and 
prominent residents, died at his residence in Ct^nter- 
ville, R. I., March 20, 1S80. Mr. Allen was a mem- 
ber of the firm of Hall & Allen, bankers, of Auburn, 
and, to use the language of an old acquaintance, 
"Ben. Allen was a glorious fellow." He was socia- 
ble, and accommodating. 

Lisbon Applegate, a pioneer citizen of Placer 
County, and one of the projectors of the tunnel at 
upper Horseshoe Bar, on the Middle Fork, in 1850, 
father of George W. Applegate, died at Keytsville, 
Missouri, January 23, 1875. Judge Applegate came 
to California in 1849, and for several years lived 
at Lisbon, between Auburn and lilinoistown, which 
place was named after him. He was a practical 
surveyor, and assisted in locating the western bound- 
ary of the State of Missouri, as well as making 
extensive surveys in the celebrated " Platte Pur- 
chase." In 1845 he was a member of the Constitu- 
tional Convention of Missouri, and during his life- 
lime filled many important public trusts. 

Judge L. B. Arnold, one of the leading citizens of 
Dutch Flat, and once County Judge, died at his 
home, March 10, 1879, at the age of sixty-five. 

John Bahney, a native of Switzerland and a resi- 
dent of Placer County since 1852, died at his home 
between Clipper Gap and Colfax, June 20, 1880, aged 
eighty-seven years. He was a highly rcsp(;cted 
citizen, a member of llie Independent Order of Odd 



Fellows, and remarkably vigorous in his extreme 
age. His wife, Marian Bahney, followed on the 26th 
of January, 1881, aged sixty-seven years. 

B. H. Bartlett, for twenty years a resident of 
Dutch Flat, a gentleman very highly respected, died 
May 10, 1879. He was a native of Maine, forty- 
seven years of age. 

C. Beckman fell over an embankment near Forest 
Hill, December 25, 1872, and was almost instantly 
killed. He was a gentleman of more than ordinary 
talent and correct judgment, and as a citizen was 
highly esteemed. Mr. Beckman was a native of 
Mecklenburg, Germany, and was thirty-nine years of 
age. 

Conrad John Belty, a native of Germany, died at 
Wisconsin Hill, May 5, 1871, aged ninety-three 
years. Deceased was a good and brave man. Three 
times was he decorated on the field of battle with 
medals by his commanding generals. His last bat- 
tle was Waterloo. 

Wm. Bissett, died at Rock Creek, Juno 18, 1875, 
aged sixty-six years. He was one of the oldest res- 
idents of that section of the country, and was always 
respected as one of Rock Creek's best citizens. 

E. L. Bradley, an old resident of Placer County, 
but later of San Jose, died at his home in the latter 
place, July 17, 1S80. Mr. Bradley was a valuable 
acquisition as a citizen to any community. 

Mark Buckley, one of Placer's oldest residents, 
died at his home near Clipper Gap, November 21, 
1880. He lived to the good old age of seventy- 
seven. 

Thomas CoflFey died at Pino Grove, March 24, 1860, 
in the thirty-first year of his age. Ho was formerly 
of Staten Island, New York, and came to California 
in 1849. He was a resident of Placer County, dur- 
ing the entire period. Possessing many qualities to 
insure the good will of men, he died leaving sincere 
mourners. 

William Cory died at Auburn, September 20, 1863, 
aged thirty-nine years. He was a native of Eng- 
land, but at an early age came to California. At the 
time of his death he was County Clerk of the county 
of Placer, an amiable gentleman, upright in his deal- 
ing, and firm and true to his friends. 

Edward Cook died at Auburn, August 14, 1861, of 
consumption. Mr. Cook was formerly from New 
York, and camo to California in 1849. He was 
thirty-three years of age. 

Paul Cox, one of Placer's oldest pioneers, was, 
instantly killed by falling from a loaded wagon, 
September 6, 1870. Deceased had been a resident of 
Coon Creek for twenty years, and was particularly 
noted for his quiet, sober, and industrious habits. 

George Crisman died at his home in Auburn, May 
14, 1879. Deceased was forty-seven j-ears of ago. 
Few men were better liked, none would be missed 
more. 

Col. Geo. Cullum died at Lincoln, December 23, 
1877. He was a native of Ohio, aged seventy-four 




o 

a 

00 

<c 

_l 

o 



OBITUARIES OF PIONEERS. 



4ort 



years, ten tnonths, and four days. He oamo to 
Placer in 1852, where he resided up to the time of 
Ills death, and was hold in high esteem by all who 
knew him. 

Edgar Culver died in Newcastle, May 23, 1871. 
Deceased was an early settler in Auburn, having 
been a member of the firm of Hubbard, Woodin & 
Culver, in Auburn, in 1852-53. He was universally 
esteemed by all his acquaintances. 

\Vm. H. Davis, an old resident of Auburn, died at 
Iowa Hill, October 11, 1880. Deceased was a native 
of Woodstock, Maine, and was an excoptionall}^ good 
man. 

Horace Davenport died at Newcastle, December 
3, 1875. Mr. Davenport came from New York to 
California in 1851, and settled at Rattlesnake Bar, 
where he resided until 1870, when he removed to 
Newcastle. He was an intelligent man, an honored 
citizen, and a good neighbor. 

A. C. Denton died at Lincoln, December 25, 1877. 
He was an old resident of Placer, and a native of 
Kentucky, and was seventy-seven years of age. 

Thomas Dodds died at Todd's Valley, December 10, 

1880. Of Mr. Dodds, it can be said that no man 
was his superior in moral rectitude, and strict busi- 
ness integrity. He was a native of vScotland, and 
aged sixty-six years. 

Michael Donnelly, a native of New York, aged 
fifty-two j-ears, died at Forest Hill, December 28, 

1881. Deceased was well-known by everybody on the 
divide, where he had resided since the early days of 
California gold mining. 

Daniel Downs, who came to California in 1849, 
and resided in Placer County from that time to the 
day of his death, died at Rocktin, February 20, 1875. 
Mr. Downs was a native of Monticello, Sullivan 
County, New York, and, at the time of death, aged 
sixty-eight years. His naturally quiet and kind dis- 
position won for him the respect of all, and there 
can be said of him what can be told of few — he left 
not an enemy behind. 

Thos. Bntwistle, an old Californian, and an old and 
higTily esteemed resident of Iowa Hill, met his death 
in the Aurora Mine, June 8, 1880. 

Henry Hart Fellows died at Auburn, July 8, 1874, 
aged thirty-eight years. Mr. Fellows was an old 
resident of Placer County, and an attornoj^ by pro- 
fession. 

Mr. Robert J. Fisher died in Auburn, August 8, 
1861, of enlargement of the heart. He was thirtj'- 
four years of age, and a native of Baltimoi'o, Mary- 
land. In 1849 he came to what is now Auburn. 
Unlike many of the gold-hunters of those days, who 
were constantly wandering after richer diggings, 
Mr. Fisher remained upon the scene of his first essay 
at mining, and saw the scattered camp assume the 
shape of a town, and receive its name of Auburn. 
He was a man of amiable disposition and kindness 
of heart. 



Henry B. Force died at Auburn, January 19, 1856. 
Deceased was thirty -two years of ago. He was a 
member of the bar, and editor of the Placer Fresx 
for a short time. 

Capt. S.J. Frisbiu died at Michigan BluflF, Septem- 
ber 27, 1862, aged forty years. He was a native of 
Pennsylvania. He came to California in 1850, and 
was a resident of Placer County during that entire 
period, variously occupied in mining and merchan- 
dising. He was a worthy citizen, and commanded 
the respect of friends and acquaintanec.-i. 

John P. Gaines, a native of Virginia, aged sixty- 
three, died at his home, near Auburn, October 22, 
1879. Deceased crossed the plains in 1849, and was 
a continual resident of the count}-. 

Mrs. Eliza Elliott Gibson, the second white woman 
resident in Auburn, died at her residence in Silver 
City, Nevada, March 11, 1872. Deceased arrived in 
Auburn in the spring of 1850, and remained until 
1864, when she removed to Nevada. She was a 
kind-hearted, c.ip;ible, and industrious business lady, 
and many there are who have cause to remember 
her as the good Samaritan of Auburn. 

Robert Gordon, one of the oldest residents of 
Auburn, and a very highly respected and much 
osteemed citizen, came to his death Janu.iry 8, 1877, 
b}' the accidental discharge of a pistol which he 
was handling. Deceased was a native of Ireland, 
aged fifty-four years. 

John R. Gwynn died at Auburn, April 27, 1876, 
aged seventy-six years, six months, and eighteen 
days. Mr. Gwynn vvas one of California's earliest 
pioneers and one of Placer's oldest citizens, having 
arrived in Auburn with his family from his native 
State, Maryland, in September, 1850. Mr. Gwynn 
possessed, as he well deserved, the profound respect 
of all his acquamtances, and was a kind, generous, 
and indulgent parent. 

Wm. Hamilton died at Doty's Flat, December 9, 
1881, aged fifty-one years. Deceased came to C:ili- 
fornia in 1859, and settled near Ophir, where he 
resided up to the time of his death. 

Dr. John P. Harper died at Yankee Jim's, Novem- 
ber 23, 1854. He was a native of Virginia, and was 
thirty yeai-s of age. He came to Auburn in 1851, 
and commenced the practice of his profession. 

Dr. J. C. Hawthorne, at one time State Senator 
from Placer County, and for many years Superin- 
tendent of the Oregon Insane Asylum, died at his 
homo in Portland, February 15, 1881. Ho was an 
old resident of Placer, but had moved to Oregon 
several years previous to his death. 

J, M. Hogue died at Newcastle, June 3, 1872. 
Deceased was a pioneer of Placer County, and one 
of her most worthy and highly esteemed citizens. 
He was a member of the Constitutional Convention 
of Illinois in 1847-48, besides holding many positions 
of trust in that State. All who knew him were his 
friends; enemies, he had none. 



410 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Edward F. Holle died at his home in Auburn, 
November 21, 1880. Mr. Holle was a native of Ger- 
many, and came to Placer County in 1858. He was, 
therefore, one of the oldest residents. As a gentle- 
men and citizen, words seem wanting to express his 
full merits. 

Franklin I. Houston died at Auburn, June 30, 
1861, of inflammation of the brain. He was thirty 
years of age, and had resided in the county a number 
of years. He was a prominent member of the bar, 
and one of the compilers of the Placer County Direc- 
tory in 1861, a man of unwavering integrity, and a 
faithful and upright lawyer. 

John Jacob Howald died May 10, 1881. He was a 
native of Switzerland, aged eighty years, and had 
been a resident of Auburn for about thirty years. 

John Larkin died at Stewart's Flat, May 12, 1863, 
in the thirty -second year of his age. He was bora 
in Tipperai'y, Ireland. Came to America when very 
young, and was a resident of Placer County from 
1849 to the time of his death. 

William Rafus Longley died in San Francisco, 
June 22, 1863. Judge Longley was about fortj"- 
years of age, and resided in Todd's Valley. He 
was a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and was 
held in high esteem. He was one of the original 
locators of the famous Dardanelles claim. He was 
widely known, and much respected for his sterling 
qualities. 

Wm. McErneruy died at Clipper Gap, March 16, 

1870. Deceased was a native of Ireland, aged 
thirty-three years, and came to Placer County in 
1856. He was an energetic man, and had accumu- 
lated considerable property and means. 

Col. Wm. McClure died at Oakland, February 1, 

1871. He was a native of Pennyslvania and was 
sixty -four years of age. For twenty years he was 
one of the most esteemed, honored, and loved of 
all of Placer's leading citizens. 

Mr. E. Mills died at Auburn, October 24, 1862, in 
the thirty-sixth year of his age. He was a native of 
Pennsylvania, but came to Placer County in 1851. 
He was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the county 
in 1854, and filled the oflSce with ability. 

Samuel G. Morris died at the American Hotel, in 
Auburn, April 9, 1871, in the fifty-seventh year of 
his age. He came from South Carolina to California 
in 1852, and located in Ophir. Mr. Morris was a 
man of sterling integrity, energetic, and honest in 
all his business dealings, and was universally loved 
and respected. 

Capt. P. Mundy died in Cisco October 14, 1872. 
He had been a resident of Placer County for many 
years and was ranked among her most popular, 
highly esteemed, and worthy citizens. He was a 
native of Ireland, and forty-nine years of age. 

James Munsell, Sr., died at Newcastle November 
6, 1879. Mr. Munsell came to California in 1849, and 
resided in Placer County up to the time of his 
death. 



James Nolan, a native of Ireland, aged forty- 
five years, and an old resident of Auburn, died at San 
Francisco October 2, 1869. 

Capt. John Nye died at Washington, D. C, July 
7, 1871. He came to California in 1849, and was a 
resident of Placer County for many years. Previ- 
ous to coming to California he had been Mayor of the 
city of Mobile, besides holding several other high 
offices. Deceased was a man of warm impulses and 
fine conversational powers. 

W. K. Parkinson died at Carson City in Octo- 
ber, 1869. Deceased crossed the plains and arrived 
in Auburn in 1852. He resided in Auburn until 1861 , 
when he removed to Humboldt County, Nevada, 
where he filled several high offices with trust and 
honor. In 1866 he was elected State Controller, 
which office he held at the time of his death. 

Joseph Perkins died at his homo near Clipper 
Gap, September 15, 1880. Ho was an old resident 
of Placer and a California pioneer. It is said that 
he commanded the first sailing vessel that ascended 
the Sacrmento River in 1849. He was a respected 
gentleman. 

Mrs. Rosanna Redfern died May 2, 1881. She 
had lived at Virginiatown since 1850, and through 
the lapse of thirty years had seen that place stripped 
of its once large mining population and all the 
houses that were at one time the scene of so much 
business. She had a good, a generous, and noble 
heart. Few ladies were better or more favorably 
known than was Mrs. Redfern. She was a native of 
Pennsylvania, aged fifty-two. 

Daniel A. Rice died at Newcastle, November 23, 
1881. Ho had been a resident of Placer County for 
thirty years and was a substantial, energetic and 
intelligent citizen. 

Jonathan Roberts died in Auburn, January 27, 
1853, in the fifty-second year of his age. Deceased 
was one of the organizers of Placer County, together 
with Joseph Walkup, J. D. Fiy, H. M. House and 
Wm. Gwynn, and was afterwards elected Public 
Administrator. 

Siffroid B. Roussin, one of Auburn's earliest pio- 
neers, died at Auburn, July 5, 1857. He was highly 
esteemed as a man of sterling integrity, of high 
sense of honor, and as a kind and generous friend. 
In his native State, Missouri, he filled several high 
and honorable offices and was a memberof the Leg- 
islature, but no temptation seduced him from his 
duty and no act of his sullied his reputation. 

Andrew Sampson Shaw, a forty-niner, died in Alta, 
December 13, 1879. Deceased was a native of Massa- 
chusetts. He lived formerly at Forest Hill, but for 
the twenty years previous to his death he had been 
a resident of Dutch Flat and Alta. 

Daniel Sickles died at Virginiatown, December 19, 
1881. Mr. Sickles was one of the old pioneers of 
Placer, having been a resident of the county since 
1850. He was seventy-two years of age, and a 
native of New York. 



OBITUARIES OF PIONEERS. 



411 



L. G. Smith died at Rocklin, November 24, 1880, 
aged fifty-four years. Deceased came to the county 
in 1850, in company with J. T. Kinkade, of Auburn, 
with whom he crossed the plains in 1849. 

Col. Richard N. Suowden, in the early days of 
California a resident of Auburn, died at Union ville, 
Nevada. September 16, 1863. 

Mr. John Stephens, a brother of Thos. E. Ste- 
phens and Mrs. M. Andrews, of Auburn, was killed 
at the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, in the 
front rank of his company. He was nineteen years 
of age and a member of Company A, Ninth Regi 
ment, " Hawkins' Zouaves." It was his first battle. 
Peace to the memory of the gallant youns; soldier. 

Daniel Stephenson died on his farm near Rose- 
ville, November 13, 1881, aged sixty-three years. 
Deceased was familiarly known as " Uncle Dan," 
or "Blackhawk," and was a native of North Caro- 
lina. He came to California in 1857, and at one 
time was an unsuccessful candidate for Legislative 
honors from this county. 

Leander Strong, a native of New York, aged fifty- 
three j'ears, died at Auburn, April 3, 1880. Deceased 
was an old Placerite, having come to the county in 
1849. 

Gen. J. B. Taylor died at Rock Creek, near 
Aubui'n, October 25, 1875. He was an old resident 
of Placer County, and a much respected citizen. He 
was a native of Kentucky and aged fifty-eight years. 

Dr. S. P. Thomas died at Sacramento, January 11, 
1878. Deceased was an old Placerite and a native 
of Maine, aged fifty-four years. 

Thomas Uren died at Dutch Flat, December 19, 
1873. Deceased came to California in 1848, and was 
consequently one of the oldest pioneers of the State. 
He was a machinist by trade, a good man by will, 
and a good companion by nature. 

David Wade died at the Grizzly Bear House, April 
21, 1863, aged thirty-four years. Mr. W. was an 
old resident of Placer County, and respected by all 
who knew him. 

Elisha Webb, who was counted among Placer's 
old and respected citizens, died July 31, 1881. He 
was a native of Ohio, aged forty-four j'ears. 

Jacob Welty died November 17, 1879, on his farm 
near Lincoln. Deceased was well-known in the 
county, having served one term in the Legislature 
from Placer County. 

Mr. James Wells, one of the old and very highly 
esteemed citizens of Michigan Blufl", died at San 
Francisco September 13, 1880. 

Mr. George Willment, one of Placer's earliest set- 
tlers and a '49er, died at Auburn December 22, 1878, 
aged fiftj'-eight years. His honesty and integrity 
were proverbial. 

John B. White died at Pine Grove, January 5, 
1864, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. He was 
a nafive of Maine. At the time of his death he 
was Collector of Township No. 9, and an active and 
efficient officer. 



John Winders, aged sixty-seven j'ears, a native 
of Virginia, and for many years a resident of 

Auburn, died at Stockton March 25, 1872. He came 

to California in 1847, and was at Sutter's Mill with 
Marshall and others during the winter of 1847-4S. 
Winders, in company with others, aided in quieting 
the troubles of the Indian massacre which occurred 
at Murderer's Bar at this time, and from which it 

received its name. He was a brave and upright man. 

THE POPULATION OP PLACER COUNTY IN 1880. 

Township No. 1 : 

Roseville .... ..... ... 258 

Other portions of townshij), aggregate . 660 

Total, Township No. 1. . 918 

Township No. 2: 

Ophir... 595 

Virginiatown. 514 

Mount Pleasant. .. . . 99 

Total, Township No. 2. . . . ... 1,208 

Township No. 3; 

Auburn 1,229 

Other portions of township, aggregate. 820 

Total, Township No. 3.. 3,049 

Township No. 4: 

Dutch Flat 939 

Colfax 591 

Gold Run. 377 

Towle's Mills 225 

Blue Canon ... 162 

Emigrant Gap . 137 

Alta. 120 

Other portions of township, aggregate 764 

Total, Township No. 4 3,315 

Township No. 5: 

Forest Hill 688 

Butcher Ranch 227 

Todd's Valley. . . . 226 

Yankee Jiin'^ 150 

Total, Township No. 5 1,291 

Township No. 6: 

Michigan Blutr. .. . . 468 

Bath 172 

Total, Township No. 6 640 

Township No. 7: 

Iowa Hill - 456 

Sunny South . . 145 

Damascus . 71 

Wisconsin Hill 66 

Humbug Cafion 50 

Grizzly^Plat 48 

Bird's Flat ; 48 

Monona Flat .... 47 

Sucker Flat 21 

Total, Township No. 7 952 

Township No. 8; 

Canada Hill 35 

Tahoe City .- - 32 

Deadwood 31 

Last Chance. 26 

Long Cafion 25 

American Hill 16 

Total, Township No. 8 165 



412 



HIRTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Township No. 0: 

fiocklin 

Penryn 

Newcastle 

Julian Mine. ..... . 

Other portions of township, aggregate. 

Total, Township No. 9 

Township No. 10: 

Lincoln 

Sheridan . .. 

Other portions of township, aggregate . 



Total, Township No. 10. 
Township No. 11: 

Cisco 

Hot Springs 

Cold Stream 

Middle Fork 

Truckee River. . . 

Texas Diggings 

Summit. . . . . . . 

Lake Valley . . 



624 
238 
162 
63 
953 



2,U40 

275 
125 
900 

1,300 

73 
56 
54 
45 
38 
34 
28 
20 



Total, Township No. 11.. 348 

Grand Total ..... . . . 14,226 

The population is classified as follows: White 
males, 7,12.5; white females, 4,928; Chinese, 2,125; 
Indians, 100. Increase in past ten years, 2,921. 
Population of ('aliloriiia, 864,686. Increase in ten 
years, 303,190. 

Total gold product of California, $1,147,000,000, 
of which Placer County has produced one-tenth, or 
«114,700,000. 

ALTITUDES IN PL.\CER COUNTr, 

As furnished by W. A. Goodyear, of the State Geo- 
logical Survey, June 28, 1872: — 

LOCATION. FEE'l' 

Toll House at Rice's Bar, North Fork Ameri- 
can River .... 1 146 

Parker House, Iowa Hill ... 2867 

Summit First Sugar-Loaf, Iowa Hill .3^084 

Mr. Teasland's House, Wisconsin Hill 2,880 

Highest crest of ridge between Elizabeth and 

King's Hills. 3.065 

Hotel at Damascus .4016 

Summit of Secret Hill- 6 051 

Miller's Defeat ...!.. '5812 

Last Chance _ 4 545 

Hotel at Deadwood 3943 

Express Office, Michigan Bluff .3'488 

Forest House, ForestHill. .. . 3,230 

Yankee Jim's. .. . _ 2574 

Todd's Valley. . . . 2738 

Ford'r, Bar, mouth of Otter Creek " . ' '795 

Roseville j (j3 

Rocklin 249 

I'ino ..;; 403 

Newcastle _ 97O 



Auburn .1,363 

Clipper Gap 1^759 

New England Mills 2 289 

Colfax .2'421 

Cape Horn 2,692 

Gold Run 3^206 

Dutch Flat 3,403 

Alta. ...3^612 

Shady Run . . 4 154 

China Ranch 4 411 

Blue Cafion _ 4 gyg 

Emigrant Gap _ _ 5^230 

Cisco _ _ 5^939 

Tamarack q 191 

Cascade _ ^ . 6*520 

Summit 7 oi7 

Strong's. 6 J81 

Truckee 5^846 

THE RAIN-FALL. 

The climatology of California is diiTerent from 
that of any other portion of the United States, in 
fact the climate changes with localities, although of 
a general sameness. The year is divided into two 
seasons, the wet and the dry. The wet teason, 
extending from October to May, varies greatly in 
the amount of rain, and in the dry season rain some- 
times falls, usually about the first of July, but such 
fall is regarded as phenomenal. The physical fea. 
tures having the chief influence in governing the 
rains are the bi'oad expanse of ocean and the Sierra 
Nevada, and until these are changed there is little 
likelihood of the climate or seasons changing. 
Placer County is so situated as to be exempt from 
excessive drouth, the high Sierra intercepting and 
condensing the vapors brought bj^ the warm south 
winds of winter. A few statistics of rain-fall are 
here given, a complete record never having been 
kept: but the following will give a general idea of 
the average seasons: — 





i!>ro-7i. 

ISCHES. 


lsri-72.!lS75-7H. 
ISCJlEs. I.NCHES. 


187SI-SO. 

IN-OHES. 


1880-Sl. 
INCHKf. 


San Francisco 

Stockton 


13.0S 
4.53 
6.02 
10.07 
17.38 
24.33 
28.49 

31.48 

33 

34.25 
7.73 


33.49 : 28.17 


30 


27 


Sacramento 




: 




Rocklin 




1 


Auburn 

Colfax 


40 54 
47.16 


45.50 


38.64 


35.83 


Alta 




57 
1 Snow 
■/ 517^ 




Emigrant Gap 








Cisco 


56.69 
60.29 






Summit 






Boca 


16.87 


I 



The most complete record has been kept at San 
Francisco, from which estimates may be made for 
Placer County by subtracting from 15 to 20 ])er 
cent, in the Sacramento Valley portion, adding 
from 20 to 30 per cent, for Auburn, and 80 to 120 
per cent, for the Summit. 



Patrons Directory. 



Abbott, A. G Newcastle. 



RB8IDRNCK. 



Came to Came to 
State. County 



Abram, John 
Adams, F. D 
Aliart, Peter. 
Alabama Con.Mi'ngCo 

Albee, H. F 

Ambrose, William. 
Anderson, Chris. . . . 

Andrews, M '. 

Applegate, Geo. W. 

Arthur, Wm 

Ashley, J. T 

Atkinson, E.J 

Bales, J. S 

Banvard, E. M 

Barlow, Chas. D. . 

Barry, Wm 

Bell, A. 

Beruhard, B 

Bisbee, J. G 

Boardman, A. F. . . 

Boggs, John C 

Boles, R 

Bolton, James 

Bowley, Frank H. . 
Bowman, .Samuel. . . 

Brackett, G. F 

Bross, Peter, M. D. 
Brown, James B. . . 
Brown, John W. . . . 

Brown, J. R 

Brown, Otis 

Bullock, W. H 

Burnham, L. P. . . . 
Burns, Bobert F. . . 
Caldwell, Mrs. A. . . 

Carlson, J 

Carson, R. A 

Cassidy, M 

Chadwick, Geo B. . . 

Chappellet, F 

Chinn, J. W 

Choate, Mrs. A. F. 

Click, Daniel 

Coffin, Isaac T 

Coker, W. H 

Cook, Wm 

Coulton, John 

Crandall, J. R 

Crockett, H 

Crutcher, W. M.. . . 

Culver, E. W 

Curley, Tliomas. . . 
Dardanelles C.G.M.Co 
Davis, Thos A. . 
Davis, Walter S. 

Dixon, Jos 

Doran, James. . . 
Dunlap, J. W . . 



Sunny South 

Auburn 

Lincoln 

Penryn 

Newcastle 

Auburn 

Lincoln 

Auburn 

Applegate 

Forest Hill 

Auburn 

Pleasant Grove. . . . 

Rocklin 

Alta 

Forest Hill 

Doty's Flat 

Bald Hill 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Rattlesnake 

Rocklin 

Monona 

Forest Hill 

Rocklin 

Colfax 

Ophir 

Mt. Pleasant Prec't 
Iron Mt. Ranch . . . 

Rocklin 

Auburn 

Damascus 

Michigan Bluff. . . . 

Penryn 

U. S. Ranch 

Auburn 

Lincoln 

Dutch Flat 

Young America. . . . 

Iowa Hill 

Ophir 

Sheridan 

Dutch Flat 

Auburn 

Pine Grove 

Bear River, Camp 19 

Auburn 

Forest Hill. . . 

Auburn. 

Newcastle .... 

Colfax 

Forest Hill. . . . 

Bath 

Auburn 

Gold Run 

Roaeville 

Michigan Bluff 



Wagonmaker and blacksmith. New Hampshire. 

Hotel-keeping [England 

Recorder and Auditor |Massachusetts . 

Ranching Germany 

Alabama Mine 

Merchant iNew Brunswick. 

Agent Bear River Ditch [Rhode Island. . . 

Potter Denmark 



POST-OFFICR. 



Watchmaker, jew 'rand banker 

Fruit-grower 

Mining 

Under Sheriff.. 

Ranching and stock 

Brakeman 

Proprietor Banvard's Hotel. 

Mining 

Fruit-raiser 

Farming and mining 

Wine and fruit . 

County Treasurer 

Mining 

Sheriff 

Fruit-grower and miner 

Ranching 

Mining and carpentering 

Mining 

Fireman C. P. R. R 

Physician and surgeon 

Mining and fruit 

Farming 

Ranching 

Ranching 

Lawyer 

Mining 

School teacher 

Fruit-raising 

Proprietor Toll House 

Plasterer and mason 

Hotel-keeper 

Merchandising and mining. . . 

Miner 

P. M. and Express Agent 

Store and saloon 

Propr Sheridan Flour-mill. . . . 

Owner Water Works 

Deputy Sheriff 

Granite quarry and farming. . . 

Stock-raising 

Horticulturist & phys'n (ret'd) 

Teaming 

Owner Water Works. . 
Merchant and P. M.. . . 
Owner in part of hotel & sta'n 



Hotel 

Mining 

Butcher 

Track Inspector 

Superintendent Eureka Ditch 



Massachusetts . . 

Missouri 

England 

Vermont 

New York 

Ohio 

New York 

Massachusetts . . 

Ireland 

Tennessee 

Germany 

Maine . , 

Vermont 

Pennsylvania. . . 

Ohio 

Ireland 

Maine 

Ohio 

Maine 

Virginia 

Pennsylvania . . . 

Missouri 

Georgia 

New York 

Massachusetts . . 

Maine 

Massachusetts . , 

New York 

Sweden 

Pennsylvania. . , 

Ireland 

Ohio 

France 

Virginia 

Massachusetts . 

Germany 

New Hampshire 

Maine . . 

England 

England 

Massachusetts . 

Maine 

Kentucky 

California 

New York 



California 

Massachusetts 

Maine 

California. ... 
Ohio 



1871 
1860 
1852 
1852 



1851 
1855 
1875 
1849 
1849 
1850 
1853 
1853 
1872 
1852 
1853 
1853 
1852 
1852 
1858 
1872 
1849 
1850 
1849 
1875 
186G 
1870 
1854 
1859 
1877 
1851 
1849 
1851 
1849 
1859 
1862 
1850 
1865 
1849 
1869 
1849 
1850 
1860 
1852 
1856 
1859 
1855 
1869 
1849 
1859 
1853 



1854 



1851 
1874 
1854 
1856 
1856 



1871 
1860 
1873 

1857 



Newcastle 

Michigan Bluff. 

Auburn 

Lincoln 2,200 



1868 
1876 
1878 
1849 
1850 
1853 
1853 
1855 
1872 
1855 
1865 
1871 
1852 
1852 
1858 
1872 
1849 
1850 
1849 
1875 
1866 
1870 
1866 
1859 
1877 
1851 
1849 
1851 
1850 
1S72 
1862 
1850 
1865 
1849 
1869 
1877 
1850 
1860 
1853 
1856 
1859 
1860 
1870 
1850 
1859 
1854 
1867 
1855 

issi 

1879 
1867 
1870 
1860 



Newcastle 

Auburn 

Lincoln 

Auburn 

Applegate 

Forest Hill 

Auburn 

Roseville 

Rocklin 

Alta 

Forest Hill. . . . 

Newcastle 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Newcastle 

Rocklin 

Iowa Hill 

Forest Hill 

Rocklin 

Colfax 

Ophir 

Lincoln 

Auburn 

Rocklin 

Auburn 

Damascus. . . , 
Michigan Bluff, 

Penryn 

Butcher Ranch 

Auburn 

Lincoln 

l>iitch Flat 

Forest Hill ... 

Iowa Hill 

Ophir 

Sheridan 

Dutch Flat 

Auburn 

Pino 

Colfax 

Auburn 

Forest Hill. . . 

Auburn 

Newcastle .... 
Colfax 



Bath 

Auburn . . . 
Gold Run . 
Roseville . 



3,000 



120 
160 
46 
160 



320 
160 
160 



80 

80 

1,200 

240 



120 
160 



500 
340 



160 
IGO 
23 



414 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



OESUIE.N'CE. 



POST-OFFICK. 



Duncan, John 

Durham, C. F 

Dyer, Mrs. Ellen 

Dyer, John R 

Farrell, Timothy. ... 

Fenton, H. W 

Fereva, A 

Filcher, J. A 

Finley, C. W 

Fogarty, John 

Forsyth Philip 

Foulks, John W 

Frost, H. A 

Gardner, Mrs. M. S. . 

Garrison, J. G 

Geissendorfer, George. 
Gladding, McBean&Co 

Gleeson, James 

Goding, T. F 

Grant, E 

Gregory, J. H 

Griffith, G 

Guilford, E. R 

Hale, J. E 

Hamilton, Mrs. Jo. . 

Haney, Austin 

Hanisch, G 

Hathaway, A. D. . . . 

Heaton, W. D 

Hector, Robt 

Hendershott. W. D. . 

Henny, C 

Herrold, Frank 

Hertlein, Joseph. . .' . 
Hicken, John B . . . . 
Hobson, John B. . . . 
Hollenbeck, 0. \V.. . 

Hosmer, T. N 

Howard, Frank 

Hudepohl, H. R.... 
Hudson, W. H. VV. 

Hulbert, J. W 

Hunter, T. J 

Hutchinson, Mrs. L. 

Hyland, J. J 

Jacobs, J. M 

Jesse, J. E 

Joesink, B. H 

Johnson, Levi 

Jones, Owen 

Jones, T. R 

Jones, William 

Joninan, Louis 

Juergensen, P. JN' . . . 
Kaiser, Frederick. . . 

Kaiser, John 

Kaiser, Samuel 

Karchner, N. H 

Kaseberg, T. W 

Kingsley, Ezra 

Kittles, Mrs. E 

Laird, J 

Lapham, Mrs. S. M. 

Lardner. W. B 

Lay cock, Scott 

Lay ton Bros 

Leavitt, F. C 

Lee, W. N 

Leeds, L. D 

Lewis, G. C 

Linn, J. B 

Loring, Chas. A 

Lothrop, Lee N 

Lubeck, D. W 

Lucas, R. B 

Macy, C. F 

Mahan, J. L 

Maher, Peter 

Mariner, J, S 

Martz, C. E 

Mayer, W. J 

McAllister, Wallace. 
McAninch, John. . . . 

McClung, John 

McCormick, Jas. . 



Todd's Valley 

Auburn 

Dry Creek 

Dry Creek 

Doton's Bar 

Auburn 

Newcastle 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Dry Creek . . 

Auburn 

Dutch Flat 

Dutch Flat 

Forest Hill 

iV. E. Mills 

Lincoln 

Wisconsin Hill .... 

Alta 

Peury n 

Penryn 

Penryn 

Sunny South 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Bath , . 

Roseville 

Kocklin 

Lincoln 

Rattlesnake . 

Penryn 

Ophir 

Leach's Mill 

Iowa Hill 

Roseville 

Iowa Hill 

Auburn 

Bath 

Mt. Pleasant Prec't. 

Dutch Flat 

Dutch Flat 

Auburn 

San Francisco 

Ophir 

Bath 

Auburn 

Sheridan 

Rocklin 

Roseville 

Damascus 

Roseville 

Lincoln 

Iowa Hill 

Sunny South 

Ophir 

Penryn 

Ophir 

Sheridan 

Pleasant Grove 

Clipper Gap 

Ophir 

Pino 

Ophir 

Auburn 

Forest Hill 

Clover Valley* 

Greenwood 

Alta 

Colfax 

Auburn 

Alta 

Rocklin 

Newcastle 

Auburn 

Sheridan 

Iowa Hill 

Emigrant Gap 

Auburn District. . . . 

Coon Creek 

Sleepy Hollow 

Virginiatown 



Mining 

Teacher Public School 

Farming 

Farming 

Ranching 

Publisher Placer Argus 

Engineeer 

Publisher Placer Herald 

Farming & ex-Co. Surveyor. . . 

Railroading 

Ranching 

Supt. Addie Mine 

Fruit-raiser 

Stkhldr in Gold Ru i D & M Co. 

Merchant 

Ranching and stock-raising . . . 
Sewer Pipe Manufacturing . . . 

Ditch Agent 

Ditch Agent 

Hotel-keeper 

Farmer 

Merchandizing, Granite Q'ry . 

Mining mrr:-.. . .t. . 7. 

Lawyer 

(husband) ex-Atty. Genl 

Mining 

Farming 

Granite Quarry 

Ranching 

Farming and fruit-raising 

Teaming 

Teaming and ranching 

Sawyer 

Mining 

Ranching and sheep-raiser . . , 

Mining Supt 

Banker and Agt. W., F. & Co. 

Mining 

Ranching 

Mercantile. 

Blacksmith & fruit-raiser. . . . 

Fruit-raiser 

Mining 

Boarding-house 

Mining 

Photographer 

Clerk 

Engineer on C. P. R. R 

Stock-raising 

Hotel and Mining 

R. R. Agt. and Tel. operater. . 

Ranching 

Mining 

Mining 

Mining and hunting 

Farming & wine & brandy M. . 

Quartz-miner 

Farming 

Stock-raiser 

Farming 

Hotel-keeper 

Mining 



U. S Ranch. 
Dry Creek . . 
Auburn 



Att'y at Law and Diet. Att'y. 

Mining 

Ranching 

Hydraulic mining 

Fruit-raising and farming. . . . 

Saloon 

Mining and ranching 

Fruit-raiser 

Engineer C. P. R. R 

Fruit-grower 

Merchandising 

Engineer 

Sect'y. I. Hill Canal & druggist 

Saloon and timber 

Farming 

Ranching and stock raising . . . 

Mining 

Farming 

Laborer in S. F. Mill 

Stage Prop., A. & Forest Hill L 
Farming and Stock-raising. . . . 
Miner 



Belgium. . . . . 

Maine 

Missouri 

Missouri 

Ireland 

Canada. 

Switzerland. . . . 

Iowa 

Tennessee 

Ireland 

North Carolina . 

New York 

Massachusetts. . 

Maine 

Maine 

Germany 

Established in . 

Ireland 

Massachusetts. . 

Maine 

Connecticut. 

Wales 

Massachnsetts . . 
Pennsylvania. . 

Kentucky 

California 

Austria 

Massachusetts . 

Ohio 

Germany 

New York 

Switzerland. . . 

Indiana 

Germany 

Germany 

Ireland 

Massachusetts. . 

Maine 

Kansas 

Hanover 

Maryland 

Pennsylvania. . 

Vermont 

Kentucky 

New York 

Ohio 

Missouri 

Holland 

Kentucky 

Wisconsin 

California 

South Wales. . . 

France 

G ermany 

Ohio 

Switzerland. . . 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania. . 

Germany 

Pennsylvania. . 

Germany 

Ireland 

Illinois 

Michigan 

Ohio 

Long Island . . . 
Massachusetts. . 

Michigan 

Ohio 

New York 

Ohio 

Maine 

Canada 

Ruasia 

Ohi 

Massachusetts. . 

Missouri 

Ireland 

Indiana 

Iowa 

New York 

Maine 

Ireland 

Kentucky 

Ireland 



1852 
1876 
1853 
1853 

im 

1874 
1859. 
1S49 
1S50 
1853 
1874 
18t)l 
1849 
1850 
1850 
1875 
1855 
1859 
1852 
1859 
1853 
1855 
1849 
18(51 
1856 
1854 
1871 
1852 
1862 
1852 
1855 
1873 
1862 
1859 
1857 
1854 
1850 
1874 
1854 
1865 
1861 
1858 
1856 
1853 
1853 
1875 
1860 
1850 
1851 
1853 
1859 
1853 
1S54 
1859 
1859 
1859 
1855 
1858 
1853 
1852 
1S54 
1871 
1872 
1870 
1856 
1860 
1S52 
1850 
1861 
1852 
1876 
1869 
1855 
1879 
1850 
1870 
1850 
1858 
1870 
1859 
1876 
1875 
1850 
1850 



iTodd's VaUey. 

Auburn 

Roseville 

Roseville 

Newcastle. ... 
lAuburn 



240 
240 
200 



Auburn . . . . 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Sacramento. . . 

Auburn 

Dutch Flat. . . 

Colfax 

Forest Hill.. . 
Colfax 



855 
859 
874 
859 
862 
868 
851 
861 
856 
868 
871 
852 
873 
855 
857 
873 
862 
859 
869 
855 
856 
877 
854 
863 
875 
880 
856 
853 
857 
878 
860 
851 
859 
878 
859 
876 
857 
859 
859 
859 
855 
863 
853 
852 
854 
875 
872 
872 
856 
879 
852 
850 
861 
871 
876 
875 
855 
879 
852 
870 
850 
853 
876 
872 
879 
880 
852 
851 



Iowa Hill 

Alta 

IPenryn 

Penryn 

Penryn 

-Michigan Bhiff; 

Auburn 

Auburn 

jBath 

Roseville 

Rocklin 

Lincoln. 

Sacramento. . . , 

Penryn 

jOphir 

Colfax 

'Iowa Hill 

; Roseville 

]Iowa Hill 

[Auburn 

;Bath 

Lincoln 

Dutch Flat. ... 
'Dutch Flat.... 

Auburn 

San Francisco. . 

Ophir 

jBath 

Auburn 

■Sheridan 

Rocklin 

Roseville 

Iowa Hill 

Roseville 

Lincoln 

Iowa Hill 

Michigan Bluff. 

Ophir 

Pino 

Ophir 

Sheridan 

Sacramento. . . . 
Clipper Gap . . . . 



60 
400 



70 

244 



240 
500 



320 



1,040 

360 

40 

80 



6,000 

"li 

ieo 



4,803 



6 
400 



6 
240 



640 
400 



160 



640 

5 

160 

160 

8 
200 

'36 



Pino 

Ophir 

Auburn 

Forest Hill . . . 

Rocklin 

Greenwood . . . 

Alta 

Colfax 

Auburn 

Alta 

Rocklin. .... 
Newcastle . . . 

Auburn 

.Sheridan 

Iowa Hill 

Emigrant Gap 
Auburn .... 

Sheridan 

Todd's Valley. 

Lincoln 

Sheridan ( 

Butcher Ranch. I 7 

Antelope | 1.100 

Auburn I 



80 

320 

3,000 

80 



PATRONS DIRECTORY. 



415 



McLaughlin Joseph 
McLennan, A. . . . 

McRea, A. B 

Mertes, Nicholas. . 
Messacar, Arthur. 
Mills, Mrs. R. A.. 
Mitchell, J. H.... 

Moody, J. F 

Monahan, W. R . . 
Martin, Edwin . . . 

Muir, Wm 

MuUer, Jac.bF.. 
Munaon, W. L. . . . 

Nash, J. D 

Neely, J. H 

NeflF, J. H 

Neher, A. D 

Newman, T). G. . . 

Nichols, T. J 

Nichols, Oeo. D. . 
Nickerson, J. A. . . 

Nixon, J. H 

Norton, D. V . . . . 
Nutting & Cooper. 

Page, A. N 

Pardy, E 

Peck, N. R .. .. 
Perkins, Dana. . . . 
Peters, Gerard. . . . 
Petterson, O.H.,M. U 

Phelan, E 

Philbrick, J. S 

Pillow, Mrs. Mary . . 

Pond, A. A 

Pratt, J. D 

Puffer, W. H 

Purington, C. E 

Putnam, S 

Quirolo, N 

Rea, Wm 

Reamer, S. E 

Reeves, Joshua 

Reeves, Walter J 

Roberts, Wm 

Rogers, E, C 

Rooney, R. F., M. 0. 

Ross, James 

Ross, John 

Seavey, 0. F 

Schafer, Jacob 

Schellhoua, Mrs. C. A, 
Schippman, John. . . . 

Schnabel, Ad. H 

Schuetze, A 

Shirland, E. D 

Shurtleff, A 

Silva C. M. & Son. . . . 

Simons, John 

Simpson, G. W 

Slaback, Aaron 

Smith, Wm 

Smyth & Dunahos. . 

Smyth, J. W 

Snyder, G. W 

Sparks, E. J 

Sparks, R. M 

Spaulding, John. . . 

Sp«ar, D. W 

Speidel, D. S 

Starbuck, J. B 

Stevens, S. M 

Sumner, Wayne, . . . 

Swears, John 

Taylor, Joseph 

Taylor, J. M 

Taylor, John N 

Thompson, Nels 

Todd, T. M., M. D. . 

Towie, Allen 

Tremelling Arthur. . 

Tudsbury, W. H 

Van Emon, H. L. . . 

Van V actor, W 

Walker, D. M 



Ophir 

Penryn 

Roseville. ... 
Dry Creek . . . , 

Penryn 

Rocklin ... 
Stewart's Flat. 

Gold Run 

Ophir 



Mining 

Foreman Penryn Granite Wks 

Farming 

Farming 

Engineer 

(husband) Engineer 

County Assessor 

Min'g & propr Gold Run Hotel 
Fruit orchard 



Pennsylvania. 

Scotland 

Canada 

Germany.. . . 
Michigan. ... 
Vermont. . . . 

Virginia 

Maine 

California. ... 



Michigan Bluff 
Dick's Hill Ranch 
Auburn 
Colfax 

Rocklin 

Colfax 

Roseville 

Newman's Ranch. . . 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Cal. Raisin Vineyard 

Doton's Bar 

Colfax 

Clipper Gap 

Newcastle 

Rocklin 

Ophir 

Rocklin 

Lincoln 

Iowa Hill 

Pino 

Lincoln 

Ophir 

Todd's Valley 

Roseville 

Penryn 

Michigan Bluff 

Auburn 

Todd's Valley 

Forest Hill 

Auburn 

Lincoln 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Sheridan 

Colfax 

Green Valley 

Long Ravine Bridge. 

Auburn 

C.P.R.R. paint shop 



Superintendent of mine 

Fruit-raising and winemaker. 

County Assessor 

Engineer "Rising Sun " 

C. P. R. R 

Mining and merchandizing. . . 
Blacksmith and wagon mfg. . 

Farming 

County Clerk 

Mail and express carrier 

Superintendent of vineyard. . 

Fruit- raising 

Toll House keeper 

Mining and fruit-raising 

Hotel proprietor 

Dairying 

Clergj'man and fruit-raising. . 
C. P. R. R. land agt. & ranc'g 

Potter 

Physician and surgeon 

Farming and stock-raising . . 

Ranching 

(husband) Mining 

Merchant and miner 

Merchant 

Blacksmith, mining and fruit. 

Superintendent of mine 

Propr Putnam H'e & lumber. 

Merchandising 

Hotel, millman and stage propr 

Ranching 

Ranching 

Freight Clerk and asst R.R.agt 
Part owner in Conrad Mine 

Ranching 

Physician and surgeon 

Mining 

Charge railroad bridge 

County Superintendent of Schls 
Painter .... 



Todd's Valley. .. 

Newcastle 

Penryn 

Auburn 

Ophir 

Newcastle 

Dutch Flat 

Applegate 

Newcastle 

Miller Town. . . . 
Horseshoe Bar. . 
Horseshoe Bar. . 
Damascus 

4 mis e of Sheridan 

Sunny South 

Dutch Flat 

Auburn 

Sheridan 

5 mis 3 w of Colfax 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Sheridan 

Forest Hill 

Ophir 

Rocklin 

Sheridan 

Auburn 

Dutch Flat 

Ophir 

Pino 

Michigan Bluff. . . . 

Iowa Hill 

Rocklin 



Mining 

Mining 

Butcher 

Stock-raiser 

Owner of .Shurtleff Mine 

Fruit-growers and nursery . . . 
Superintendent Baker's Mine 

Teaching 

Blacksmith 

Farming 



Mining and fruit-grower. . . 

Mining 

Ranching and Co. .Supervisor. 
Mining and part owner Hid.Tr, 

Supt. of S. Y. W. M. Co 

Mining and attorney at law . . . 

Millwright and carpenter 

Retired 

Druggist 

Lawyer 

Farming 

Butcher 

Mining 

Granite quarry 

Track Inspector 

Physician and surgeon 

Lumbering 

Quartz-miner 

Farming 

Owner of Van Emon Gravel M. 
Supt Iowa Hill Canal & Mines 
Railroad land agent 



Canada ......... 

Germany 

Maine 

Nova Scotia. . . 

Illinois 

Pennsylvania . . 

Ohio 

New York 

New York . . . . 

Ohio 

Missouri 

Tennessee. ... 

Illinois 

Vermont 

Maine 

New York 

Vermont 

New Hampshire, 

Iowa 

New York 

Indiana 

Massachusetts. . , 

England 

Massachusetts. . . 
Massachusetts. , 

New York 

Maine 

New Hampshire, 

Italy 

New Brunswick. 

Ohio 

Ohio 

Indiana 

Kentucky 

Connecticut .... 

Canada 

Sweden 

Scotland 

Massachusetts . . 

Germany 

Michigan 

Germany 

California 

Germany 

New York 

Canada 

New York 

England 

California 

Indiana 

Denmark 



185S 
1873 
1872 
1858 
1868 
1867 
1854 
1858 
1859 



Ireland 

Germany 

North Carolina.. 

Kentucky 

New York 

Pennsylvania . . . 

InJiana 

Massachusetts . . . 

Vermont 

Illinois 

Germany 

Pennsylvania. . , 

Missouri 

New Hampshire, 

Sweden 

West Virginia . . 

Vermont 

England 

California 

Pennsylvania.. . . 

Ohio 

New Hampshire, 



1858 
1855 
1850 
1852 
1850 
1850 
1856 
1850 
1859 
1875 
1852 
1854 
1850 
1849 
1860 
1840 
1850 
1850 
1872 
1849 
1853 
1868 
1865 
1849 
1850 
1856 
1874 
1849 
1856 
1854 
1850 
1850 
1874 
1853 
1854 
1877 
1851 
1874 
1870 
1865 
1852 
1849 
1855 
1867 
1847 
1858 
1849 
1855 
1855 
1854 
1850 



1850 
1859 
1853 
1853 
1855 
1852 
1869 
1849 
1855 
1874 
1850 
1859 
1850 
1860 
1873 
1869 
1856 
1865 
1855 
1859 
1854 
1853 



Ophir. . . . 
Penryn. . . 
Roseville. 
Roseville.. 
Penryn. . . 
Rocklin . . 
Penryn. . . , 
Gold Run. 
Ophir 



858 San Francisco. 
858 JNewcastle. . . . 

854 j Auburn 

852 Colfax 

Rocklin 

Colfax 

Roseville. ... 



856 Sheridan. 

859 

879 

879 

854 

850 

880 

860 

873 

850 

850 

876 

858 

855 

873 

870 

849 

850 

861 

879 

866 

861 

855 

852 

852 

874 

577 

854 

878 

851 

874 

870 

875 

852 

850 

855 

867 

850 



Auburn 

Auburn 

Rocklin 

Newcastle 

Colfax 

Clipper Gap. . , 

Newcastle 

Rocklin 

Ophir 

Rocklin 

Lincoln 

Iowa Hill 

Pino 

Lincoln 

Ophir. . 

Todd's Valley. . 

Roseville 

Penryn 

Michigan Bluff. 

Auburn 

Todd's Valley.. 

Forest Hill 

Lincoln 

Lincoln 

Auburn 

Auburn 

Sheridan 

Colfax 

Iowa Hill 

Colfax 

Auburn 

Sacramento . . . . 

Roseville 

Todd's Valley.. 

Newcastle 

Penryn 

Auburn 

870 Ophir 

850 Newcastle 

856 

855 Applegate 
881 [Newcastle. 
852 I Auburn 



851 Newcastle 

859 Iowa Hill 

864 Lincoln 

854 iMichigan Bluff. 
S.5S iDutch Flat 

852 lAuburn 

869 .Sheridan 

849 Colfax 

855 Auburn 

874 (Auburn 



Sheridan 

Forest Hill 

Ophir 

Rocklin 

Sheridan 

Auburn 

Dutch Flat 

Ophir 

Pino 

Michigan Bluff. 
Iowa HQl 



416 



HISTORY OF PLACER COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 



Walkup, Mrs. Jos. . . 

Waring, E. R 

Warwick, T. C 

Washburn, S 

Watts, Wm 

Whitcomb, J. B 

White, J. H 

White, S. A 

Whitten, Morrill 

Whitney, J. T 

Whittenmore, A. S. . . 
Williamson, Kobt. . . 
Wills, Mrs. Maria. . . 
Willment, Mrs. M. F. 
Winsby, Frank C. .. 
Woodward, John . . . . 



rORT-OFPrcE. 



Auburn ' 

Little York Town. . Ranching and teamin« 

Dry Creek Ranching 

Auburn ;.Superiutendent of ditches . . . 

Iowa Hill Mining 

Colfax jFriiit-raising and ranching. . . 

Todd's Valley Prop. Todd's Valley Saw-mill 

Young America. . . . [Mniing 

Gold Run iForeman of Indiana Mine. . . . 

Salt Spring Ranch. . iRanching 

Newcastle ! Agent for Ditch Co 

Penryn Horticulturist & mercliands'ng 

Michigan Bluff Frnit-grower 

Auburn 'R. R. Agent 

Mill Ranch jMining 

Newcastle Mining and frviit-raising. . . 



Pennsylvania.. . . < 1849 

New York ! 1854 

Ohio ■ 1S49 

New Y.rk i 1851 

England | 1S6S 

New York 1 859 

Maine [ 1853 

Michigan ' 1876 

Maine 1863 

Massachusetts... 1861 

Connecticut ' 1849 

Louisiana i 1 862 

Ireland 1849 

Connecticut 1857 

Nova Scotia. . . 1 1875 

England 1850 



1849 
1857 
1854 
1876 
1868 
1877 
1853 
1876 
1865 
1869 
isol 
1868 
1849 
1857 
1878 
1851 



Auburn 

Colfax 

Antelope 

Auburn 

I..wa Hill.... 

Colfax 

Todd's Valley . . 
Forest Hill . . . . 

Gold Run 

Rocklin 

Newcastle 

Penryn 

Michigan Bluff. 

Auburn 

Forest Hill 

Newcastle 



540 
320 



100 
40 
640 



15,000 



139 
146 



■• 5:^ .^^'-m^ /\^-m^^ /^'^-^ /\^:^ /^'"^ 



















.^' 



c" 






>'' "^. 




p;'N ■ '^''^ 

1 MANCHESTER. 
INDIANA 



. S> (, " " ° •» <s> 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



III 

006 803 344 5 



